Are Outdoor Porcelain Tiles Slippery?
Are Outdoor Porcelain Tiles Slippery?
Introduction
Ireland experiences between 150-225 rainy days each year, making designing outdoor areas especially challenging. With so much wet weather, the safety and potential slipperiness of the materials you use when renovating your driveway, walkways, patio or garden becomes paramount.
One of the questions the tile experts at Tile Merchant often are asked is: Are outdoor porcelain tiles slippery? As one of the most popular products in our outdoor range, this is a good question.
Capable of replicating a range of traditionally slippery and high-maintenance materials—like natural stone and wood—it would be a shame if porcelain tiles posed a risk to you and your family.
Are Outdoor Porcelain Tiles Safe?
When the weather turns wet, the last thing you want is the risk of trips, slips, and falls on damp and slippery surfaces.
That's where our weatherproof outdoor porcelain tiles come in. Not only are they fully waterproof, but they are also specifically designed with a textured, grippy surface that offers exceptional safety.
Featuring a dependable R11 slip-resistant finish, our tiles ensure stable footing even in wet conditions.
With our weatherproof outdoor porcelain tiles, you can enjoy both style and peace of mind, knowing your outdoor spaces remain safe and secure, no matter the weather.
Read on to learn all you need to know about outdoor porcelain patio slabs and tiles so that you can make the best decision for your next outdoor renovation project.
Are Outdoor Porcelain Tiles Slippery?
Outdoor porcelain tiles are not slippery; in fact, they are among the least slippery options available for outdoor flooring.
Our non-slippery tiles for outdoor spaces are fired at temperatures exceeding 1000°C, resulting in a durable, water-resistant finish.
Combined with an R11 anti-slip-rated surface, these tiles are specifically engineered to keep you, your family, and pets safe from slips, trips, and falls in any weather.
Whether it's rainy or dry, non slippery tiles for outdoor ensure that your outdoor areas remain secure and stylish, providing the perfect balance of aesthetics and functionality for a safe outdoor experience.
Our non-slippery tiles for outdoor when wet are designed to withstand the elements. They offer the perfect solution to keep you, your family, and your pets safe from slips, trips, and falls while enjoying your outdoor spaces. With their durable, water-resistant surface, you can trust them to deliver both safety and style year-round.
Explaining the R11 Slip-Resistance of Outdoor Porcelain
Outdoor tile materials are often given a slip-resistance rating based on their porousness, slip-resistance and resistance to water.
The rating is called an ‘R rating’ with R12 being the best.
The vast majority of outdoor porcelain tiles are rated R11, meaning they are ideally suited to outdoor use, as well as indoors in bathrooms and wet rooms. Take a look at the table below to learn more.
 |
|
|---|---|
| R Rating | Suitable for |
| R9 | Only suitable for indoor use in rooms where the floor never, or very rarely, gets wet. |
| R10 | Mostly only suitable for indoor use, though can be installed in rooms which occasionally become wet, such as in kitchens. |
| R11 | Ideally suited for outdoor use for patios, walkways, and more, including internally in bathrooms and wet rooms. |
| R12 | Perfectly suited for swimming pool areas and suitable for environments producing dairy products, cold cuts or slippery substances. |
Outdoor Porcelain Tiles for Home Improvement
Porcelain is one of the world’s oldest and most beloved tile materials.
Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, porcelain has a charming natural aesthetic, but is perhaps better known for its ability to take on the look and feel of a wide range of other materials—including sandstone, marble, concrete and wood.
As premium quality outdoor tiles, porcelain slabs are first fired at extremely high temperatures of around 1200°C—closing their pores and making them almost 100% water-resistant—before a final slip-resistant layer is applied on top.
At Tile Merchant, we stock a wide and diverse range of 20mm-thick outdoor porcelain tiles, available for 24/7 delivery to any address in Ireland, and in varying shapes, sizes, colours and finishes to match almost any Irish exterior designer’s taste and budget.
7 Key Benefits Of non Slippery Tiles for outdoor
Outdoor tiles come with many benefits, but let’s take a look at 7 of the top benefits you can enjoy when specifically choosing to install non-slippery porcelain tiles for the outdoors.
Durability
Porcelain is an extraordinarily durable material, capable of withstanding heavy, long-term foot traffic as well as whatever weather Ireland’s climate can throw at it.
Outdoor porcelain is also treated to be resistant to UV, salt, acid, and frost.
Eco-Friendliness
Compared with other outdoor paving materials, the durability and longevity of porcelain makes it a more environmentally friendly option, perfect for the eco-conscious among us.
In many cases, porcelain outdoor tiles are made from recycled materials with a lower carbon footprint than marble or concrete.
Easy to maintain
Porcelain is also famously easy to maintain. Because of its low porosity and resulting resistance to water, there is minimal chance for mould and algae to build up—something which is prevalent in natural stone exteriors.
Tip: Porcelain tiles can be kept clean and slip-safe with little more than the occasional wash with warm soapy water.
Affordability
There’s no denying that outdoor porcelain tiles are a premium paving option, with price points slightly higher than more affordable materials like ceramic.
Compared with real hardwood and marble, however, porcelain packs a punch without breaking the bank.
Combine that with its long lifespan, and your investment into an outdoor porcelain patio or driveway becomes appealingly cost-effective in the long run.
Aesthetics
We mentioned before that porcelain has the capacity to mimic a wide variety of materials—many of which are more expensive or generally harder to maintain.
What this means for you is that there are dozens of different outdoor porcelain styles to choose from, each of which looks incredible, in order to perfectly match your taste in design, colour palettes, patterns and materials.
matching your indoor style to the outdoors
Porcelain is also a super common material for indoor tiles, and available in many of the same styles as finishes as our outdoor range.
This allows Irish home decorators to merge their indoor and outdoor tastes together, creating a seamless, attractive and welcoming flow from the inside, outside.
Suitable for driveways
Lastly, it’s well worth mentioning that non-slip outdoor porcelain tiles are also stress-tested to such a degree that they make fantastic driveway slabs, in addition to patio pavers and tiles for garden paths.
We even drove our shop van over porcelain tiles just to prove how tough they are!
Non-Slippery Tiles for Outdoor Use: A New Trend?
In all the many years we’ve been supplying Ireland with the very best in indoor and outdoor home renovation materials, we’ve rarely seen a new material take off in popularity like our outdoor porcelain tiles!
Homeowners and garden designers up and down the country are scrambling to get their hands on outdoor porcelain, and no wonder. Browse outdoor porcelain tiles for wet weather on our website. All the tiles listed in the outdoor tiles category are safe for outdoor spaces with an R11 anti-slip rating.
R11 anti-slip rated, waterproof, durable, easy to maintain, cost-effective and more eco-friendly than its alternatives, outdoor porcelain has it all.
To discover for yourself how beneficial outdoor porcelain tiles from Tile Merchant could be to you and your next redesign project, shop the range online today!
We deliver to any address in Ireland, and even have a free cut sample service so you can try out tiles before you buy.
Why Tile Merchant?
Tile Merchant Ireland offers extremely competitive pricing on our entire range of tiles and likewise.
Tile Merchant stocks a huge range of wall and floor tiles and our prices are competitive for retail and trade. Our stock is widely available in our tile stores in Dublin and Ashbourne (Co. Meath) which are open 7 days a week.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to shop our tiles online, we can supply you with samples delivered for free.
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Article written by Calum
Cal Bannerman is a freelance writer, editor, podcaster and voice actor from the Scottish Borders. He runs the storytelling podcast "Stories from the Hearth" and lives in a wee Glasgow Flat with his partner and their cat".