quality of tiles

[heatybob]

I have read on various threads on this site about poor quality tiles,firstly and it may sound dumb what is a crap tile? is it just differant sizes,shades,or wot?

if this is the case if the tiles are all the same size,shade etc,are they good tiles!,i know its not as straightforward as this,, so answers on a postcard pls as to what is a good tile.

i have also read that tiles from a certain huge diy store are crap,is that all tiles from there?,If a customer has crappy tiles from said store and you know you are gonna av a torrid time fixing them,do you charge more for the "difficulty" factor,or explain to the customer about any envisaged problems,and do the best you can.

does this apply to smaller diy stores?

i hope gaz reads this as i am sure he will have a very informative opinion ,

thanks in advance all

 

[Gazzer]

Crap tiles can come from anywhere.
Tiles that are not consistent in size shape and shade would be considered crap in my book.
The trouble with the big warehouses such as B&Q is that they dont seem to understand that different batches of tiles can vary in shade size etc. All they do is stack them and sell them. So when all is left on the pallet on display is a few boxes, they then add a new pallet there by the old stock is mixed with the new. And thats why you get all sorts of shades etc.
They also get knocked around far more than i feel a real tile distributer would do.
I really cant understand why anyone woould buy from these places anyway as tile shops are everywhere and 99% of the time you get better service.
Not so long ago i quoted a job and gave the client the measurements needed. They wanted to supply the tiles so off they went to get 18m2 of wall tiles, they returned with 18 boxes. The total of tiles they had bought came to about 5m2. When i told them, it was like i were cheating them. I explained and pointed out on the box the area each box would cover. It then turned out that they had been told by the tiling expert in store (B&Q) that each box was 1M2.

 

[heatybob]

sir ramic,are we saying that b&q tiles are not as crap as i for one am lead to believe ,its down to how they are managed in store,and the lack of knowledge by staff,or maybe managers.thus throwing the onus on the buyer to check all info on the box

Is it possible that tiles in the same box are differant,if so how does this occur,without sounding daft,are they made in some "sweatshop"type factory in never never land,with no type of quality control,

 

[Gazzer]

sir ramic,are we saying that b&q tiles are not as crap as i for one am lead to believe ,its down to how they are managed in store,and the lack of knowledge by staff,or maybe managers.thus throwing the onus on the buyer to check all info on the box

Is it possible that tiles in the same box are differant,if so how does this occur,without sounding daft,are they made in some "sweatshop"type factory in never never land,with no type of quality control,

Chipped tiles are down to the way the boxes are handled and i feel that any big store like B&Q will just see a pallet of tiles just like any other item. So i would feel that they would just get thrown about.

It all depends where the tiles have come from initially. Not all cheap tiles are crap and not all expensive tiles are perfect.
Shading is inherent of ceramic tiles, not sure but it used to say that on all Johnsons tiles and as such you were told to check for shading before fixing.

You should be able to check batch numbers before buying tiles but some tiles are just shady.

I have used a Turkish white tile for years now and the colour and size have always been consistant. Dirt cheap too.

I had some tiles a few weeks ago and in every box at least 75% were faulty. I say faulty because the damaged areas were glazed over, meaning they were like that as they left the factory. Those tile were from Focus but you cant blame Focus for damaging the tiles.
If i buy from an independant supplier and i have damaged tiles then i would return them if i felt the % was unacceptable.