Would you pay extra...?

keystone

It happens. Natural stone is quite fragile in certain directions anyway until its fixed on wall or floor. As a further example its extraordinarily easy to crack a granite worktop in places when fitting it (thats one reason why there are specialists that only do just that) but once its down its rock solid.

In addition there will be unseen irregularities in the crystal structure of a natural stone tile easily resulting in microscopic "fault lines" in the material which will pop just by looking at it.

Some pics might be nice.

Cheers

yumyums

Will try to post pics tonight. Thanks for all the replies. I'm just surprised at the amount of wastage as I was told 15% extra at the start and now it's 50%!
Oh and he said the reason is the walls aren't straight but are they ever in an old terraced house?

Idiophreak

yumyums wrote: »

Will try to post pics tonight. Thanks for all the replies. I'm just surprised at the amount of wastage as I was told 15% extra at the start and now it's 50%!
Oh and he said the reason is the walls aren't straight but are they ever in an old terraced house?

Have to say, I'd be quite miffed here.

It's not like you're talking thousands of tiles, you're talking about 30-40 of the things. When I got the tiles for my bathroom, I counted both ways - firstly by area, then secondly actually measuring out where each tile would go...so I knew exactly how many would be needed..then I got a little extra (15%, probably), most of which are now in the loft. It isn't rocket science to work out how many tiles you're going to use and, as you say, being 50% off with your estimate doesn't exactly fill you with confidence, does it...

keystone

yumyums wrote: »

Will try to post pics tonight. Thanks for all the replies. I'm just surprised at the amount of wastage as I was told 15%

Yes thats what you calculate on but as a minimum. The bigger the tile the larger the wastage.

Oh and he said the reason is the walls aren't straight but are they ever in an old terraced house?

Its not straightness thats the issue its flatness and the bigger the tile the flatter and more true the wall has to be. One of the reasons I say large format tiles on a wall aren't a good idea unless you have a very, very good tiler.

Cheers

keystone

Idiophreak wrote: »

Have to say, I'd be quite miffed here.

It's not like you're talking thousands of tiles, you're talking about 30-40 of the things. When I got the tiles for my bathroom, I counted both ways - firstly by area, then secondly actually measuring out where each tile would go...so I knew exactly how many would be needed..then I got a little extra (15%, probably), most of which are now in the loft. It isn't rocket science to work out how many tiles you're going to use and, as you say, being 50% off with your estimate doesn't exactly fill you with confidence, does it...

Installing 10 x 10s or 20 x 20s is a world apart from installing 60 x 60s. Its a different league altogether.

Cheers

Idiophreak

keystone wrote: »

Installing 10 x 10s or 20 x 20s is a world apart from installing 60 x 60s. Its a different league altogether.

Cheers

Would the contractor not know this?

Are you saying that 50% breakages is usual when working with 60x60s?

My point was simply that it should have been straightfoward to count how many tiles would be needed to complete the job - and it was the contractor's job to do this and adjust for any expected breakages. Either he's just not counted right, or there have been more damages than predicted...Neither of which are really the OPs fault and both of whilch - as a professional - you'd expect him to take responsibility for.

Jaynne

I have to say I'm pretty surprised at going so very much over. As an example I recently tiled our kitchen floor in 600x600 tiles - this was my first time ever tilling and I got the calcs spot on. Working out how many you need is no black art if you know the room size, any obstructions and awkward bits in advance.

You do however get lots and lots of wastage on 600mm tiles, I had a pile of a dozen 1/3 size cuts from round the edges that I couldn't use and there would have been nearly double that if I couldn't of made use of some to tile the skirting.

It sounds like your contractor simply didn't spend the time calculating the no of tiles correctly (or quoted low to get the job) and now you're picking up the tab.

yumyums

Sorry no photos as they finished tiling the floor today and we're not allowed in. He's coming tomorrow to discuss wastage so will give an update and hopefully photos tomorrow

southcoastrgi

OP ask yourself if the tilers quote had been another x amount of pounds (to cover the additional tiles you now have to get) would you still have accepted the quote ?

keystone

Idiophreak wrote: »

Would the contractor not know this?

Would have hoped so.

Are you saying that 50% breakages is usual when working with 60x60s?

No I certainly am not. In any event you missed the bit where it was said that he has broken 2. How does that equate to 50%?

My point was simply that it should have been straightfoward to count how many tiles would be needed to complete the job - and it was the contractor's job to do this and adjust for any expected breakages. Either he's just not counted right, or there have been more damages than predicted.

I have sympathy with that perspective. You can't predict breakages with natural stone for reasons I've already given.

Neither of which are really the OPs fault and both of whilch - as a professional - you'd expect him to take responsibility for.

Well not necessarily entirely there can be lots of factors on both sides. I'm reserving judgement until its finished.

Cheers