TILE TRAUMA

Something told me it was going to be one of those weeks …. 

So, Chancellor Khazi has been flushed down the drain by Dizzy Lizzy and I’m sure it won’t be long before she’s packing her bags.  Politics – it has to be the best comedy show in town!  Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. 

Khazi is not the only one that’s feeling traumatised.  My kitchen floor was going like a dream until Wednesday when I got home from work to be told by our builder that there’s a tile shortage and for once, neither Covid nor the war in Ukraine is to blame.  Aagh!

 

You're gonna need a bigger tile order

How could this be?  I used the tile calculator feature on Tile Mountain’s website rounding up my measurements and adding a few more for good measure so how could we possibly not have enough floor tiles?

 

What do you mean there aren't enough?

And as if that wasn’t bad enough when I rang Tile Mountain to order a few more boxes – shock horror!  My particular tile has been discontinued.  ‘But I only ordered them in May’ I wailed down the phone to the non-plussed young lady on the other end who showed as much interest in my plight as if she’d found a loose bit of fluff on her sweater.  

Here’s the thing that tile buyers might not discover until its too late.  When tile retailing websites show quantities online, it does not necessarily relate to the number of packs of tiles but to the number of metres.  For example when it says ‘1’ in the quantity box, you are not ordering a box that contains 7 tiles but you are in fact ordering 5 tiles which is 1 metres worth.  Confusing?  Not half! 

Thus when I ordered what I thought was 20 boxes each containing 7 tiles (140 in total) what I received was 20 metres worth of tiles (100 in total).  No wonder we’re short.  

Fortunately, I managed to find another tile retailer in Oldham that carried this same design and had some tiles in stock but it’s cost me an extra £113 to get these urgently delivered next week. 

My advice – check, check and double check the tile retailers website when you place your order that you are going to receive the right quantity of tiles for your project.  

In the meantime, the rest of the floor tiles have been laid and grouted.  They look lovely and go really well with the dark grey colour of the kitchen units.

Flooring begun

Gizmos used for spacing and levelling

Neatly spaced out

Blending the two rooms together

Finished with Manhattan grey grouting

New floor gets the Bertie seal of approval