Warning: Homebase Natural slate black floor tiles

kernewek

Basically a warning for anyone to avoid the following product. We saw them a while back at around £12 per square metre reduced from £25 so bought 18 boxes. More than enough with a few spare metres for wastage to do our kitchen floor. Or so we thought. The 18 boxes managed to do about 60% of what we needed. Tiles were either broken, too thin or flaking apart. Took the duff tiles back and was told "its a natural product so you should expect variation." Still they exchanged them for more. Got these home and found around 70% of the tiles to be unusable according to my tiler. 50 mile round trip each time. This time I went into the store and asked them to sell me 4 decent boxes of tiles. The chap and I had to go through 10 boxes of tiles to to get 4 boxes of usable ones. Moral of the story, either get tiles from somewhere else or buy 3 times the amount you need.

keystone

or don't buy cheap tat from one of the sheds. Good on your tiler for refusing to lay them too. Otherwise the first place the finger would have been pointed when they failed was at him.

Cheers

phill99

You need to remember even at £12 / metre, Homevas will still be making a profit. they probably only buy them at £5/metre. For that you are getting all the bits that the slate quarry can't make better use of. Basically the dregs. Things are cheap for a reason.

kernewek

They're currently selling at £25 per metre. Having said that, the decent tiles that have been laid look great. It was quite amusing making the poor bloke go through 10 boxes though.

keystone

kernewek wrote: »

They're currently selling at £25 per metre.

and still costing the shed iro £5 a metre - as said cheap tat.

Having said that, the decent tiles that have been laid look great. It was quite amusing making the poor bloke go through 10 boxes though.

Amusing it may have been but can you imagine how much extra time its taken him above that which it should and what he quoted for?

That raises a question, not necessarily for you.

Does he take the hit on it or does he give you a bill for extra time? Cue the input from the "ripoff tiler" brigade who will be quite unable to see the point in the case of the latter.

Cheers.

Innys

keystone wrote: »

and still costing the shed iro £5 a metre - as said cheap tat.

Amusing it may have been but can you imagine how much extra time its taken him above that which it should and what he quoted for?

That raises a question, not necessarily for you.

Does he take the hit on it or does he give you a bill for extra time? Cue the input from the "ripoff tiler" brigade who will be quite unable to see the point in the case of the latter.

Cheers.

I think the OP was stating the bloke at homebase had to go through 10 boxes to make up 4 boxes of useable ones - not the tiler. So, there should be no bill for the tiler's extra time, if I have understood correctly.

keystone

Actually you are right but so am I. The tiler still had to go through everything to determine what was and was not usable. 40% of the first 18 boxes and 70% of the second batch by all accounts.

My ultimate point being that if the tiler had sourced the slate he wouldn't have gone to Homebase and yes, the contract price would have been higher and if it had been necessary to return some as unusable that would be to the tilers account as he supplied them.

But the OPs had to make two additional 50 mile round trips - at what cost to his time and fuel bill let alone waiting time for the tiler and the job taking longer to complete. This situation is impacting on his ability to complete this job and move on to the next. Are you saying that he should not be compensated for that?

This is part of what what I meant in the other thread in reply to you about by increasing your risk by sourcing materials yourself.

Cheers

Innys

keystone wrote: »

Actually you are right but so am I. The tiler still had to go through everything to determine what was and was not usable. 40% of the first 18 boxes and 70% of the second batch by all accounts.

My ultimate point being that if the tiler had sourced the slate he wouldn't have gone to Homebase and yes, the contract price would have been higher and if it had been necessary to return some as unusable that would be to the tilers account as he supplied them.

But the OPs had to make two additional 50 mile round trips - at what cost to his time and fuel bill let alone waiting time for the tiler and the job taking longer to complete. This situation is impacting on his ability to complete this job and move on to the next. Are you saying that he should not be compensated for that?

This is part of what what I meant in the other thread in reply to you about by increasing your risk by sourcing materials yourself.

Cheers

To be honest, I was a little confused in your earlier reply in that other thread about increasing risk when sourcing materials myself. Now I understand - thanks for the explanation. I will bear that in mind when supplying similar materials of my builder.

LEJC

We have a black slate kitchen floor thats been down 5 years...its the best flooring we've ever bought.It came from a local independant floor shop (sorry cant remember the price but it wouldnt have been that expensive and certainly comparable to good quality other options)..the shop took time to sort through the tiles matching thickness etc and delivered free of charge after a little negotiation..so I guess it does pay to shop around...apart from a layer of slate seal every year the tiles still look as good as new...very occaisionally a bit will flake off but again reseal it and its as good as new...its a really hard wearing...but sometimes cold floor..

keystone

Innys wrote: »

To be honest, I was a little confused in your earlier reply in that other thread about increasing risk when sourcing materials myself. Now I understand - thanks for the explanation. I will bear that in mind when supplying similar materials of my builder.

There's something else too. Your builder will have arrived at whatever balance of competitiveness and net income works for him. If he's trousering large amounts of excess money, no matter how charged for, he'll eventually run out of work. If he's not trousering enough to pay his bills. eventually he'll go bust.

So assuming he's reached equilibrium, his mix of earnings will be X from labour and Y from materials markup. If you deny him the latter he will simply increase the former as, if he wants to stay in business, he will have no choice in the matter. So overall you could be paying more, as you'll probably have materials at a higher base price than he would have paid for equivalent materials, plus his displaced markup anyway. Simples!


Cheers