British Ceramic Tiles

[Ian]

These tiles have always been of pretty poor quality but, the ones I've been fitting this week have been a sizing nightmare! I don't understand how there can be such a size variation from one tile to the next. It's kind of ironic that the HD range are supposed to be at the forefront of tile printing technology yet, they can't seem to make the tiles square or indeed the same size! I really want to say good things and support a British company but, their products really are garbage.

Left side of the tile lined up nicely

Right hand side, 2mm longer than the tile below!

As fitters, how are we supposed to do a decent job when companies are producing such substandard materials?

 

[Spud]

Get ready to see a lot more of this stuff Bri especially with the house builders , a guy I know works for them and they are opening up an architectural showroom in Ec 1 and are targeting specification projects

 

[LM]

Get ready to see a lot more of this stuff Bri especially with the house builders , a guy I know works for them and they are opening up an architectural showroom in Ec 1 and are targeting specification projects

Not looking forward to this crap then

 

[Ian]

Get ready to see a lot more of this stuff Bri especially with the house builders , a guy I know works for them and they are opening up an architectural showroom in Ec 1 and are targeting specification projects

Wonderful! I remember when they started producing the Laura Ashley tiles that homebase sold by the pallet load, their tiles have clearly not got any better since these awful things.

 

[Stef]

Terrible tiles to fit, I feel deflated when I walk into a job & I see the boxes.

 

[One Day]

British made?! Rubbish.
Ultra poor quality raw ceramics imported incredibly cheaply and then printed and glazed in the UK on automated lines (few people employed so again - dirt cheap) and they can legally be labelled "made in UK".

(that's my guess by the way)

 

[One Day]

Tile Mart in Preston and Bolton are stocking some rectified ceramics from India and at £15/sqm are superb.
They put British made to shame.

 

[John Benton]

10mm joint required Bri

 

[area tiling]

It's been s few years since fitting these tiles, and the last time was a nightmare , absolute garbage ! They shouldn't be allowed to produce tiles like these !

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

do these tiles have a stamp on the back made in the uk .british tiles ha ha ha just means there sold here hr johsons ha ha ha origanal style ha ha ha .winchester yes

 

[Italy]

I believe the problem is widespread all over the world.
save, save. and this is the result.
+ 50% blame the seller. when you see the first time that tile is crap.
not continue to sell rubbish. but changing product.
sell rubbish, make more profit than selling decent products.
yet few manufacturers produce decent material.
I think 50% of tiles in circulation, if they follow the standards, should be thrown into the sea.
then fault is always the tiler.
is a struggle every day.
(I may be wrong. But this is my thought)

 

[Andy Allen]

Fitted some 600x300 called urban concrete from b&poo truly awful tiles.
£10 m2....say a it all really..

 

[J Sid]

but are they with in B.S. Tolerances?

 

[Dave]

but are they with in B.S. Tolerances?

Yes , +/- 2mm

I fit loads of BCT tiles , yes they can be sizey etc but I Manage lol

 

[Tile Shop]

but are they with in B.S. Tolerances?

Depends on the tile class, but as they are not extruded, chances are its +/- 2mm. Will have a check.

As for price, that doesn't really come into it. A while back we got 2 containers of a single 60x40 Grade 5 glazed porcelain range from Malaysia. Won't say how much we paid but lets just say we made a tidy % profit with selling them at an RRP of less than £5.00. Special introductory rate.

It was very popular and was all gone in 6 weeks. We placed a new order when it was gone following its success and some of the customers wanting to extent their tiled areas. From Malayasia, this was going to take a while to arrive...... turned out to be 5 months for them to be made and shipped.

But the customers who had it previously and wanted to extend, despite us warning of shade and size variation against their originals, they advised us that the new ones were identical in every way. No difference in shade, pattern or size. We now do several ranges from them and never once had a complaint about their quality. Which is more than I can say for some of our previous higher priced ranges.

So lets move on to Versace tiles shall we? The palace floor range in particular was notorious for having sizing issues and they were silly money. There were variations and even though they should have been square, the worst example we had was 5mm longer one way than the other. The wall tiles to match also had size variations and were bowed and colour wise, didn't match the floor. Their mosaic sheets..... the tiles not on square. They were a costly nightmare and we had to stop doing them.

Then there was their Celebrity range which chipped when you sneezed on them.

Just one example of not having to spend the earth to get good quality.