According to the industry group that decides whether a tile is porcelain or ceramic everything boils down to whether the tile can meet a set of highly controlled water absorption criteria.
Ceramic vs porcelain vs marble tile.
There are both affordble and more costly options for porcelain tile.
Porcelain tiles are extremely strong and dense.
Porcelain tiles are harder to install than ceramic because they need a special grout.
Porcelain today has come a long way and there is porcelain tile that looks like marble and some that looks like other natural stones.
Expect average total costs to be between 8 and 15 dollars per square foot installed.
Marble is also a very heavy floor material and will need to be laid out before the actual installation to get a visually appealing vein pattern throughout the whole design like in this floor.
The weight of porcelain tile can tell you quite a bit about its level.
When used as flooring marble tiles should be kept in areas with low to moderate traffic marble tiles are quite expensive and must be maintained more carefully.
They are also heavier than ceramic tiles meaning that they may need a substrate to support the weight.
Porcelain tiles are affordable easy to maintain durable and suitable for outdoor use.
Porcelain tiles cost on average between 3 and 5 per square foot for materials and between 5 and 10 per square foot for installation tiles cannot be installed directly onto a wooden subfloor 1 and may need cement backer boards installed at a cost of 4 to 7 per square foot.
Any tile that suitable for floor use is also suitable for wall use in a shower as is ceramic wall tile.