Should we stay clear of B&Q tiles?

[Peter]

Not fussed on B&Q tiles myself. Have laid them plenty of times but its never the job you wish for with the discrepancy in the tiles. Best bet is just following your lines by eye rather than spacers. Quite unpredictable when nipping too.

I suppose it's like anything, you buy cheap you get cheap results.

 

[DEN]

A mixed bag of opinions here,i think its fair to say you might as well pay that little bit extra at a decent tile shop to get better quality tiles,and save yourself a lot of hassle,especially if the customer is buying the tiles from you with your trade discount.B+Q thanks but no thanks...

 

[tileman]

Re: Should we stay clear of b+q tiles

I have just tiled two bathrooms, 330mm x 330mm B&Q tile, same one on the wall and floor, size difference was up to 3mm and also out of sq, the variation in the dimensions was throughout the boxes, to sort this number of tiles would be a nightmare.

 

[Fekin]

Re: Should we stay clear of b+q tiles

I think I would tell them customer next time someone comes at me with B&Q rubbish that I will be charging more for fitting them if it's a full bathroom again.

I did a hallway floor in B&Q polished black porcelain and they we're ok, but the last bathroom I id, hightmare.

 

[Gazzer]

Its not just B&Q, i did a job this week with tiles from Focus and 8 out of 12 were chipped or damaged or had faults. You couldnt blame Focus for all of it though because some of the chipped edges had been glazed over. that means they were like that from the factory.
Tell the client to check all the tiles before you start the job and tell them why.

 

[Binoir]

I was doing a job this morning the B&Q polished black "porcelain" tiles. I was surprised to find that they weren't actually that bad. A slight difference in sizes though. And I did seal them before doing anything.

I'm a plumber by trade and my policy is that if the customer supplies it then they have to live with it. No guarantees on anything they supply.

Customer says, "I can get an electric shower for £45 why are you charging £150", my response, "Buy the £45 shower if you want and I'll fit it. When it breaks I will charge you to come and look at it and then charge you again to fit a new one. If you let me fit a decent one I will guarantee it for 12 months and any problems will be rectified free of charge"

I'm not sure if you can apply this policy to tiles but that's the way I've always worked and never had any complaints.

 

[Fekin]

Just done another B&Q tile job and I was supprised how good they were.

Everything cut nicelt and first time

 

[Grace'sDad]

I'm reserving judgement. The polished 40x40 black porcelain I fitted last 2 weeks ago has now come back to haunt me.

I left it all sealed and clean and customer happy. Now she's emailed to say they have stained! She's paying my day rate for a clean and seal but I suspect this is going to go on and on and on and on and on.........

(Will post again once I can find time to see to them.)

 

[wall2floortilin]

b&q tiles, they are supplied by a company called ceramic prints, based just round the corner from my house, i also know the buyer.
i picked up a contract several years ago to tile the council estates under the governments decent home standard, ceramic prints supplied the tiles for more than 5000 properties. The shading was all over the place, the sizes were varying by 2mm each tile. You ring to complain and are quoted " british standards say a 2mm tolerance for ceramics". but the tiles come from turkey china and any where else you dont want to buy them from. cheap as chips but not very good.

 

[howard]

just had my first bad experience with b&q tiles the wall tiles went on fine no problems at all. but the floor tiles well when i scored them with my wheel the surface around the line was popping off going 6inch in the air never seen anything like it

 

[TheWrightTiler]

me and ric did a job last weekend with wickes tiles and they were really good for cheapish tiles, 15 - 20 m2

cut on the lines etc

doing one now with b and q tiles and these are around the 15 mark and again really good to use

all in all not had any probs with either but then again if its what the punter wants then il lay them advising them of the problems i may encounter beforehand lol

andy

 

[aejrd]

Re: Should we stay clear of b+q tiles

what so all there tiles are crap why do they sell so many

its not so much that they are crap ..u get problems with shading and calibre because the staff just pile them high mixing them uop if u go to a reputable tile supplier like ctd all shades are kept seperate and if they mix them up or sell u the wrong shade they sort it out ..b&q dont care!!

 

[simonb43]

There not too bad, but size difference can be a problem. Also tend to find that some are damaged when opening boxes.

 

[hrgj3270]

i used B and Q tiles a few weeks ago and i didnt have any problems with them.

 

[jgtiling]

I recently replaced a whole en-suite that had been tiled in cheap B&Q tiles, all the shower had gone grey as the tiles were porous! They had been up 3 months!
Good for me! I gained another bathroom and a 30sqm conservatory floor in fired earth teracotta tiles out of it!