In depthChoosing 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.
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.
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