Kaolin Tiles Brings the Beauty of Nature Indoors

With ties to one of the largest porcelain manufacturers in China and a burning desire to bring premium natural stone-like tiles to Australia, Kaolin Tiles is one of the better things to have come out of 2020.

Kaolin offers an expansive range of finishes that mimic the world’s naturally beautiful landscapes and enhance the natural stone surfaces their tiles are based on thanks to the use of state-of-the-art technologies.

The company’s tiles absorb less water, are far more chemically resistant than natural stone and are crafted to stand the test of time.

Kaolin’s vision is to become an integral piece of Australia’s architectural canvas. We aim to build valuable relationships with clients and members of the industry.

Sustainable manufacturing

While Kaolin are new to the Australian market, the company’s own factory Guanxing Ceramics, is a well-known tiling manufacturer from Foshan, the ceramic capital of China. Not only does this relationship give Kaolin the ability to tap into the processes, knowledge and craftsmanship of industry heavyweights, it also ensures it can operate a business that is fully sustainable.

Producing approximately 32 million sq m of tile a year, Guanxing prides itself on being CO2 neutral and its materials are sustainable. All of the waste and water is being recycled and reused in the production process.

Seamless Joint Tiling Technology

In addition to this, Kaolin are the only A&D brand in Australia that offer Seamless Joint Tiling. With industry-best specifications and standards over 10 times stricter than international requirements for porcelain tiles, Kaolin are able to offer a product so exact that grout joints as small as 0.5mm can be used.

Grout joints have always been the biggest downfall of tiles, often leading to disappointment in the finished job and years of frustration for the end-user.

With “Seamless Joint” tile range, it is possible now to specify grout joints so fine that they become virtually invisible in the finished installation.

It comes down to five critical areas where Kaolin tiles excel over the competition: surface flatness, water absorption, true rectified edge, true to size and extreme accuracy in length and width. A Kaolin tile has joints of only 0.5mm, is cut at a true 90 degrees, and has a height deviation of 0.02 per cent, almost 20 times below the international standard.

Because all tiles are pressed to size there is no deviation from the advertised size. There is nothing more frustrating than ordering a tile that is advertised as 600x1200mm or 750x1500mm and then finding out it is 5mm smaller (595x1195mm or 745x1495mm) because that is what happens with cut-to-size tiles.

This becomes even more important when using more than one tile in the same area and trying to get the grout lines to line up. At Kaolin, those issues do not exist. All these factors allow for seamless joint tiling, ensuring a flawless finish without fail.

Printing quality

Kaolin Tiles replicate and enhance the features of natural finishes within the manufacturing process. Kaolin applies granular details to their tiles, using multiple layers of printing to create an identical copy of natural stone, which their creative team can infuse with experimental colour combinations.

Their printers are able to achieve currently 720 DPI – the highest in the world – and the polished tiles are being polished up to 3000 mesh and achieve 95% luminosity – the highest in the field.

Latest innovations and trends

The company’s latest development is titled ‘Endless Vein™’, an immaculate range of patterned polished tiles that are available in different natural stone looks, including Royal Green Jade, Prague Grey, and Rainforest Elf, a delicate mix of turquoise, gold and rustic brown.

Endless Vein™ aims to look infinite, for one to walk into a room and to be astounded by one seemingly singular piece of marble, that is conjoined by seamless joint tiling. Available in a range of 6 or 8 pieces that range in both large and extra-large tiles, Endless Vein™ is the ultimate of tile collections.

Natural Vein, is another innovative development of Kaolin Tiles. With break-through technology, it allows printing the veins all the way through the body of the tile, which makes it impossible to differentiate from natural stone.

Kaolin’s showroom is based in Alexandria, Sydney. To book a consultation click here or alternatively call (02) 8814 9447.

The Urban Developer is proud to partner with Kaolin Tiles to deliver this article to you. In doing so, we can continue to publish our free daily news, information, insights and opinion to you, our valued readers.