Make life easy, search the forum.

Discuss Tile cross joint tolerance? in the The Welcome Forum area at TilersForums. USA and UK Tiling Forum

Reaction score
2
Please checkout the following advertisement.
layed a cheap tile bought by customer. They are refusing to pay as they are saying the cross is not square on all joints. What is the tolerance?
 
O

Old Mod

Hi Ian, welcome!

Do you have any images of the complaint?
I would imagine it will be the tile size tolerance that comes in to play here.
If they’re sizey they’re sizey, you’ll only be able to make it look right to the eye.
Have you measured individual tiles, are they sizey?
Do they differ?

@Paul C. will be able to quote manufacturing tolerances, it is actually quite a high percentage.
 
OP
I
Reaction score
2
Hi Paul never measured tiles, tops tiles said it is one of there cheapest. Customer ordered the tiles short, can’t match batch now.
 
D

Dumbo

Hi Paul never measured tiles, tops tiles said it is one of there cheapest. Customer ordered the tiles short, can’t match batch now.
If the customer was responsible for the order that's not your problem either . By that I mean if they measured and worked it out themselves its their problem
 
F

Flintstone

Ian, a bit of politeness goes a long way on here.
Did you notice the tiles being badly sized whilst fitting? What size joint did you use ?
 
OP
I
Reaction score
2
Hi I did mention to customer that cheap tiles are never square, but he didn’t seem to take it in to be honest. I think the fact that we were having trouble matching the batch number has played on there minds over night and now they are trying to cover costs by not paying me. Kind regards ian
 
T

Tile Shop

Strap yourself in.... The standards are fairly loose on grout joint requirements for walls but a little more detailed on floors.

In BS5385 part 1 (wall tile) sub 7.1.4, the joints should be "of uniform width, true to a line, continuous and without steps. Allowance should be made for an adequate width of joint". - to make sure you have the right allowance, the tiles should be checked, loose laid if required to gauge what size joint would be needed to overcome potential issues with stepping and wonky grout lines.

In BS5385 part 3 (floor tile) sub 7.1.3.2 (straightness of joints) it makes it a little clearer that the tile dimension may not allow perfectly square joints:
"The joints between tiles are an important feature of any tile installation, particularly when small tiles, wide joints, or contrasting coloured grouts are specified. The width of the joints between tiles should be even and of regular dimension **subject to the manufacturing tolerance for the type of tile specified**."

"Generally. tile joints should be straight in alignment unless they are, by design, irregular in shape. Special attention should be paid to large areas of floor tile where the joint can be sighted"

**Which is BSEN14411, size tolerances for the actual tiles are +/- o.5% from the average to a maximum of 2mm and the same for rectangularity. If the tiles are out by that much, its likely your grout joints will follow suit without significant adjustment

5385 is a code of practice, not law of the land so you just need to show that you have attempted to do the best you can. If the tiles are within tolerance but still so crap that you couldn't achieve the required finish, prove that you've done your best with what they gave you by showing the size variation on a couple of loose tiles.

However it would have been much easier for you to get paid if the expectations of what could be achieved were set with the customer before you started. Probably needed to spend a little more time and attention to detail on setting out and checking the tiles before diving in with the https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/ and pointing out potential problems to the customer.
 
T

Tile Shop

still this story?
on the packaging is not written:
do not accept disputes on the material in place?
or is it not written in uk?
otherwise I take the van and I come to uk to work.

No complaints about the tile quality once fixed. Yes that is on most boxes over here. Sizing issues need to be taken up with the supplier before fixing or as soon as it is spotted by the tiler. If they are within tolerance though, doubt you'd get much help.

However after its fixed, doesn't stop a customer complaining about the workmanship. Maybe the tiles are the problem, but the fitter will have a tough time defending his work if it wasn't discussed with the customer beforehand that the sizes will potentially cause issue.
 

Reply to Tile cross joint tolerance? in the The Welcome Forum area at TilersForums.com

Or checkout our tile training advice or the Tile Standards

This website is hosted and managed by www.untoldmedia.co.uk. Creating content since 2001.

New Tiling Questions

UK Tiling Forum Stats

Threads
66,600
Messages
866,704
Members
9,511
Latest member
mmcdon47
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock