B&Q 600mm porcelain tiles

[jimbojnr]

Hi all,

I am trying to help a customer from my store with a complaint, basically they have purchased 15 Sq Mtrs of Biege Porcelain tiles and apparently a proffesional tile fitter has laid them.

The problem is they appear to have scratched areas beneath the seal of the tiles. I have had a good look at them and to be fair its very visible in the customers house. They havn't had them sealed since laying them (pre-sealed on purchase with wax coat) and they have not removed the wax coating as yet as they didnt want to do anything that could jepardise a complaint and result in them becoming blamed for the problem which is fair enough.

Can any of you offer advice as to what may have caused this and more importantly how to resolve this? The scratched tiles are pretty noticable but as this customer has only bought 15 sq mtrs and the batches are produced in much larger quantities (each pallet alone will have 36 sq mtrs) and I have had no other complaints of the same nature I cant help thinking it could be something that the tiler may have done or not followed fitting instructions properly but I am not an experienced tiler so I am keeping my judgement open minded for the customers sake.

The guy who has laid these tiles is a very expeirenced tiler and owns an established tile retail store so I find it hard to believe he could be to blame, but experience of dealing with complaints does tend to go back to the fitter as much as it does the products used.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated as i do not want to leave these customers unaided but I do need to establish who is at fault(if its possible) first.

Thankyou

 

[Ian]

Are the scratches definitely on the tile surface and not in the transit wax coating?

 

[jimbojnr]

I have tried to clean it off in store on a spare tile but I did only leave a few minutes and it appeared to be underneath so I cant be 100% sure as it does say to leave 5 - 10 minutes.

I dont want to be harsh but if the tiler had taken the coating off I could answer that correctly but for now I would only be guessing.

Is it a possibilty then that it is just in the wax coating?

 

[White Room]

Obviously the tiles have been grouted, what grout was used.....course or fine.

 

[Ian]

The wax coating on those tiles in notoriously difficult to remove, I'd be very surprised if the scratches had got through the wax and onto the tile surface, also, the tiler would have had to be very careless to scratch the tiles through the wax. Are the scratches on every tile or just a few?

 

[jimbojnr]

The grout used was Mapei not sure on the grade tbh as the customer had little to do with the fitting.

Its not on all tiles and it doesnt cover the whole tile but appears to be in areas over the majority of the tiles and is emaphasised by the good light the customer has through the hallway.

Just from reading comments here and in other posts the first most obvious thing I can say firstly I suppose would be to get the tiler back to finish the job they have paid for and remove the wax and then if the same issue is still present then I would have to deal with it from there?

I hope that doesnt sound harsh but as the tiler has been paid to fit these then surely he should know to remove the wax to complete the job as he has been paid for?

 

[jimbojnr]

Im not sure of the grade of grout that was used but it was a Mapei product, I have limited input from the customer as there fitter obvioulsy selected the grout and if I am honest i do not know where he got it from but it was definatley Mapei.

The srcathes seem to appear randomly on a large quantity. I am thinking as the customer has paid to have these fitted then the wax removal should of been and probably was included in the price for fitting therefore if he was to remove the wax i would have a clearer answer whether it is a prodcut fault or just a fitter not following proper fitting instructions.

I will advise the customer to recall the fitter and ask him to remove the wax first and hopefully this should rectify the problem or at least give a definate answer as to who or what is at fault.

Thanks for your help I will update this when a conclusion arises and hopefully have a happy customer as they do look great to be fair.

 

[White Room]

They could have been scratched from the manufacturer............

 

[jlktiling]

sometimes the b&q polished porcelains are very soft, and poor quality chinese items.

 

[afright]

They sell them for £10 per m2 maybe the quality reflects on the price?

 

[Andy Allen]

i would say the scratches are in the transit wax, i have noticed that b and q have now start to sell these tiles pre-sealed but with a wax coating on them that says on the box, to be removed after fitting and grouting, i have heared from a tiler mate of mine that the wax is a nightmare to remove....

 

[bugs183]

Hiya Jim Bo.
It sounds to me like the tiles are at fault.
Bear in mind the tiles are from B&Q and you never hear anyone on here saying what a great tile they've just fixed from there. They are notorious for mixing batches of tiles, so you get different sizes, shades and glaze finishes. They really don't care what they sell, so problems like this are very common.
Did the tiler know that the customer was having 60x60 porcelain that needed the wax removing when he quoted for the job??? This could take him hours/days to remove, you can do more damage removing the transit wax than the transit would have produced.
If it's been laid i doubt B&Q will be helpful as they were deemed fit for purpose when fitted, in which case it's then the tilers fault for not checking.
Personally i refuse to fix any B&Q tiles for precisely this kind of problem.

Some photos will be helpful as it's not easy to visualise what is the problem.