Grrr - rip off Britain. Cove tiles

[Simon Watkins]

Have been looking for cove tiles for the skirting row on my bathroom to match the British made Johnson PRG1 10x20cm tiles.

Johnson's want £315 a box of 45. !!!!!

Googled for alternatives, can't see anything from the uk, but they are readily available in the US - Home Depot do them for $1.12 a piece.

I lived in the US for 3 years and it bugs me how we have so little range of anything here and what we do have we pay through the nose for.

it seems crazy that I could jump on a flight to the states and pick up a couple of boxes cheaper than buying British. No wonder our companies are going under.

Simon

 

[afright]

In the 70s skirting tiles were ten a penny but I surpose demand dropped so I suspect its a special order issue now,had this with Johnson,s needed 10 m2 of 6x6 orange to match some old existing tiling they had to make them cost a bomb,I remember on my old firm I would spend all day unloading a lorry stacked with lose quarry,s about 40,000 tiles dread to think how much that lot would cost now days and my old firm had that order nearly every month.

 

[Simon Watkins]

I think it's just greed that has priced them out of the market. People will always buy quality at the right price. Reckon the demand is there, but there is no product available to fill it in this country. An innovative tile company could make plastic trim completely uncool and undesirable if the pricing of ceramic alternatives were more modest. I hate plastic and metal trim - think they just look wrong. Can't think many love it - just that they find its price more acceptable. Spent all morning searching online but could find no one importing a white ceramic skirting tile - not one, other than Johnsons at their eye watering price. When a field tile is 25p say, £7 for a skirting tile is tough for anyone to swallow. I'd pay 4 or 5 times the field tile price all day long, but I'd never pay 28 times the cost for what isn't much different in terms of material or complexity to make or distribute. Reckon its price gouging that has driven demand down - you only have to look at some of the bathrooms on houzz.com to see that demand is there where pricing is reasonable.

Steps off soapbox.

Does anyone here prefer plastic trim to ceramic accessory tiles? (Other than for ease and speed of installation?)

 

[Time's Ran Out]

No to plastic - but round edge tiles would be made at a different time to the field tiles and had a tendency to be slightly off colour specification which caused fixing issues, and it also meant the stockists had to have separate stocks of the same tiles. If you can remember the Textured Vein tiles that H&R Johnsons produced in the late 60's and early 70's then you'd know that the pattern on the round edge was all one direction and would therefore stand out as a row when used on a half tiled room or vertically.
The advent of the continental market brought the ready made mitred edge which was handy but often weakens the corners and I assume that's why the finished edge became a plastic strip.
Today it's in vogue to use a metal edge or a colour match plastic strip - so there is some choice, but we have been known to use the natural alliminium schluter trim and use spray can cellulose paint to match a tile colour.
The demise of the step tile/quarry tile ranges such as Ruabon, Platts, and Dorset would suggest that their is not as big a market as required to keep this type going.
Happy Days.

 

[afright]

When Johnsons finished making RE's the Sri Lankan's bought the mould's and carried on making them for a while and they where a cheap good Quality Tile and the shade's were very good as well but I think there civil war put a stop to production