Tiling in bathroom

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mailmarshall

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Topic # 126989 25-Jul-2013 22:10

Hi

Looking for advice around tiles for bathrooms.
a. Whats the difference between the tiles at Mitre 10 vs specialist tile stores like Tile Warehouse?? Is te quality better??
b. What should I be looking at for tiles on bathroom floor e.g should they be nano sealed?
c. Is it better to get matt tiles on floor and shiny ones for the walls?
d. What should be the average tile price per sq m ?
e. What underfloor heating brand would you recommend under the floor tiles?
f. Do tiles crack in earthquakes :( ?

Thanks

B1GGLZ

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Reply # 866240 25-Jul-2013 22:31

Ref tiles cracking in earthquakes. Depends on how well they are laid.
I lived in Vanuatu for several years and felt many earthquakes and the worst was about an 8.0.
Never saw any cracked tiles due to earthquakes but did see floor tiles in a Hotel dining room explode due to expansion in the heat over several days because they weren't laid properly.
Very interesting having lunch with tiles exploding nearby and hitting the ceiling.
Floor tiles usually crack because they've been laid on a base which is too flexible.

mattwnz

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Reply # 866247 25-Jul-2013 23:01

Many cheaper ones are printed with just a thin layer. Downside is they can wear and the coating scratches. The more expensive ones tend to go all the way through the tiles. I would only buy from a tile company, possibly a wholesaler.

Regarding underfloor heating, using water filled pipes in a concrete fllor slab is possibily one of the more economical ways, along with a water heat pump or connected to a wetback. Many people who get other ones don't use them due to high power costs. Yur power could be easily over 1k per month with underfloor heating.

Handle9

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Reply # 866251 25-Jul-2013 23:12

A) The more expensive the tile the more regular and consistent it is. The more regular your tiles are the better they will look. More expensive tiles are all exactly the same size and exactly square.

B/C) I have very high gloss glazed porcelain tiles on my bathroom floor and in my tiled shower, they are great. They aren't slippery and are very easy to keep clean. Because they are easy to keep clean you don't get a soap and gunk buildup so they don't get slippery.

D) I paid about $80 sq m for my floor tiles and $35 sq m for my wall tiles. My floor tiles are excellent, my wall tiles are OK. It cost us about $40 sq m for laying of them. I hindsight I wouldn't bother tiling the walls again. It's very expensive - we had about 12 sq m of floor but 40 sq m of walls.

E) They are much of a muchness really. Just make sure you can use the thermostat and get floor probes installed so you are controlling on floor temp, not air temp. Also choose someone who has laid lots of floors, not someone new to the game.

F) Dunno :)

If you have a wooden floor you will need tile and slate underlay to stabilise the floor. You will also need to waterproof the floor and around the wet areas.

Handle9

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Reply # 866255 25-Jul-2013 23:21

mattwnz: Yur power could be easily over 1k per month with underfloor heating.

This is pretty unlikely for a bathroom which is what the OP asked about. My underfloor heating costs me about $25 - $40 a month to run. I have about 1kW of heating, with a floor probe and a thermostat with a programmable time clock. I run the heating 6 hours a day which is a max power bill of $40 a month (30 days x 6 hours x 1kW x 22c a kW).

I have big bathroom so YMMV

mattwnz

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Reply # 866257 25-Jul-2013 23:33

Handle9:
mattwnz: Yur power could be easily over 1k per month with underfloor heating.

This is pretty unlikely for a bathroom which is what the OP asked about. My underfloor heating costs me about $25 - $40 a month to run. I have about 1kW of heating, with a floor probe and a thermostat with a programmable time clock. I run the heating 6 hours a day which is a max power bill of $40 a month (30 days x 6 hours x 1kW x 22c a kW).

I have big bathroom so YMMV

Depends on how many and size, and how long they are on for. $1000 would be more the house price. Although I do know someone who has a spa pool who had a bill for close on that last month.

timmmay

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Reply # 866300 26-Jul-2013 07:29

We have tiles on the wall only in the wet areas - shower, around the bath, and 10cm high around the whole room. Definitely cheaper that way.

You definitely have to heat tiles, they're so cold otherwise. You need a thermostat in the tiles. Another thing to be careful of is to make sure the under floor heating goes very close to the toilet, and around it slightly - watch where a man stands when using the toilet and make sure those areas are heated. Heat doesn't move sideways through tiles. My tiles were fine in an earthquake, but you're always recommended to have a box or two spare as you'll never get an exact match later.

Another option is lino square, lino tiles, that kind of thing. There are some really nice ones at flooring places, they're cheaper than tiles, they look good, and they don't need to be heater. Altogether they're a much more efficient flooring method, and as they look like tiles they still look great. I wish I'd gone for them. The brand recommended to me by my father in law, who owned a very successful bathroom store in the UK, was Karndean. He has them in his bathrooms, they look great.

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mailmarshall

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Reply # 866308 26-Jul-2013 07:43

Thanks guys - really useful info. There are a lot of tile places in Wellington all saying their tiles are the best!! Anyone care to recommend one from experience?

timmmay

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Reply # 866320 26-Jul-2013 08:38

Tiles Direct 15 Kaiwharawhara Rd is where we got ours. We got some of the cheaper tiles and they're really good. There are three tile shops in the area.

I can recommend an electrician if you need one.

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Skolink

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Reply # 866441 26-Jul-2013 11:01

Are you doing any of the work yourself? If so I have some further advice.

Make sure the tiles are laid *before* (ie under) things such as vanities, toilets and cabinets. Ametures/cowboys tile around them.

Fred99

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Reply # 866588 26-Jul-2013 13:36

I put wall tiles over fibrous plaster-board in dry areas, villa board and water-proof membrane in wet areas in bathroom, toilet, and kitchen. These survived the quakes here remarkably well - a couple of corner tiles in the bathroom cracked - but the rest are fine. The bathroom end of the house must have jumped at least 30mm off the foundation, - the tie-down staples to the bearers pulled out completely. I live up a private lane with 7 houses. A quick total-up - there's about $3.5 million worth of damage between the 7 houses. 3 or possibly 4 are demo jobs, 2 gone already. Floor tiles didn't perform very well around here, but in those cases the floor slab foundations were completely munted - the houses total losses anyway.

timmmay

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Reply # 866590 26-Jul-2013 13:39

That's a good point - I suspect a waterproof membrane is required on the floor now, at least in some areas. The bathroom company I used did two layers of a thick orange one under the whole bathroom floor and behind the shower tiles.

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