Quartz tile cutting

[monkeyhanger]

Doug, nope, from Hartlepool, but live in North Shields (at the north side of the mouth of the Tyne) - I noticed theres a Benton branch about 3 miles from my house - handy. They're a bit pricey on the Quartz tiles, at around £11 per tile, so fair play to Matt for recommending a competitor that's half the price of his own place. I'll give them a look for the other bits and bobs I might need though.

 

[Matt]

Matt:Just checked out tiles HQ. At £4.99 a tile (£55/m2) including VAT for the 300mm x 300mm, it's not too much dearer than Tiles Porcelain, and it's actually cheaper for the 600mm x 300mm ones (which i'm also tempted by). So have you actually used both companies or compared samples between the 2? I read on one of the threads that Tiles Porcelain quartz tiles weren't consistent in thickness according to one user.

Domostone are also doing the Black Quartz tiles at £40+VAT in the 300mm x 300mm sizes, but not sure how their quality compares to Tiles HQ or Tiles Porcelain.

Will a £35 tile cutter do the job? I thought these tiles were needing a beefy wet diamond cutter - something in the 700-900w range?

United: I might use chrome instead of black plastic or polishing for my edges.

The £35 cutter is not on the Tile HQ website, but if you call them, they will get one for you (Aswell as aquapanel.) It is a Plasplugs cutter and I spent pretty much a whole day cutting quartz tiles in to 10x10 pieces and the Plasplugs cutter never missed a beat. I must say I was impressed.

Sample ordered (whole tile) from Tile HQ, still stumped about the tile cutter though, as I can't seem to see any tile cutters or tools on their website - do you have to phone up for info on stuff like that, and the aquaboard etc?

I have had a tile sample from Tiles Porcelain, and it was a small piece that arrived smashed. From the size of piece I got i'd have no idea about thickness variation across the whole tile. I was surprised how fragile and brittle it was - do these 95% quartz tiles not have enough binder in them compared to the 93-94% tiles, or are all quartz tiles brittle?

I've never really thought of quartz as brittle, but it is not as strong as Porcelain or Granite due to the resin it is made from.

I have samples of the Tiles Porcelain Quartz and I don't feel it is as good as they portray it to be.

Doug, nope, from Hartlepool, but live in North Shields (at the north side of the mouth of the Tyne) - I noticed theres a Benton branch about 3 miles from my house - handy. They're a bit pricey on the Quartz tiles, at around £11 per tile, so fair play to Matt for recommending a competitor that's half the price of his own place. I'll give them a look for the other bits and bobs I might need though.

Tile HQ LTD is a subsidiary of Travis Perkins, as is Tile Giant. Anything you need for your job, cutter/tools etc you can get from Tile HQ. But you would need to call them as it is not listed on the site.

The price difference between the Tile Giant quartz and the Tile HQ quartz is because the Tile Giant quartz is made by Marmol Compac and is the Rolls Royce of quartz tiles.

 

[doug boardley]

thanks for that info Matt, I wasn't aware that Tile HQ came under the TP brolley

 

[Matt]

thanks for that info Matt, I wasn't aware that Tile HQ came under the TP brolley

Yup. Colin, the former owner of Tile HQ is the brains behind the TG online site.

 

[monkeyhanger]

Matt: thanks for the info. I think £100/m2 is beyond my means, so I couldn't go for the Rolls Royce stuff, but as long as the Tiles HQ stuff is considered AUDI instead of LADA then it should be ok. I just want to be sure that in normal service I pick something that's well calibrated for ease of fitment and won't have a dulled shine in the next few years. The tiles HQ sample should be with me tomorrow. Do you know how the DOMOSTONE stuff compares? The black is on special at the moment, but I think i'd have to ring them to get a sample as theres no provision to order a sample on their website.

Is it easy to tell a bad quartz tile from a good one, or will deterioration over time be the main giveaway (presumably down to softer composition resins that scratch easily)?

I'm pleasantly surprised that it won't be too hard to cut, although I bet the resin smells a bit when being cut (will have to cut outside).

I'd personally prefer granite, as the main black background of the tile is shinier (the black samples of Quartz i've seen seem more satin sheen than glossy in both tiles and kitchen worktop), but the missus is taken on the mirror pieces shine

I was a bit sceptical about the Tiles Porcelain stuff when I got the samples, the grey one seemed to have large clear glass-like chunks running through it, giving the appearance of broken ice over a muddy puddle, and did seem very brittle, the crystalline structure seemed larger than I expected it to be (rather than small and tight granular). It seemed that once in place it would be ok, but I anticipated it would be very fragile to handle while tiling.

The person I spoke to when I ordered the sample reckoned that they do all the disney stores floors with their stuff in the blue version.

Used to use "de Trevor Percy" (as my old Polish colleague used to call TP) a lot for other building stuff when I was in the building trade.

 

[Matt]

Matt: thanks for the info. I think £100/m2 is beyond my means, so I couldn't go for the Rolls Royce stuff, but as long as the Tiles HQ stuff is considered AUDI instead of LADA then it should be ok. I just want to be sure that in normal service I pick something that's well calibrated for ease of fitment and won't have a dulled shine in the next few years. The tiles HQ sample should be with me tomorrow. Do you know how the DOMOSTONE stuff compares? The black is on special at the moment, but I think i'd have to ring them to get a sample as theres no provision to order a sample on their website.

Is it easy to tell a bad quartz tile from a good one, or will deterioration over time be the main giveaway (presumably down to softer composition resins that scratch easily)?

I'm pleasantly surprised that it won't be too hard to cut, although I bet the resin smells a bit when being cut (will have to cut outside).

I'd personally prefer granite, as the main black background of the tile is shinier (the black samples i've seen seem more satin sheen than glossy), but the missus is taken on the mirror pieces shine

I was a bit sceptical about the Tiles Porcelain stuff when I got the samples, the grey one seemed to have large clear glass-like chunks running through it, giving the appearance of broken ice over a muddy puddle, and did seem very brittle, the crystalline structure seemed larger than I expected it to be (rather than small and tight granular). It seemed that once in place it would be ok, but I anticipated it would be very fragile to handle while tiling.

The person I spoke to when I ordered the sample reckoned that they do all the disney stores floors with their stuff in the blue version.

Used to use "de Trevor Percy" (as my old Polish colleague used to call TP) a lot for other building stuff when I was in teh building trade.

They do smell a little when cutting, like burning rubber.

No, it isn't easy to tell a good quartz tile from a bad one. Only time will tell. The quartz from Tile HQ is Starlight and usually retails for about £100 sqm and is very good quality.

Tile HQ have the Galaxy Black granite at £52 SQM. The Galaxy has the bronze flecs as apposed to the silver flecs of the Quartz. Granite Black Floor Tile - Granite Bathroom Tiles - Bathroom Tiles - Tile HQ

I'll email Colin and ask him to add a Galaxy Black sample to your order.

 

[monkeyhanger]

Matt: Thanks, but no need for the Galaxy Granite sample - the missus has spoken, she wants the quartz, in black, and the Tile HQ stuff seems to fit the bill for the price we've allocated to doing out the bathroom. I'm relieved it's mid to high end product for a low to mid price.

I wouldn't be able to pursuade "wor lass" to go with the Galaxy Granite, she saw it when we did the kitchen out - we ended up with an absolute black granite worktop instead of the galaxy one.

Cracking advice from everyone who's contributed to this thread though, i've learnt quite a bit - like Quartz tiles are easier to cut than I imagined - that'll save me a bit on the price of the behemoth tile cutter I thought I would have to buy/hire to do the job!

 

[monkeyhanger]

Just realised that although the Tiles HQ order will be £120 more than I would've paid for Tiles Porcelain sourced quartz (15m2 @ 300mmx300mm), the delivery is free, offsetting half of the £120 price difference, not bad at all.

 

[Rav daniels]

The reason your kitchen splash back tiles came off easily is because they prob used tubbed adhesive, depending what material and size of tile, they might of used bagged stuff, which will take alot better hold and be alot harder to take off, either way u will be very lucky not to damage the plaster board mate,

 

[monkeyhanger]

Rav, thanks to posters advice on this thread, i've now decided to replace the board which will be tiled onto for the quartz tiles, partly to save time on scrape-down, and partly because it's borderline whether plasterboard can take the weight of quartz tiles, so the plasterboard will be replaced by aquapanel/hardibacker boards.

 

[Rav daniels]

Good stuff pal, sure it will look good, goodluck

 

[monkeyhanger]

Matt: Got my samples yesterday. Wasn't sure whether the granite one would be in there, but it was - a single Galaxy black tile in 400mm x 400mm format.

Both tiles looked great, I preferred the granite - the depth is so good, the granular detail looked 3D up close, compared to the flatter looking composition of the quartz, but it was sparklier. The missus still preferred the quartz, detail like the grain is lost on women (they don't get surround sound either). So quartz it is then.

I was impressed by the packaging - it took me about 20 mins to unravel the 20m length of bubblewrap (in 2 pieces) fully overwrapped with about another 20 linear metres industrial thickness clingfilm. It was like trying to unravel the gordian knot. The package could have been dropped 10ft without breaking the tiles!

I got my quote for everything i'll need, but for some reason I was quoted on 3 x 5kg bags of grout. When you look at the coverage tables or formulas for 300mm x 300mm x 10mm tiles set at 3mm gaps, general concensus is 0.35kg of grout per m2. One bag might just do it, 2 is cautious, but 3 seems a little over the top. I'll order one and buy another locally if it doesn't quite do the job.

Our house rabbit is a big fan of the granite tile - he used to lie on our black granite hearth in the old house, and now we have one of those modern glass fronted electric fires that look like an LCD telly stuck to the wall, we don't have a hearth. He's now lying all over the granite tile.

I'll be placing my order as soon as that 12 months 0% credit card lands on the door.

 

[Matt]

Matt: Got my samples yesterday. Wasn't sure whether the granite one would be in there, but it was - a single Galaxy black tile in 400mm x 400mm format.

Both tiles looked great, I preferred the granite - the depth is so good, the granular detail looked 3D up close, compared to the flatter looking composition of the quartz, but it was sparklier. The missus still preferred the quartz, detail like the grain is lost on women (they don't get surround sound either). So quartz it is then.

I was impressed by the packaging - it took me about 20 mins to unravel the 20m length of bubblewrap (in 2 pieces) fully overwrapped with about another 20 linear metres industrial thickness clingfilm. It was like trying to unravel the gordian knot. The package could have been dropped 10ft without breaking the tiles!


I got my quote for everything i'll need, but for some reason I was quoted on 3 x 5kg bags of grout. When you look at the coverage tables or formulas for 300mm x 300mm x 10mm tiles set at 3mm gaps, general concensus is 0.35kg of grout per m2. One bag might just do it, 2 is cautious, but 3 seems a little over the top. I'll order one and buy another locally if it doesn't quite do the job.

Our house rabbit is a big fan of the granite tile - he used to lie on our black granite hearth in the old house, and now we have one of those modern glass fronted electric fires that look like an LCD telly stuck to the wall, we don't have a hearth. He's now lying all over the granite tile.

I'll be placing my order as soon as that 12 months 0% credit card lands on the door.

Glad it got there ok

I got Colin to include the granite just incase

 

[Dan]

Just bumping some of the tiling tools related threads. This thread might not be current discussion, if it isn't, just ignore this, and it'll soon drop off the list. Don't worry if you bring it back into current discussion yourself though, the content within it could be useful for somebody. So feel free to add to it if you have something valuable to add.