Exterior flooring. Applications and benefits
Combining attractive appearance with practicality, reconciling the aesthetic demands of architecture with easy maintenance: these are increasingly important requirements of public and private clients for exterior tiles and floors.
For this "skin", which must be visually attractive while offering great strength and durability, stone and porcelain tile offer increasingly advanced materials and technologies.Stones, marbles and slates made of solid porcelain tile: the advantages.
Technical ceramics and porcelain tile offer an increasingly valid response to the demands of exterior tiling and flooring thanks to research and new products offering the market materials which look just like natural ones, but offer superior technical performance in terms of brilliance, homogeneity, resistance and low absorbency.
Porcelain tile is in fact a non-porous, non-absorbent material, and, like all products with an absorption of less than 0.5%, it is classified as completely vitrified.
It is the result of a productive process which is based on the evolution of natural materials but improves on their properties, combining the beauty and variety of natural quarried stone with the strength and durability resulting from a unique productive process.
A carefully studied combination of raw materials is processed to obtain a homogeneous mixture which, under the effect of high temperatures and pressure, guarantees compactness and homogeneity.
Raw tiles are formed by compression of powders between two surfaces.Special hydraulic presses apply a pressure of 200÷500 kg/cm2, guaranteeing great compactness, through a process involving multiple stages to permit effective expulsion of air from the mass.
This process also produces features such as resistance to abrasion, bending, frost, chemical agents and stains, guaranteeing that beauty and functionality are preserved over the years. Compactness also ensures that powders, odours, smoke, germs and pollens cannot penetrate the enamel and - a very important consideration in outdoor applications - the slabs are perfectly resistant to temperature excursions.
Other important factors include fire resistance, considering that these materials are inert in the presence of flame, emit no toxic substances and protect structures against fire.
These are increasingly important considerations in view of maintenance concerns: an important factor in decision-making, especially in the case of urban spaces and exteriors.
In addition, constant thickness makes laying operations quick and easy.
These materials offer resistance advantages also for raised exterior floor surfaces, thanks to special supports resistant to wear and ad hoc solutions to resist frost and minimise water absorption.
Appearance
Three-dimensionality, variety of colours and finishes are only a few of the benefits of porcelain tile and technical ceramics, which are also resistant to wear and preserve their characteristic aesthetic properties over time.
Surfaces may be semi-gloss, glossy or polished; smooth, matt or with a hewn look; a wide range of colours are available, from grey to green, from beige to warm, bright hues which may be perfectly even or slightly variegated.
Marbles, travertines, granites and a variety of man-made stones including slate, porphyry and quartzite are available to meet all tastes and fit a variety of architectural styles.
And then there are the special collections, unusual additions to the slabs with extra features such as the touch of brilliance added by fragments of metal.
Increasingly aware of the importance of design and functionality, the most advanced businesses are offering new slabs combining increased thickness (14 mm) with the capacity to resist high stress and outdoor surfaces with non-slip finishes.
They are also offering high tech versions of the traditional forms of paving used in Italy's historic town centres to pave and decorate piazzas, courtyards, streets and terraces. Modern manufacturing processes can turn slabs of high-tech stone into elements of different sizes and irregular shapes, rounding them off at the edges to give them the "worn" look of natural stone.
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