Buying tiles for your home isn’t a small investment. While tiles can be pulled up, it’s difficult to do so without breaking them. Therefore, they’re considered a fixed aspect of your home, and it’s important to avoid making mistakes when you’re choosing tiles. However, you don’t know what you don’t know, and if you’re unsure of what mistakes to avoid, how will you avoid them?
To help you, this article will cover some of the most common mistakes people make when buying tiles so that you can avoid them.
1. Getting the wrong amount
Picture this: you’ve just bought all the tiles for your kitchen renovation. You’re thrilled because you bought the last of the stock for those specific tiles you’ve had your eye on. As you lay them, you get to the last tile and see that you still have two square meters to lay, but you’ve run out!
This is a classic conundrum of tiling where the initial calculations were off. There’s nothing worse than anticipating finishing a job and then learning you miscalculated. Before laying tiles, always do a trial run to see if you have enough.
2. Getting rid of spares
Once your home is tiled, it’s easy to think that you no longer need the spares. Let’s be honest; they take up space and just look out of place. However, we'd advise against getting rid of your spare tiles. For one, if your tiles crack, you'll at least have some others to replace them. This is especially helpful if they discontinue making the style of tiles you have.
3. Choosing the wrong sizes
Choosing the wrong tile sizes is also a common mistake, especially when people are looking for cheap tiles online. If you choose the wrong sizes accidentally, the quantity of tiles you order won’t be able to cover the space you plan to tile. This means you’ll have to go back and buy more. You can avoid this by double-checking sizes when making an order.
4. Not getting samples
Before you buy any tiles, first ask for a sample. Samples allow you to check the texture and feel of the tile before you buy them – not to mention that you can also use it to check how well that tile will fit into your home. When you purchase tiles without sampling them first, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment.
5. Going for the most affordable option
We all have a budget to work with, some bigger than others. A common mistake that people make when buying tiles is going for the cheapest option and quite often this leads to them compromising on quality. Tiles are a long-term investment, and cheap tiles might be more prone to cracking or chipping, especially in areas with heavy foot traffic. However, you can still find affordable tiles that are good quality; you just need to do a little more research. So, avoid buying tiles simply because they’re cheap.
6. Not planning how the tiles will be used
Before starting any project, you need to ensure that you plan everything effectively! Planning helps you cover all the aspects of the project, including the number of materials needed and how they’ll be used. If you fail to plan, you could either purchase too many or too few tiles. This could make financing the project unpredictable and could potentially prolong its duration.
7. Choosing the wrong type of tile
Consider where the tiles are going to be used. Often, people will choose tiles for their looks but forget about their functions. Yes, tiles have different functions. For example, tiles used in bathrooms often have more texture to reduce their slipperiness when wet. Likewise, tiles that are used in areas with heavy foot traffic will be denser and able to handle more pressure, making them more durable. So, you’d want to choose tiles to suit where they’ll be used.
8. Not consulting a professional
Tiling isn’t the most difficult and complicated project to do, but it can still be challenging if you’re new to it. People who try to save costs by avoiding hiring a professional often come up short with projects that have issues like skew tiles, incorrect mixtures of grout, and tiles falling off walls or loosening sooner than they should.
9. Not considering how long delivery takes
If you’re ordering tiles, they may take some time to get to you. So, it is best not to hire a contractor or someone to lay the tiles until they arrive. You don’t want to get caught with extra fees by hiring someone at the wrong time.
10. Forgetting to seal tiles
Often, people purchase tiles and forget or simply don’t know that they need to be sealed. While this isn’t always necessary, some tiles, usually made from natural stone, need to be sealed to prevent moisture from entering and causing cracks.
11. Using the wrong grout colour
When you lay tiles, grout is used as the bounding agent to ensure they stick to the floor or walls. These days, there are different grouting colours that can be used to match the colours of the tiles used. A common mistake people make is overlooking this and just grabbing any grout colour. As a result, the grout might stand out and create an unpleasant contrast to the tiles.
Final Thoughts
Tiling isn’t the most complicated job, but we’re human, and we make mistakes. By knowing what mistakes people normally make, you can actively try to avoid doing the same thing. We hope this article has given you some tips on what to avoid when buying tiles for your home project. Enjoy!
