Quartz Sparkiling/starlight tiles

[darrena]

Evening all,

I am currently refitting our ensuite as a wet room and just starting to look for tiles.

Every time I got to a tile shop I cant gt past the quartz sparkly black and red tiles as I think they look great.
As i'm sure your all aware they are around the £100 per sqr meter on the high street so I started to look online for cheaper supplier and found I could get hold of a 30 x30 for £39 a sqr meter and a 60 x 30 for about £49 a sqr meter. My question is about the difference between the quality of the cheaper manufacturers and the high streets shops like tile giant and topps tiles etc, any advice would be greatly appreciate.

Also wondered what your thoughts were on using such dark tiles in a small ensuite just 3m x 1, I will be using plenty of spot lights and two clear glass sheet for the shower so lighting should be pretty good along with the window at one end!

Thanks in advance

Darren

[hillhead]

Online is cheaper for most things, i'v never fitted any of the cheaper ones so can't comment on the quality but i know a lot of care has to be taken with these tiles as regard dust, grout staining, UFH etc.
Beautiful tiles to look at though.

[darrena]

Thanks Hillhead, i was thinking of fitting the mosiac version for the wet area of the shower and then the 30 x 30 for the remainder of the bathroom, do you recon this will be safe or still too slippery?

[hillhead]

The mosaics version will be great in the shower area, i'v done that before.
30x30 dead on on remainder, make sure proper adhesive etc are used.

[Dave]

The reason most of the online ones are cheaper is down to quality.. cheaper resins are used and they are unsuitable for UFH and some do not like getting too wet.. always best to check with manufacture for suitability.. but beware!! one online supplier is saying that their gulfstone is suitable for UFH etc and then denies saying it when problems arise..

The cheaper ones have a tendency to dish upwards when subjected to heat and also constant wetting.. and also just to add most resin bonded conglomerates should be fixed with a suitable adhesive.. Mapei Granirapid and Elastorapid are 2 examples but others are fine as well from other brands..

[Dave]

You can also get Galaxy granite tiles ( same effect as gulfstone) in black and these are pure stone and not resin bonded and again they are around the 40 quid mark.

[peteablard]

Hi Darren,
I know the online savings can be very tempting but as Dave has pointed out above there are things to be aware of. Much better to speak to local suppliers and see if they are willing to negotiate. As you've said it's not a massive room and spending the extra money to start with is better than spending a fortune to sort out any problems that may occur in the future with cheaper products.
If an online supplier does guarantee their product is suitable I'd get them to put it in writing....
Cheers