Nick Bratt, National Technical Sales Manager at tile adhesive manufacturer Palace Chemicals says that the exterior porcelain tile sector provides a popular design opportunity for architects, but correct installation is key to achieving a good result.
The 20mm thick exterior porcelain tile sector is currently one of the fastest-growing areas of the tiling market. Smaller housebuilders are leading this trend, using high-quality outdoor finishes to differentiate their offer from their competitors. Traditional concrete slabs are increasingly seen as outdated, offering limited aesthetic appeal and posing ongoing challenges in terms of maintenance and cleaning.
From an architect’s point of view, the use of porcelain tiles allows for much more freedom in design, colour and style. The tiles can mimic natural stone or have any other aesthetic effect, but with the added benefits of being porcelain, which cleans more easily, is easier to maintain and offers better slip resistance than pavers. The trend is gaining significant traction among landscape professionals and is a hot topic on social media. Timber decking has increasingly been superseded by composite or porcelain alternatives, driven primarily by their durability and longer lifecycle.
The impervious nature of porcelain tiles does however necessitate a more considered installation approach. The convention is that you have to lay a minimum of 100mm compacted hardcore, with a 50mm bed of mortar and then the back of the porcelain has to be primed with a slurry bond coat to create a key between the tile and the mortar. However there are systems on the market, such as Palace Chemicals’ own Rock-Tite system, which do all of that, but will also allow you to reduce your mortar bed depth to 25mm, meaning less dig-out, less mixing and less material – and you also get a guarantee over the whole system.
From an architect’s point of view, the design possibilities are endless. If you have dwarf walls, for example, in an outdoor hospitality area, which has been laid with porcelain tiles, you can have corresponding and matching 10mm tiles on the vertical surfaces. For fixing you use an S1 tile adhesive which is suitable for outdoor use. All tile fixing has to be solid bedded (dot and dab is not acceptable). It is important to stop moisture getting behind the tile and causing damage. An SBR primer should also be used in order to create a key between the mortar bed and the tile vertical substrate.
Iif porcelain tiles are installed correctly, from a design point of view the potential is enormous, enabling the finish of the whole area to be completed in any colour and texture that you want!