Where to get cheap floor tiles?

cyclonebri1

drummer_666 wrote: »

cyclonebri1 i'm a girl, lady whatever lol i thought the diamond blade was for porcelain?

what do you mean in terms of prep materials? do i need more than tile adhesive and grout? worked out that should be just over £2/sqm. do i need other stuff too?

:D:D My mistake.

Diamond blades are suitable for ceramic but wear/overheat on decent porcelain, there is a variation on the design specially for cutting porcelain and is far more effective and long lived, it gives a much better cut with less chipping.

The name escapes me as I've not bought one for a while, ask South coast guy what he bought or check out the tilers forum for the brand, that's where I gained the info originally.

I must say my estimate did include tile boarding but you probably don't need that, but you need a thick bed bagged adhesive of a decent quality and for about £15 min a bag, you won't get much more than 5sq mtrs out of 1 bag.

I am tending to agree with other now though that maybe you will find your self out of your depth and end up with a job you have to live with or rip up.

I'll give you a couple of simple tips incase you go ahead and DIY;

Go with a thick bed adhesive, no floor will be perfect and the extra thickness allows easier levelling.

Use a fairly wide spacer compared to the tile size, and remove them when you have finished, don't bury the x in the corner joints. All goes to make a little adjustment possible and is less noticeable than if a very tight joint is used.

Whatever you do ensure you start of square and check in every direction to ensure you aren't going to leave very narrow tile cuts which will be harder to cut and will show any room out of squareness.

There's much more but don't ignore those few, (if you try it yourself)

cyclonebri1

keystone wrote: »

So I'm not sure you actually are disagreeing and if so with what. B&Q porc tiles are very poor quality so fall neatly in the carp category.

Cheers.

Just the generalisation that every tile Been and Queued sell is crap, there is always the exception that proves the rule.;);)

keystone

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Just the generalisation that every tile Been and Queued sell is crap, there is always the exception that proves the rule.;);)

Well I didn't actually say that.

I was talking about their large porcelain ones which are generally of inferior quality. Bent tiles - yes really how they get through QC heaven only knows, broken tiles in the pack and not because of poor handling either, tiles which break easily when you just look at them, I'll not go on.

Cheers

keystone

southcoastrgi wrote: »

I think keystone is being very genious with his time scales

So do I man, so do I!! :D:D

Cheers

penguingirl

drummer_666 wrote: »

some more tiles gone on sale b&q - plain black ones down to £7sqm - not on their website.

I have also just seen that wednesdays are 10% off for over 60s, so I can get my dad to buy them

If you look at this week's MSE email there is info about the 20% discount this weekend. I was just about to get my dad to buy my tiles for me but am now holding out until Saturday!

drummer_666

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Diamond blades are suitable for ceramic but wear/overheat on decent porcelain

I must say my estimate did include tile boarding but you probably don't need that, but you need a thick bed bagged adhesive of a decent quality and for about £15 min a bag, you won't get much more than 5sq mtrs out of 1 bag.

I think I'll go with ceramic over porcelain, so diamond blade should be ok?

I buy from trade places, so materials cheaper

10kg of grey grout at £6 - I have 16sqm, that gives me .63kg per sqm
25kg bagged adhesive for £13. 3 packs is more than enough

That's £45 (£2.81/sqm) but will have some left over and I can prob get the adhesive for a bit cheaper

southcoastrgi

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

The name escapes me as I've not bought one for a while, ask South coast guy what he bought or check out the tilers forum for the brand, that's where I gained the info.

Nah don't think I'll bother, as the OP is buying from trade outlets & has worked out the amount needed to the enth degree, & is perfectly capable of laying a completely flat floor that doesnt look like a dogs dinner when its finished just because someone has slapped a couple of 6x6 tiles on a wall, then I guess she is trade & doesn't need any advice from me, I do so hate being called mate in that context, doesn't show does it ?

bazster

Don't be put off OP, I laid my entire ground floor with great-value tiles from B & Q (they're ceramic but look like slate, so much so that everyone who sees them thinks they are slate; sadly they don't do this exact type any more).

Did the job 2 years ago (including cutting skirting/upstand from the tiles) and it still looks as good as new. Just do your homework first, and TAKE YOUR TIME! That, in my opinion, is the key: don't set yourself a deadline, because getting it right will be slow-going, at least to start with.

I had tiled a few bathrooms before, but this was my first floor.

cyclonebri1

keystone wrote: »

Well I didn't actually say that.

I was talking about their large porcelain ones which are generally of inferior quality. Bent tiles - yes really how they get through QC heaven only knows, broken tiles in the pack and not because of poor handling either, tiles which break easily when you just look at them, I'll not go on.

Cheers

No you didn't, you said;), you said;
"I wouldn't dream of recommending Bargain and Quick 30 x 30 porc. They are just rubbish frankly. At least you aren't looking at their large format ones.

So I took that to mean you think they are all rubbish?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

But the truth is that they are perfectly acceptable to the average Joe (Jane in this case) Bloggs;)

"