Tiling Observations - Things to consider

For those who are reading along that are also building (sorry to family and friends this post may bore you a little bit) i wanted to point out some of the things ive noticed with the tiling that you might like to consider which i over looked. And while they aren't major things they're things to keep in mind and perhaps mention to your SS.

Shower Niche 
I extended mine to 300mm - this is frame to frame, and at the time of admin i didn't realise this. I measured all my bottles and thought that was plenty. Now with tiles added its only 250mm and doesn't fit my large shower gel bottle. No big deal ill put it into a smaller bottle. But please get this updated to atleast 300mm, the standard 270mm that you get will leave you with a very small niche - Perhaps EB should just make the standard 300mm to save everyone the hassle of remembering to change.

Laundry Floor tiles
My tiler hasn't realised that i will be putting in cabinets after handover, i completely over looked this, but he started the full tile on the edge that will be covered by cabinets, and because we chose 45x45 tiles we only get 3 1/2 tiles across. it would of been better to start the floor tile form the right and work across to the left so the half tile was covered by cabinets.

Laundry & Toilet Skirting
Our skirting is done in the same colour as the floor tiles, standard is to do the wall in white grout and the floor in off white. I didn't even think about this, i presumed that the grout would be the same as the tile is the same. If i had of selected a diff wall tile then i would of thought the white would be used.

Silly me for presuming that that it would be - where floor tiles are selected - off white is used (regardless of floor or skirting ) just so it would all match.

The end result is this - it doesn't look at all neat. and my eye is instantly drawn to the difference in colour.

If you're having the same floor & Skirting tile PLEASE remember to ask for the grout to be the same colour so you have the consistency through out the room because the tiler will just do what is on your DiL sheet.

Choosing Tiles
It was really interesting talking to the tiler and seeing how the choice in tile can affect how they get laid. There was instances where a smaller tile perhaps would of given a better job, and even a tiled laid vertical could make the space appear differently.

Our Main bathroom is really small, we chose the 200x400 tile and laid it horizontal to make the room appear wider. I also chose a light neutral colour to create light in the room. I have then extended the mirror all the way from the vanity over the top of the bath. Hopefully the reflections of the mirror will make the room appear bigger.

Think about placement of the feature wall. I had selected it to be at the front of the shower, but my tile size meant that it would of been going through the plumbing, after discussing this with my SS we were able to put the feature on the back side of the shower so that it wouldn't hit anything.

Shower Hob
We also had an incident with the shower hob being done in the white grout. This is silly. Hands up anyone who would want different colour grout lines running through their bathroom floors (sorry if anyone takes offence - each to their own) but to me it doesn't make sense. you have these beautiful tiles and you want to hide the grout lines as much as possible - isn't that the point of choosing larger tiles = less grout lines! so why on earth would a tiler "chose" to do it in white - i don't know!

SS said this is how he does it! This isn't the only time ive heard of this, other EBH builders have had the same thing happen, perhaps its the tiler in our area that chooses to work like this. I think DiL should be adding another check box to their sheet that includes "hob grout" with a selection and customers can choose what colour. Then when the tiler is reading the sheet he can see clearly what the customer wants. Saves everyone's time! no one likes re-doing what they have just done - wasting time and wasting money!

Thankfully my SS was able to get this fixed as he has realised its an error, and shouldn't be done in a different colour as it is actually part of the floor.

Skirting height
The standard skirting height is the 1 tile high, which mostly is 200 or 250mm. I didn't like the look of the high skirting tile, id seen in display homes that its usually thinner. In the Drysdale Kellyville Display home its actually only 100mm because that the size the tile is. I loved this. I tried to get 100mm but DiL would only do it if i agreed that its not their fault if the tile doesn't cover the waterproofing which will show through the paint. I opted for 150mm high tile skirting in most rooms. In the bathroom i left it at 200mm as the bottom row would be 1 tile high around the bath so i wanted to continue the grout line the whole way around at the same height.

Drysdale display home only 100mm high tile for skirting

Tiled floor waste
These look AMAZING! seriously, spend the $36 and get them installed over the standard ones. They hide the floor waste so well. Worth every penny to hide those drains.

Drysdale Vanity 
only 750mm standard on plan. Both Drysdale display homes have these vanities. Definitively consider these for over the bath. We couldn't do it as we changed the layout of the room around so this style of vanity wouldn't go over our bath. But its a much better use of space.

I spent a lot of time looking at photos of bathrooms and what look i wanted, i looked at photos and wrote down why i liked certain photos over others and made note of it to show SS and the tiler. Tiling is so important. Youre stuck with it for a long time, its not something us DIY's can do alone so i wanted it to be perfect.

The tiles look amazing! im so happy with them, cant wait to see them all finished and cleaned now.