No, that's true. But at the same time, I don't want to pay more than necessary. Lots of holes that the money needs to cover.K KakelDaniel said:
But I'm neither cheap nor penny-wise, but I also don't pay extra for a certain brand if there's no added value.
Now there is also expensive tiles, not uncommon with 800-1500 m2. So a tile for 3-400 should probably be considered standard/normal. The question is whether there are any problems with the tile for 150 from Bauhaus. It is likely, as someone wrote, a noname import in bulk, could certainly be as good and as bad as anything. With as little as 6m2, I would definitely go for standard tiles.
Best answer
I've only driven the cheaper segment and never regretted it. Always bought from Hornbach. I rationalize it as follows: just as Swedes have a strong wood-building tradition, Germans have a strong stone-building tradition. A high average raises the bottom level. If I lived in Germany and there was an XLBygg or Beijer there, I would have gone there to buy my innerpanel instead of a German chain.
As others write, the cheaper tiles are often of slightly lower quality, but if you ask me, even the cheap tiles are of good quality. Sure, they might crack more easily when cutting them, but if I have to cut three tiles instead of one before I get a nice cut, I'm still winning economically if I only paid a 1/4 compared to the expensive tiles. Ideally, you should design in such a way that there's as little cutting as possible. The same applies when sorting out defective tiles from the packages. In my case, maybe 1/20 or 1/30 were defective even of the cheapest.
I'm a handy and meticulous amateur, but still an amateur. In the end, my workmanship has made a bigger difference to the appearance than the price of the tiles. It's only after a while that you see the small mistakes you made in grouting and angles.
As far as lifespan and quality are concerned, I would almost say it doesn't matter in a kitchen; most people get tired of the look and tear it down in a new kitchen renovation long, LONG before it's worn out. The cabinets will give in before the tiles, and how often do you tear out all the cabinets and everything but keep the old tiles?
My tips:
As others write, the cheaper tiles are often of slightly lower quality, but if you ask me, even the cheap tiles are of good quality. Sure, they might crack more easily when cutting them, but if I have to cut three tiles instead of one before I get a nice cut, I'm still winning economically if I only paid a 1/4 compared to the expensive tiles. Ideally, you should design in such a way that there's as little cutting as possible. The same applies when sorting out defective tiles from the packages. In my case, maybe 1/20 or 1/30 were defective even of the cheapest.
I'm a handy and meticulous amateur, but still an amateur. In the end, my workmanship has made a bigger difference to the appearance than the price of the tiles. It's only after a while that you see the small mistakes you made in grouting and angles.
As far as lifespan and quality are concerned, I would almost say it doesn't matter in a kitchen; most people get tired of the look and tear it down in a new kitchen renovation long, LONG before it's worn out. The cabinets will give in before the tiles, and how often do you tear out all the cabinets and everything but keep the old tiles?
My tips:
- ALWAYS take home samples and check your light and other color settings. Once, I didn't do that because the tiles I bought had an eggshell white color I really liked in the store. But on the small cramped toilet with the bright white walls, it suddenly looked light gray. Very strange, still very nice thankfully, but not at all what we had in mind.
- You can't always be sure that all the tiles you bought are from the same manufacturing batch; sometimes batch numbers aren't even available. Even if everything SHOULD be the same color, small variations can occur. Then you open all the packs at the same time and take one tile from each pack so that it evens out over the surface. For example, if you have 5 packages with 10 tiles in each, you open all and stack them in 5 piles of 10 tiles each; you build one pile at a time and pick from all 5 boxes.
- Just like with painting or really anything in construction and renovation, the boring and later invisible prep work is more important for the final result than the gadgets you bought. Achieving an even and good substrate, fixing cracks, damages, and small holes is dull and time-consuming, but not even a tile for 2000kr/m2 will look good on an uneven wall.
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