PEI Rating: How Does Your Ceramic Tile Measure Up?

As your Portland tile flooring experts, we at Portland Direct Tile & Marble feel a duty to make sure our customers are well-informed about ceramic tile flooring issues. With that in mind, today we’d like to tell you about a method for categorizing tile flooring called the “PEI Rating.”

Like most industries, the ceramic tile flooring industry uses various indexes and measures for expressing the different parameters of its products. The PEI Rating is one of the most important of these, and rates various types of ceramic tile flooring by resistance to wear from foot traffic.

“PEI” stands for Porcelain Enamel Institute, the industry group that created the scale. It’s important to remember that this is not a measure of quality, it’s simply an expression of what applications a given tile is or isn’t appropriate for. The ratings run from Class 0 to Class 5, and break down as follows:

• Class 0 tiles are rated as not appropriate for foot traffic, and should be used on walls and ceilings only.
• Class 1 tiles are ceramic tile flooring that’s designed for minimal foot traffic from bare or stocking feet, as in a spa bathroom or master bath.
• Class 2 tiles can handle medium traffic from relatively clean, soft-soled shoes or slippers, and are suitable for main bathroom and bedroom areas.
• Class 3 tile is for standard residential ceramic tile flooring, suitable for most rooms except for heavily-trafficked entryways and kitchens, where tracking in of abrasive soils is a problem.
• Class 4 tiles are tougher still, rated for countertops, balconies, and high-traffic entryways with frequent tracking in of abrasive soils.
• Class 5 tiles are rated for the highest-traffic commercial, institutional, or residential applications.

Your Portland tile flooring professionals, Portland Direct Tile & Marble, can advise you on the best PEI rating for your installation. Call or stop by our showroom to learn more.