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People use “porcelain” and “ceramic” as if they were two brands of the same thing. They are not. Both are fired clay, but porcelain is pressed denser and fired hotter, and that one difference drives almost every practical decision you will make about where each one belongs.

The number that actually matters

Porcelain absorbs 0.5% or less of its weight in water. Ceramic absorbs more. That is the whole distinction, and it explains the rest: porcelain is harder to cut, heavier to carry, more expensive, and far more tolerant of water and freezing.

Where ceramic is the right answer

Interior walls. Bathroom walls, kitchen backsplashes, laundry room walls. Ceramic is lighter, cheaper, and easier to cut clean, and nothing on a wall is asking it to survive a freeze-thaw cycle or a loaded appliance dolly. Using porcelain on a backsplash is not wrong, it is just money spent where nobody will notice.

Where porcelain earns its price

Floors that get real traffic. Shower floors and shower pans. Anything outside: patios, entry steps, covered decks. In our climate, the outdoor case is the one worth being strict about. A Seattle winter will not crack tile in a single night, but water that gets into a porous body and then freezes will do it over a few seasons. That failure always shows up after the job is signed off.

The through-body question

Some porcelain carries its colour all the way through the body; some has a printed face over a pale core. On a wall, nobody will ever see the difference. On a commercial floor, or a stair nosing, or anywhere an edge can get chipped, through-body means a chip reads as a scuff instead of a white dot.

A practical way to decide

Walk the room and ask two questions: does it get wet, and does it get walked on? Neither, ceramic is fine. Both, buy porcelain. One of the two, it depends on budget and on how long you intend this to last.

If you are not sure which side of that line your project sits on, bring us the room dimensions and tell us what happens in the space. That is usually a five-minute conversation, and it is cheaper than finding out later.