Buying black quartz starlight online

[mit4d]

Hello All

first post on here

Would like some advice if possible

Ive been quoted £79.99 m2 30x30cm black quartz tiles by a local discount tile shop in Newcastle (Jamies tiles)

Ive been looking online and have discovered a couple of websites selling the exact same tiles for £35-£45 m2

This is going to save me over £300 if i do buy online

has anybody bought from the following online traders before? are they reliable for this kind of product?

a few of the following have sent me high quality samples, but wondering if the real deal will be the same for 7m2?

any help or guidance would be greatly appertained

tilehq
tilemountain
marble-mosaics
stonesuperstore

 

[Time's Ran Out]

I doubt if you will receive a quality Quartz for the online price and unless you can see what they have ' in stock' you have no guarantee that the sample piece will be what they send!
CTD on Shields Road, Newcastle will have a quality tile at over £100 per sq metre, so buy 1 and take it along to Jamie's and compare his.
Buy wise!

 

[gamma38]

Just finished 3 small floors with quartz today, bought from topps and i can say with this material you certainly do get what you pay for.


my advise, don't buy cheap. It's false economy!!!!

 

[prceramics]

The cheap stuff curls with heat

 

[Stef]

CTD will give you Gulfstone quartz, IMO it's the best you will get..

 

[Qwerty]

More resin in the cheap stuff, can curl as others say

 

[mit4d]

thanks for the advice

Gamma youve done a brill job there

With regards to the resin, do you know what percentage is a average amount if that makes sense?

tile mountain state 93% quartz and 7% resin (inc mirror flakes) - at £48.49 m2..

This is for the kitchen, the room is always cold so i cant see the floor curling with heat?

Also, has anybody actually purchased anything from the mentioned websites i stated in my initial post?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mit4d]

duplicate

 

[gamma38]

Hi, sorry i didn't see tile mountain in your original post. I have recently completed a granite floor using there 300 x 300 absolute black and the tolerances were shocking. I called them and complained and to there credit they sent some more out but they were not a whole lot better. They may be an ok supplier for some things but i would be wary. I did leave a negative comment regarding the granite but it never got posted.

 

[gamma38]

Forgot to say thanks for the compliment as well. I can't comment on the other suppliers as i haven't used any of them.

 

[Concrete guy]

Avoid marble mosaics, the product is poor.

 

[Concrete guy]

More resin in the cheap stuff

This is a common misconception. The resin is the most expensive component of the make up of quartz, the factories do all they can to reduce this not increase it.

Most quartz will be between 7% and 15% resin, each manufacturer only has to produce a single colour at 93%/7% to state that as a make up of it's products.

The more pure the colour the higher resin content so pure white (which is also the most difficult to make) is 10%+ resin.

I used to be involved in the manufacture of quartz.

Silestone is the market leader in volume by brand, it's expensive.

Compac, Cimstone, Ceaserstone, Radianz (by Samsung) are amoung other well known brands.

 

[Qwerty]

This is a common misconception. The resin is the most expensive component of the make up of quartz, the factories do all they can to reduce this not increase it.

Most quartz will be between 7% and 15% resin, each manufacturer only has to produce a single colour at 93%/7% to state that as a make up of it's products.

The more pure the colour the higher resin content so pure white (which is also the most difficult to make) 10%+ resin.

I used to be involved in the manufacture of quartz.

Silestone is the market leader in volume by brand, it's expensive.

Compac, Cimstone, Ceaserstone, Radianz (by Samsung) are amoung other well known brands.

Interesting! Not what a lot of retailers are telling both the public and trade. Cheers for that.

Why does the cheap stuff curl then?

 

[Concrete guy]

Interesting! Not what a lot of retailers are telling both the public and trade. Cheers for that.

Why does the cheap stuff curl then?

As a product it's heat sensitive. I find any notion that it can be used with underfloor heating as fundamentally wrong.

I'll try and find a technical spec sheet from one of the manufacturers which provide a list of storage requirements. It's an eye opener.

From memory they include:-

Store inside only as the product is not frost proof, is sensitive to acid rain and UV exposure.
It will fade if left in direct sunlight.

If you left a slab of quartz on two tressles overnight, in the morning it will have sagged like a sheet of plasterboard.

When used as a kitchen worktop you can't place hot pans on the surface, they will simply melt it.

EDIT:- Here's a Ceaserstone fabricators PDF, read the storage and handling page, it's interesting.

Broken Link Removed

 

[mit4d]

Thanks again for the reply another brill job

Sorry for sounding thick but i have not bought a tile im life and im new to all of this.. what is tolerances? colour differences between tiles?

from the samples ive received the sample from tile mountain seems to be the deepest black colour, although the sample i received from stonesuperstore has the best fleck effect ... im stuck on what to do

how do these stores managed to sell at a cheaper price? is it just because these tiles are sort of budget style alternative to the makes mentioned by ATS and other users?

Im awaiting a sample from tilehq this week, they seem to get some good feedback on this forum along with very reasonable prices.. i might just go for it as its only for 7m2 kitchen and i dont want to be spending £80+ m2 as ive got other projects i need $$ for..

thanks again

 

[gamma38]

Tolerances are the sizing, i.e. if they state a tile is 300 x 300 x 10mm the tolerance might be + or - 1mm or less. When i called tile mountain they told me there's is + or - 3mm on the 300 and + or - 6mm on the 600 x 300 granite. The thickness was shocking as well varying from 5mm to 14mm. It was like sorting and laying un-calibrated slate. Hope this makes sense. It can cost you a lot more to stick down bad quality tiles due to man hours etc so it's not always the purchase price that is the only factor.

 

[Concrete guy]

Don't buy from a small 100mm sample, use the sample to decide which shop you want to visit to view the product in larger form.

Small samples are a guide only and can sometimes be (unintentionally) misleading.

 

[mit4d]

Thanks again for the replys

Unofrutnatally i dont drive and all of these online shops are down south and im based up in newcastle

I cant see how they can legally sell a procudct without stating the above mentioned problems before dispatch?

14mm to 5mm if a huge difference in size! they sound like off cuts or somthing?

i might send a few messages to these shops to see if they can give me an honest reply with regards to their quality in tiles..

Out of the shops ive mentioned in my first post, who do you think would be the best or more reliable?

Thanks

 

[gamma38]

Ask them the tolerances before you buy and try and get them to send you something in writing to confirm there numbers. That way you are covered for that at least if they turn up wrong. That said i did get told that the laws for distance selling are a lot stricter than buying at your local shop.