Tiles - Bumpy or Flat

John wibbled on Friday 16 July 2010 15:10

Are you thinking flat with bevel or dead flat and square edged like marble?

This is a very subjective judgment, and is also influenced by fashion. Predicting what will best please SWMBO is above my pay grade ;-)

When looking around for our bathroom about 5 years ago, everybody wanted to sell us high gloss bumpy white, which was not what we wanted.

We persevered and eventually found a flat matt finish (Johnson Tundra) which worked very well for us.

Chris

I hadn't got that far.

A matter of taste. Personally, I hate bumpy tiles. They go along with artex ceilings in my book. In a small room, very busy fiddly decoration can be annoying. No offence ;-) Simon.

John wibbled on Friday 16 July 2010 17:29

Well, I would say flat with bevel is OK for the average DIYer as there's still a little latitude for error. Dead flat square edged tiles will be somewhat harder in that you must get them laid perfectly so all edges line up otherwise the result looks crap (recalling a restaurant where there were such errors in the gents WC and it looked crap).

I personally would never attempt square edged tiles - but with bevelled edges I have managed pretty decent results.

Cheers

Tim

Just the sort of response I was after - have bumpy tiles had their day?

John wibbled on Friday 16 July 2010 19:15

I totally disagree. Mine look cool, and add interest to an otherwise large expanse of wall - but the "bumpiness" is very subtle - no more than 1/2mm and very random.

Subjective indeed. I once went to visit my mum and dad and was impressed with the newly fully tiled green bathroom. Next weekend I visited, it was brown! I'd nominate my dad for sainthood I think :-)

That probably goes for the 'holey' travertine ones too. SWMBO has them in her shower, and I'm staying right clear of the cleaning thereof! (One good thing about them though was them coming already spaced out on a backing cloth, making the easier to work with. - not by me though: never had the confidence.)

Depends where you have them I suppose: on the kitchen walls they gather greasy dust and are difficult to get clean (and on the kitchen floor they are both dirty and mostly broken thanks to a raised floor which wasn't firm enough - discussed previously).