Onyx Effect Tiles
Onyx Effect tiles in porcelain: the two Taj Mahal tiles, Cappuccino and Pearl, polished.
Shop Onyx Effect
“Porcelain that behaves like stone and cleans like tile. Underfloor heating’s best friend.”
— our flooring team
Onyx EffectThe look
Still unsure? Real people, honest advice.
The look
Onyx Effect tiles in porcelain: the two Taj Mahal tiles, Cappuccino and Pearl, polished. 10 mm thick at 600 mm by 1200 mm, following a banded stone; made in Spain, frost resistant, specified for floor and wall.
Banded, not veined
Two tones
Porcelain
In depth
Choosing onyx-effect porcelain
Onyx is a stone that reads in bands rather than veins, and the two Taj Mahal tiles follow it in polished porcelain. Both are 600 mm by 1200 mm and 10 mm thick, made in Spain, frost resistant, listed as compatible with underfloor heating, with a water absorption ratio listed under 0.50, specified for floor and wall, two to a box covering 1.44 square metres. Pearl is the pale version; Cappuccino the warm one. Both also sit in the marble-effect subcategory.
The reason to choose the porcelain over the stone is the same as for marble, only more so: real onyx is soft and porous, and it is a wall material in most buildings for that reason. The porcelain keeps the look and drops the fragility. It does not etch under household acids, takes on almost no water, and it is consistent from tile to tile.
In practice
It is a decorative tile, and that decides where it goes. A shower enclosure, a bathroom wall, a feature wall behind a basin, a hallway floor that stays dry: rooms where the surface is meant to be looked at. A whole room of banded polished stone can be a lot, and many schemes use it on one wall against a matt floor. On a floor that gets wet, a polished porcelain is slippery, and the HSE pendulum scale for slip resistance is quoted below; the figure for these tiles is on the manufacturer's data sheet.
Laid by a tiler on a flat subfloor, in adhesive, grouted and sealed at the edges. The screed regularity classes and the surface temperature limits for a tiled floor over heating are quoted below. For the same tone at a softer sheen, the lappato stone effects; for the marble look in matt, Luna Blanca and Night Lux in the marble subcategory.
FAQ
Where does an onyx-effect tile belong?
Is polished onyx-effect porcelain slippery?
How do polished porcelain tiles hold up on a floor?
What does tile fitting cost?
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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 Society
Delivery & areas
