Description
Global Stone is an industry-leading supplier of premium natural stone and porcelain paving. The company takes pride in selecting all of their natural paving by hand to ensure that it is always of the highest quality and many of their porcelain products are produced in Italy.
Porcelain and vitrified paving is a manmade paving material, constructed from naturally occurring kaolin clay materials and minerals such as quartz and feldspar which is then pressed into moulds under high pressure to create uniform tiles. The tiles are then dried to remove any excess moisture. The tiles are fired at 1200 Celsius to offer an extremely hard-wearing and low-maintenance paving product suited to both indoor and outdoor applications. Once the tiles have been fired, they may be treated with a variety of finishes, such patterns and designs to create different looks and textures.
Porcelain paving is incredibly strong and resistant to wear and tear. It can withstand heavy foot traffic, harsh weather conditions, and even freeze-thaw cycles without cracking or fading. Its low water absorbancy means it attracts very little residue or algae and is stain and fade resistant, however regular gentle brushing and general maintenance is requied to remove surface grime and dirt. Vitrified products are lightly textured to improve slip resistance and the dimensions are more accurate than those seen with natural stone paving. Porcelain paving comes in a wide range of colours, textures, and finishes, making it easy to find the perfect match for any design scheme. It can be made to look like natural stone, wood, or other materials, without the maintenance requirements or expense of those materials.
When laying porcelain paving, you must apply priming slurry to the reverse side of each slab prior to laying on a wet mortar bed. As porcelain is such a low porosity material, it will not properly adhere to the mortar without the added benefit of the priming slurry.
When cutting porcelain paving, you must use a specific porcelain cutting blade and use a wet cutting saw to prevent the stone from cracking. Cut slowly and try to avoid heat build up or considerable vibration.
Key Features
- Material: Porcelain
- Colour: Iron – Station Iron is a warm, mid grey colour with subtle grey mottling
- Dimensions: H:600 x W:600 x D:20mm
- Pack Size: 68 Tiles
- Coverage: 24.48m²
- Water Absorbency: Low Absorption, During tests, this paving absorbs less than 0.1% water when fully saturated. The lower the water absorption, the lower the risk of algae gproduct-icon-itemth and staining. By comparison, concrete paving has an average water absorption of 6% and natural stone, 1-2%
- Flexural Strength: Excellent, During testing, this paving showed flexural strength of 40 Mpa. The flexural strength value shows how much bending stress a paving unit can be put under before it breaks and the higher the number, the stronger the paving. By comparison, concrete paving has an average flexural strength of 5 Mpa
- Frost Resistance: Great, During a repeated test cycle of freezing and thawing, this paving did not lose strength. This result demonstrates excellent paving resilience
- Slip Resistance: Low Risk, This paving has a slip resistance rating of R11. This rating means the surface is slip-tested for use on flat ground when wearing footwear in both wet and dry conditions, indoors and outside
- Dimensional Tolerances: Rectified, This paving is classified as ‘rectified’ meaning it is cut to size subsequent to firing in the kiln and as a result, it has minimal dimensional tolerances between individual slabs of up to 2mm +/- . Jointing allowances should be gauged accordingly. Note, slab sizes quoted are nominal and work sizes are often up to 5mm smaller than those stated
- Body Colour: Colour Bodied, This paving is ‘colour-bodied’ meaning it is vitrified throughout and the body colour is a similar tone to the upper face. This is important as if surface damage were to occur, the colour of the under layer will be a similar shade