Wall tiles from B&Q

[Troy]

I bought 11 boxes of 10" X 8" ceramic wall tiles from B&Q (warehouse) - blueish textured finish. Although I checked what I *thought* was the batch number on each box and checked visually, on finishing one wall and grouting the tiles, a difference in shade is obvious between tiles from different boxes.

I had another look at codes on the boxes and concluded that the actual batch numbers were much longer than the ones I'd taken to be the batch numbers. Returned the remaining 8 boxes to B&Q - no problem, but I was unable to find 8 new boxes with exactly the same code on them. The tile "expert" told me that this was not possible "off the shelf" and I would not get tiles of exactly the same shade unless I put in an order. I find this amazing !

I've put in an order and must give B&Q their due - they refunded me for all the 11 boxes but I cannot believe it's not possible to buy tiles of exactly the same shade "off the shelf". Comments?

[Sol]

Troy wrote in news:1jsxreneu473r$. [e-mail]:

To be honest, it very difficult for any staff in any shop to ensure that each customer buys their tiles/wallpaper/anything similar from the same batch.

Inadvertently, the stock that is left on the shelf will be from mixed batches. If you do order the tiles in, then you be more lilely to get all the tiles from the same batch. Good luck

[David Hearn]

We've bought tiles before with all the same batch code, but then, we only needed 6 boxes of each colour (3 colours). 11 boxes is another matter! It just depends on how long the stock has been there. I would assume that each delivery they get will be of the same batch, but when 1 customer takes 5 boxes, another 10 and another 15, but then another delivery comes with a different batch and then each customer from before returns some boxes they then have mixed batches. Do this over a few weeks/months and you can see how they can't guarantee that you'll get enough boxes in the same batch as you want. Its just luck of when you need the tiles and when they've just had a delivery.

My problem with B&Q etc is actually finding an unopened/undamaged box, and more than 1 box of the 'discontinued line' which is the one you really like!

D

[Sean Delere]

Whenever I have done any tiling I always open several boxes at once to avoid this problem.

Another advantage (especially when using seconds) is that you can put all the imperfect ones back in the boxes you take back.

Sean

[Lurch]

Usually there is a disclaimer somewhere saying you should mix tiles from different packs as they may not be identical even though they are from the same batch.

[Rick Dipper]

This is cause they get a stack in, if you are first you get the pick and cand find them, if you are neer the end, all the other folks have had the matching ones. Of cource some folks just take one from each code, and then leave too few to match anything ............

Rick