Tell me about your tile bargains!

[shovetheholly]

Having had a depressingly high quote from Porcelanosa, I'm wondering if cheaper tiles are worth a look? Do other companies sell similar quality tiles, or will cheaper ones be noticeably worse? Have you had a tile bargain, or lived to regret buying cheaper porcelaoin?

To give you an idea, I was going to get around 14 square metres of both

• Ceilon Marfil, which is a speckled cream
• Dover Acero, which is a concrete effect

However, the total quote (which admittedly includes some special order outside/step tiles) came to £2k, which seems a lot...

We got ours from the "walls and floors" job lot clearance section, they sell set amounts of left over tiles in job lots (so it'll be up to you to deal with the surplus tiles). We got £700 worth of Italian tiles for £100.

It's hit and miss but definitely worth a look.

Someone on another thread recommended Tons of Tiles which I have bookmarked. They seem to stock branded tiles at cheaper prices.

Another Walls and Floors fan here!

I used tile mountain, the tiler seemed impressed, I bought 300 by 600 porcelain called super white but are off white. They were very heavy though.

Thanks - I've never heard of Walls & Floors! The clearance section looks bargainous, though sadly full of bright orange ones at the moment I will keep an eye out!

I really wanted Fired Earth wall tiles and found the exact same one on Tons of Tiles website for 75% less. You can order samples.

The tiles we bought for our last bathroom came straight from Johnson's, the manufacturer. They were sold as Attingham in Topps in an exclusive to Topps 40x15cm format. We bought 30x10cm from Johnson's and it was quite a bit cheaper than Tons of Tiles' price for the same thing.

Same as wowfudge - directly from Johnsons. We have the "Concept" range in Smoke (grey) and grey structured. Have large tiles on the walls (about 90cm x 30cm) and 45 x 45cm on the floor so its all seamless and minimalist. Similar tiles (style and quality) were about 3 times the price even from cheap places like Topps. Did our family bathroom and ensuite in the same tiles.

Have also used Walls and Floors' bargain section for the downstairs loo!!

I've just looked at Johnsons website and couldn't see how to buy?

namechanged - do you mind me asking how much they were a metre please, if it's not too indelicate a question? They're pretty close to what I am after!

We also got our directly from Johnsons (via our architect who has an account). Fab tiles and excellent value for money.

Just ring them - they will confirm whether what you are looking at is a match for what you have seen elsewhere and their shop takes payment over the phone. They were easy to deal with and very responsive on email before I placed my order.

"Shovetheholly* - in terms of buying, we are only about an hour away from the factory in Stoke and so, on the recommendation of a friend, we went to the factory and brought the tiles home with us there and then - went back the following weekend for some more.

I can't remember exactly how much they were, but certainly less than £30 per square metre. You do have to buy in packs though, think the wall tiles came in boxes of 6 and the floor tiles in 4s. We are thrilled with them.

If you want delivery, I think its was maybe £40 or £50.

We just got a delivery from tile mountain and super impressed. We'd ordered sample tiles first and ended up going with some concrete effect tiles that were pretty much identical to (but 60% cheaper) the posh ones I fell in love with

If you have a branch of World's End Tiles near you its worth going onto the trade side and looking at their piles of discontinued stock. If you are lucky you find something very nice at a fraction of normal cost. They don't insist on you having a trade account.

Thanks wowfudge - I'll give them a bell. Like namechanged I'm not that far from the factory, so I could just drive down and have a look myself. I've never been to Stoke and I'd like to visit!

One of the issues with Porcelanosa is that they add the VAT after telling you the price - so you think you're looking at one cost and then the final thing is 20% more all of a sudden. So effectively what is marketed as a "40% sale" is actually only a "20% reduction" by the time they've put the VAT back on!!

One of the issues is that I have some tiles that I want to run from the inside outdoors. So Porcelanosa tell me I need an indoor tile indoors, and an outdoor tile outdoors. This is adding £££ to the quote because the outdoor ones are some kind of special custom order. And don't even get me started on how much it costs to put a lip on a tile to get an edge for a step!

If you are going, just one word of warning it is really hard to find - in the middle of a pretty run down residential area and the satnav will probably take you to the actual factory rather than the factory outlet, so make sure you put in the postcode of the outlet and not the factory. Its also not what you'd call state of the art. As a comparable to a Porcelanose showroom, you'll be mightily disappointed!! But definitely worth a visit!

Thanks for the warning - that's really helpful. And I don't mind AT ALL about the lack of a flashy showroom as long as the tiles look good. I've now seen so many grey squares and rectangles I think my head might explode - am struggling to find the right cost/quality balance. Porcelanosa might have swanky lighting, but to be honest I've met more knowledgeable salespeople than they have. I remember more details from the brochure than the bloke there seems to and I had to keep correcting the quote for the right size/finish, which made me feel nervous about getting the right end product.

Tile Mountain doesn't seem far away from Johnsons, so I should be able to visit both!