Heavily scratched 'just laid' porcelain floor...advice

[chrisprendy]

if you have any tile/offcut left ,see if it marks with a high heel shoe ,if so take the tile & shoe to b&q, stand in line at the returns desk & show them ,LOUDLY asking to see the manager ,you never know good luck m8

[j8yba]

They New tiles say on the box that they are sealed. So maybe when they tried to remove the wax they took the sealer off.

Is this possible? And would doing that cause an issue like this?

[j8yba]

Can i also stress as well, that the tiler pointed out that 75% YES 75% of the tiles were bent, ie not straight which means that most of the corners of each tile laid are not level!!! he showed me this by placing a spirit level across a couple of them and there was a good 3 - 4 mm difference either side.

Also I was in there today and as the sun shon across the tile, the scratches were visable.

[j8yba]

Think Dave is on the money here check out the three finger marks at the bottom

Only just realised what you meant there, thats actually the reflection of my hand taking photo!!

[kilty55]

i can only give advice from what i see and think but in regards to these tiles from b and q i think they are very inconsistent in quality

[j8yba]

i can only give advice from what i see and think but in regards to these tiles from b and q i think they are very inconsistent in quality

They're rubbish is what they are!!

[jay]

Did your tiler inform you about the bow before fixing

[j8yba]

Did your tiler inform you about the bow before fixing

Only halfway through jay, but as my speciality isn't tiles, I didn't really understand what he meant, i thought it was normal for some to be bowed and thought it'd be ok when they've grouted. Think he even mentioned they'd be ok once grouted.

[jay]

Think it would of been better if he had told you about the quality first might of saved some heartache ,if you place two tiles face to face then look at the edges that will tell you the amount of bow as for the scratches im surprised the tiler didn't notice them

good luck

[ozboz]

As a tiler. if there are any faults with the tile, he/they should have picked up on it and nformed you, especially if there is a significant amount of distortion within the tile body, as said before, Ive never had this with B&Q stuff,infact ive always found them quite good, Kilty has said there s a lot of inconsistancy with these tiles, but I can assure you I had similar distortion problems with Porcelanosa stuff, supposed to be high end, arrogant rep turned up giving out, he went away with a bomb up his ........., the tiles were duly accepted by the client, but ONLY because of deadlines, given more time they would have made them change them, some 2000 mtrs. It has been said, you need to o to the store and take it up with them, managers at these stores can act on their own discretion, if no joy,the main offices for B&Q are in Southamton, they distortion problem I would envisage would be put down to your fixer, the poor quality, ie scratching, you may get some joy, but untill you take it up with them..................... best of luck mate

[j8yba]

Thanks, well the B&Q duty manager is back in today, so im going down there to see what she's done since i spoke to her on Tuesday. I think ill take a tile down there with me and try the heels method.

Relatively speaking, this whole floor so far has cost me nearly £3000.

[steeeevo]

I bet you are WORD REMOVED at the moment then, im laying this romsay 500 x 500 tile in the next month, i will defo do the face to face check and see if there bowed. it does seem down to luck if you get a good tile or a bad tile from b&q after all the reading i have done about this tile

just think it would have cost you £10,000 if you bought a better quality tile, then you would have had no problems though

[jay]

Just a hint to tilers.When mixing large or small polished porc try to stack them shinny side to shinney and back to back when stacking them (like they do in some of the boxes) there is less chance of damaging the surface this way

just a thought

[ray t t]

easyest way to remove wax off these tiles that i have found is to throw a hand full of grout powder on to the floor rub with a dry cloth the dry powder sticks to the wax the cloth takes the powder off leaving a clean tile whith no need for exspensive time comsuming removers job done

[Discount Tile Supplies]

You get what you pay for guys. B&Q want porcelain tiles for ceramic money. Good polished porcelain tiles will not scratch like that before or after fixing.

[matami03]

Hi there - new to here , as exactly the same thing has happened to me .. had 500 x500 B&Q black romsey tiles laid in my living room last week. Experienced tiler laid them, and when he had grouted they looked lovely. No-one entered the room that evening and the next morning the scratches that are shown on your photo's were all over the tiles . I was devastated, tiler was totally baffled, but agreed to grind out and relay 12 tiles (all I had left) and no-more in black in store. When all finished it look ok, but floor is still heavily mark. Have complined to four different departments and am getting nowhere with B&Q. Each person I speak to says sometime different, even though it says on the box pre-sealed , one manager said we should of clean and sealed before fixing and sealed afterwards and that is our fault ! We saved hard to buy tiles and pay tiler and I am so upset and frustrated, what should of been the focal part of my home - looks awful.
Have you had any joy from B&Q ? Does anyone have any views on why this has happened to the tiles - the flooring manager told us when we bought them that they were hard wearing tiles (although a bugger to clean !)

[jay]

just one question were the 12 tiles you had left scratch free if so makes you wonder

[matami03]

All the tiles left were scratch free, as were the orginal tiles that went down. The white scratches did not appear till the next day..so weird but the whole floor has more and more of these white marks and we are only walking on it in socks !

[jay]

any chance of some pics sounds strange are you sure there is no wax on them


Try a bit of metho on a rag on a tile in a not so noticeable place on the floor see if the scratches rub off or get a razor blade and glide it over the tile and see if any residue builds up on the blade

[matami03]

will try that and see what happens , haven't got camera here at mo but will try to do some later , but the scratches are exactly the same as the photos posted on this thread.

[jay]

Let us know how you go with it if they weren't there when laid might be wax

[j8yba]

Just a quick update on this, im currently in talks with B&Q H.O. and also my local store, im waiting for someone to come back to me with some more information regarding the "Quality" of the tiles.

[j8yba]

Also, dont waste any more time on the tiles. The scratches are there for good.

[Wilksy21]

Hi new to the forum but I needed to post on here in reply to this thread. I have just accepted a final offer payment of £1200 from B&Q for the ripping up and relaying of 17m2 of this very same tile for the exact same issue with the exact same marks on nearly every tile. Phoned head office and spoke to customer services who assigned me a case manager who sent out an independent inspector to check the tiles. He was there 10 mins and within 2 days had sent a report back to b&Q saying product was faulty and not fit for purpose. They then asked me to get 3 quotes to get the work rectified and some new ones which I would have to provide relayed by a tiler of my choice. Sent in quotes after 2 days they phoned and made me a final offer which I accepted. Key to all this was being calm and polite and professional. Customer services at head office were brilliant. The tiles however are garbage. Do not buy these tiles.

[steeeevo]

Are these the 500 x 500 tiles your talking about, i cant understand how them scratches appeared on the tile after they were laid, surely you would have seen them before hand. its not the kind of scratch that just appears surely????

[trevortine]

What type of grout was used? Some floor grouts have a really high sand content and will scratch certain tiles when applied, wont be noticed when wet but once dry will stick out like a sore thumb. The new bal micromax is a guilty contender of this.

[j8yba]

Hi new to the forum but I needed to post on here in reply to this thread. I have just accepted a final offer payment of £1200 from B&Q for the ripping up and relaying of 17m2 of this very same tile for the exact same issue with the exact same marks on nearly every tile.

Wilksy, was this their first and only offer or had you rejected prior offers?

[Wilksy21]

There first offer was half this however giving them a correct breakdown based on a number of quotes and the inconvenience it has caused and the mention of trading standards convinced them it wasn't worth the hassle. As mentioned previously and in other threads what they make on these tiles seems to outweigh the number of issues they have with them so I didn't back down.

[j8yba]

If B&Q do offer some compensation, which I'm hoping they will, I'll have to close the shop down for at least a week to get the tiles replaced, is this something I can claim off them also, ie loss of business?

also, is re-tiling over these going to be ok, or would you guys advise ripping them all up (creating a proper mess! probably a new paint job) bearing in mind they have been tiled using latex adh onto a chipboard floor, potentially ripping the floor to peices?

[jay]

If B&Q do offer some compensation, which I'm hoping they will, I'll have to close the shop down for at least a week to get the tiles replaced, is this something I can claim off them also, ie loss of business?

also, is re-tiling over these going to be ok, or would you guys advise ripping them all up (creating a proper mess! probably a new paint job) bearing in mind they have been tiled using latex adh onto a chipboard floor, potentially ripping the floor to peices?

are you saying they tiled directly on to chipboard.

Not sure what you will get from them but it may be a blessing in disguise .next time get it done right