Tessalated Tiles

[theborg1]

I am currently renovating my Edwardian home and have decided to lay tessalated tiles in the bathroom.

Does anyone know where I can buy such tiles at a reasonable price in the Melbourne area.


Theborg

[soundman]

What the....

Tessa.... whated tiles.

Please explain.

[silentC]

Try here: http://www.designerceramics.com.au

[theborg1]

Thanks SilentC.

[theborg1]

Soundman,

Go to the site referred by SilentC. Click on Edwardian and check out the floor. They are tesselated tiles.

Cheers.

[seriph1]

there are tiles available that nicely replicate tesselateds but arent 140+ psm. Some nice displays are available at various places, depending where you are in Melbourne - if you'd like to PM me I'd be happy to refer you on.

Steve

[seriph1]

by the way, I "believe" the images on the designer ceramics site may be from displays at Schots in Hoddle Street - they have some nice stuff - good luck getting anything resembling service from anyone other than Don.

[simon c]

Yes, they are from Schotts, because Schotts sells Desginer Ceramics tiles. I'd recommend Schotts to anybody in the Melbourne area - great range of stuff for the period renovator. They're on Hoddle St, Clifton Hill just where the Eastern Freeway starts.

There is also a place in Swan St, Richmond by the Burnley St junction close to where all of the other building supplies shops are.

[seriph1]

I agree that for range Schots has it...... for proce and service there are a wide variety of places that are way better that them - I'm always been able to find things I need far cheaper than them and without the arrogance

[ClintO]

I had a bathroom floor laid with tesselated tiles (with a Balmain border) to match some original tiles in a 1920 house. The lesson I learned is to measure a sample of the tiles in each box before the tiler arrives.
The tile company gave me a few boxes of each of the different tiles. The tiler had the floor half laid when he opened the second box of terracotta hexagonal tiles and we found that they were about 2mm smaller than those in the first box. It doesnt sound much but is very noticeable and not what you need to find out on a friday afternoon

[jackiew]

looks from the piccys that you'd probably use dark coloured grout ... if you were tempted otherwise here is a small warning from someone who hates cleaning floors .... light coloured grout doesn't stay light coloured on the bits people walk on ... and if the light is good it is horribly obvious if you don't clean it .... and if the grout isn't flush with the tile but is concave the only way of cleaning it is with a brush and elbow grease .... and the smaller the tile the more grout there is to clean

[seriph1]

WRT tile sizes, I thought tesselateds were now totally uniform as this was one of the big issues with laying them way-back-when...... I guess there's still a margin of variation in the firing process.......

Bloody good idea to mix the tiles up or alternate them as theyre laid


(put-info-in-noodle-for-future-reference)

[journeyman Mick]

Just a tip for anyone getting tiles:
The Australian Standard for ceramic tiles says that 1st grade tiles must not vary in size by more than 1/2 of 1%. Don't buy 2nd grade tiles, especially if you are laying the now trendy extra large ones that are 500 x 500 as at this size 1/2 of 1% equals a variation of +/- 2.5mm. This means that at this size even first grade tiles have a permissible size variation of 5mm. Add those variations up on a large floor and it starts getting hard to keep everything lined up.

Mick

[seriph1]

amen!


Am meeting next week with a guy who makes tiles - in particular a "ancient and worn Travertine" looking tile - it comes in 610 x 610 ...... If they are exact, which I hope they will be, these will make a brilliant addition to our extension - if there is a 3 mm variation on the large ones then I won't even think abt it...... being a woodie I spend too much time already hiding my mistakes without adding to the grief with tiles that have a creeping error.

[ClintO]

My tiles were 1st grade but apparently from 2 different batches and purchased from a very reputable supplier in Sydney. While the tiler spun his wheels I rushed back to the shop and they knew about the problem but had mixed them up.

One of the issues is that they are transferred from a manufactureres bulk shipping carton into a shop labelled carton and batch traceability was lost. This may not happen if your floor is big enough but many old bathroon like mine only a couple of square metres of floor tiles, if that.

In my case the border tiles were delivered like a jigsaw puzzle of pieces. Make sure you have a good tiler or practice on a friends house first.