Lappato Tiles
Lappato tiles are porcelain with a semi-polished surface between matt and full polish.
Shop Lappato
“Porcelain that behaves like stone and cleans like tile. Underfloor heating’s best friend.”
— our flooring team
LappatoThe look
Still unsure? Real people, honest advice.
The look
Lappato tiles are porcelain with a semi-polished surface between matt and full polish. Four stone-effect designs, Wabi Bianco, Wabi Sabbia, Agate Blue and Agate White, at 600 mm by 1200 mm, made in Spain, for floors and walls.
Semi-polished
Large format
Porcelain
In depth
Choosing lappato porcelain
Lappato is a finish, not a design: the surface of the tile is honed so that the high points take a polish and the low points stay matt, giving a soft sheen that reads as honed stone. The four lappato tiles here are all stone effects at 600 mm by 1200 mm, porcelain, made in Spain, frost resistant, listed as compatible with underfloor heating, with a water absorption ratio listed under 0.50 and specified for floor and wall. Two to a box, 1.44 square metres. Wabi Bianco is 10 mm thick; Wabi Sabbia, Agate Blue and Agate White are 9 mm.
The designs split in two. Wabi Bianco and Wabi Sabbia are the quiet pair, white and sand, the kind of surface that disappears under furniture and lets the room be about something else. Agate White and Agate Blue follow a banded stone, and the Blue is the one deliberately decorative tile in the group. All four are large-format, and the format is a choice in itself: fewer joints, a calmer floor, and a flat subfloor as a condition, because a tile this size bridges an uneven screed rather than following it.
In practice
The reason to choose porcelain over the stone it follows is the material. It takes on almost no water, it does not scratch under grit the way a softer stone can, and it conducts underfloor heating well. The reason to choose lappato over matt or polished is the surface: more light than a matt, more grip than a polish. Slip resistance on a wet floor is a measured value, and the HSE scale for it is quoted below; the figure for a specific tile is on its data sheet.
A tiled floor is the one floor here that is not a DIY job: the subfloor has to be flat within the tolerance the screed standard sets, the tiles are laid in adhesive and grouted, and the grout and edge seals are what make a bathroom floor a wet-room floor. The screed regularity classes are quoted below. For the same stone look without the tiler, the concrete and cement rigid vinyl tiles click together and float.
FAQ
Is a lappato tile slippery?
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Standards
What the published standards say
Each entry is quoted from its source and linked to it. The full set is in the standards reference.
Pendulum Test Value — how slip risk is assessed
HSE grades pedestrian slip potential from the pendulum test value (PTV): 0-24 is high slip potential, 25-35 moderate and 36 or above low slip potential, the pendulum coefficient-of-friction test being the subject of BS 7976 Parts 1-3.
| low slip potential | 36 + PTV |
|---|---|
| moderate slip potential | 25-35 PTV |
| high slip potential | 0-24 PTV |
“Table 1 Slip potential classification, based on pendulum test values (PTV) PTV High slip potential 0-24 Moderate slip potential 25-35 Low slip potential 36 +”
Source: HSE - Assessing the slip resistance of flooring (GEIS2)BS 8204 — surface regularity classes SR1 to SR3
BS 8204 defines three surface regularity classes for screeds and concrete bases, SR1, SR2 and SR3, measured as the maximum deviation below a 2 m straightedge placed directly on the surface.
| SR1 (max deviation under 2 m straightedge) | 3 mm |
|---|---|
| SR2 (max deviation under 2 m straightedge) | 5 mm |
| SR3 (max deviation under 2 m straightedge) | 10 mm |
| straightedge length | 2 m |
“Surface regularity classes are given in BS 8204 as SR1, SR2 and SR3 relating to 3mm, 5mm and 10mm respectively.”
Source: Surface regularity - straightedge method | The Concrete SocietyMaximum floor surface temperature
EN 1264 caps the floor surface temperature at 29 °C in the occupied area, 35 °C in the edge (perimeter) zone and 33 °C in bathrooms.
| occupied area | 29 °C |
|---|---|
| edge zone | 35 °C |
| bathrooms | 33 °C |
“Max. surface temperatures in DIN EN 1264: • 29 °C in the occupied area • 35 °C in the edge zone • 33 °C in bathrooms”
Source: Uponor underfloor heating/cooling — Planning information (Technical Information TI-1186660)
Delivery & areas
