After spending 4 hours going round tile shops today (Glasgow) my wife finally decides she likes the 20 x 25 bumpy white tiles. It was costing £280 all in. I came home and put "bumpy white tile" into Google and found a company down south doing the same amount for £70 plus £20 delivery charge!!
So to cut a long story short, does anyone know any cheap tile shops online that I may have missed with Google or preferably one within driving distance of Glasgow?
Many thanks.
Steven.
Steven Campbell spoke thusly:
Have you tried Topps?
toppstiles are superb and i get an extra discount seen as i personally know the manager of the local store to me.
Been a security guard for him too have you Stefan?
Wouldn't go that far. The prices might not be bad but the quality is not exactly hand crafted.
agreed but on some ranges they are tops lol, added to the fact i generally get at least another 40% off the standard customer price lol
But it's those 'hand crafted' tiles, with uneven glazing and variable colour, size, thickness etc. that seem to cost a fortune!
All very well if you want the rural peasant look to the wall, otherwise stick to the big suppliers for consistent quality.
I visited one of the big Italian tile factories nearly twenty years ago. It was admittedly state-of-the-art, but it was astonishing. Clay went in at the front end, glazes somewhere in the middle (also fired-in pattern sheets) and cardboard boxes at the back end. There were less than 10 staff, two of whom loaded the completed boxes of tiles onto pallets so the fork-lift driver could run them over to the warehouse. During the entire production process the tiles were not touched once. If memory serves, from front to back took about an hour for the tiles to emerge and be (automatically) boxed. I expect they now have a palletiser. Almost all tiles are rather far from what I would describe as "hand made".
Pilkington seem to have the best stability against crazing. Mostly, you get what you pay for.
John Schmitt
But watch out for the price of the tile cement, grout, any tools, etc.
When I took a look at them, they couldn't come close to the price I got from B&Q - even on their plain white ones.
B&Q were 28p each for 10x10cm Pilkington tiles in various colours/shades
- basically £6.99 for a 25 tile pack. Cheapest I saw in Topps was about
35-40p a tile when bought in bulk and these didn't seem interesting tiles at all These were the cheapest ones btw - price increased dramatically for their more interesting ones.B&Q's problem is the amount of tiles they have in stock etc. I needed
24 packs and ended up with 22 packs after going to a few stores. I've since changed the style of the tiling, so 22 should be okay, and I may even have a few spare to return.Of course, if you get the 40% discount from Topps someone was talking about, then it may be more reasonable.
D
Thanks. We went to B&Q first as we were told they were by far the cheapest. Although we don't want anything fancy, B&Q's cheapest tile would have made our bathroom look like a public lavatory. The other stuff we saw that we liked was about £13 a box. this was much the same price as the places we visited. Tilemania, Topps, Tile-it-all, Crocotile, Tedescos, Tile style, Ceramic tile Warehouse and another dozen places who's names escapes me.
The poster that posted they got 40% off just wanted to state the fact that they got 40% off nothing else ;o) Anyway Topps had by far the least choice out of all the places we visited.
I might be tempted to order online although I'm not sure how tiles would cope with a long journey. I know they would be covered and be replaced if any broken but it is the hassle of all this. But bringing the price down from £280 to £90 is one big saving ;o)
Steven.
Check the quality as well as the price. I've always been happy with Wickes tiles.
Try calling Pentagon Tile (put it in google) I know there cheap as they are near me, but I've no idea if they deliver or how much (they must deliver I see the trucks every morning as I drop the wife off at work)
It was the use of "superb" that I was questioning.
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