Tiles and Tileing in Thailand

**dirtydog** · 01-09-2006, 06:16 PM

Ceramic Tiles in Thailand, first off let's start with the products available, Tiles come in 3 grades, "A", "B", and "C", "C" grade is the worst, the absolute pits, the best thing you can do with "C" grade tiles is to smash them up and make a Mosaic out of them, the color variation and size variation is so great that you really wouldn't want them on your floor or wall unless you was doing some weird modern art type of design where straight lines don't really matter, these are the junk of ceramic tile manufacturers and amazingly they sell quite well here in Thailand.

"B" Grade tiles are slightly better but hell is it really worth the saving of 50 pence per meter? why not go for the "A" Grade stuff?

Since the Recession in Thailand all grade "A" tiles are exported and now grade "B" tiles are labelled as Grade "A" for the Thai market, these aint so bad and I have seen a lot worse in some of the Aussie home improvements magazines, yep even in their full page advertisements, got to admit I was quite shocked and will scan the picture and post it.

Onto the real Grade "A" tiles before the reccession, now this room was tiled about 8 years ago, yes I know the grout looks shite but tomorrow I shall get my girlfriends toothbrush and bleach and show you how to clean your grout, anyway as you can see there are still size variations in the tiles, obviously with all tiles you will get slight color variations but this is minimal on Grade "A" tiles, So what should builders do with the oversized tiles, ie the one that is 4mm bigger than 6 other tiles? dump and absorb them in their cost? Get the customer to buy a few more boxes and listen to him whinge about the price? or just lay them? Don't forget this is worldwide not just Thailand.

3 Pictures of the same tile.

tiling

**Thetyim** · 01-09-2006, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

So what should builders do with the oversized tiles,

Take them back and change them.

I went back to the tile shop four times.
In the end I refused to take any tiles that did not come out of an unopened box. They were fobbing me off with other peoples rejects.
Got what I wanted in the end.

**dirtydog** · 01-09-2006, 06:48 PM

All the tiles I buy are from unopened boxes, it's bought as seen and each box states to expect variations in size and color.

**dirtydog** · 02-09-2006, 06:48 PM

Onto Grouting in Thailand, your tiles will generally need grouting, the best grout you can use to make the job look good has to be nearly the same color as your tiles, if you use a differant color it will highlight all the size variations, grouting tools in Thailand consist of the back end of an old flip flop chopped off of the main flip flop, by saying flip flops I mean the Thai National footwear, I might regrout my bathroom on Monday so that should make some good pictures.

Nice straight line on the tiles here.

To clean your tiles any bleach over 10 percent acid strength will do, a toothbrush is the best but my galfriend is here so I used the bog brush.

Yesterdays tile today.

As you can see it comes up pretty clean.

**man with no head** · 02-09-2006, 06:53 PM

Isn't it a bad idea to use smooth glossy tile for the floor? Seems like trouble if water get on them in terms of someone falling.

Looks nice but I think I would have rougher tiles in my home (if I end up tiling the floor...haven't decided yet what I'm going to use).

**dirtydog** · 02-09-2006, 06:57 PM

There is no water in this room so it wont get wet, although if it did get wet it would be like an ice skating rink

**man with no head** · 02-09-2006, 07:05 PM

Yeah, there were a few times I nearly broke my neck in my wife's family's house when the floor was somewhat damp after been cleaned following a large meal

**Thetyim** · 02-09-2006, 07:15 PM

Good timing DD

I have got to re-grout the downstairs bog this week.

Keep going, I'm listening.

**man with no head** · 02-09-2006, 07:58 PM

Are there many foreigners in Thailand catering to or supervising home building?

**dirtydog** · 02-09-2006, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by surasak

Are there many foreigners in Thailand catering to or supervising home building?

About 50 in Pattaya at least, no idea about other areas of Thailand though.

**man with no head** · 02-09-2006, 08:08 PM

So, not many? Is it a profession in high demand?

**dirtydog** · 02-09-2006, 08:17 PM

Difficult question that one, yes they are in demand but for what reason I don't know, they still need to use Thai staff and basic Thai materials, also a lot of the trades here have faded out in the UK and other first world countries and at that stage the staff know more than you, I think it generally comes down to trust, ie the farang builders don't live in wooden shacks and most wont do a runner with the first 200,000baht deposit they get on a job.

**Marmite the Dog** · 03-09-2006, 01:37 AM

I hope Farang builders are ok, oherwise I might have to have a rethink...

**dirtydog** · 03-09-2006, 05:15 PM

What to do with crappy grade "C" tiles? Here is a nice couple of pictures.

**DrAndy** · 03-09-2006, 06:51 PM

we often use the workers that are recommended by the tile sellers

we have had three lots, including granite and hand-made, and all have been well laid, almost perfect

**RDN** · 03-09-2006, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

..

OMG! You just gave me a headache. I hope that's the neighbour's floor.

**Spin** · 03-09-2006, 07:28 PM

Hey DD, whilst not quite on topic about tiling.....can you tell us more about a finishing that i am seeing more and more of.

It's like small chunks of broken up stone that is sprinkled onto cement.
The small chips are then troweled flat into the cement.
A kind of non slip rough like finish that is very safe and is normally used for step edges and step risers.
I never saw the material for sale anywhere.

Do you have any more info??

**dirtydog** · 03-09-2006, 07:32 PM

Would this be it OC?

**Spin** · 03-09-2006, 07:41 PM

^ yeah, thats the stuff.

Is it risky to use on large areas like that though?

Expensive m2?

**dirtydog** · 03-09-2006, 07:57 PM

This probably deserves a differant thread as it has it's good points and bad points, we try to get it between 10 and 15mm thick, any less than that and it aint gonna stick to good, this means using a lot of stone and lot's of iron oxide(colorant), reckon on 700baht per square meter.

**Thetyim** · 03-09-2006, 08:25 PM

That plastic grill stuff that covers the top of the drainage gulley in your picture. Where do you buy it and how much per metre is it.

Mine has gone brittle and cracked in a couple of places.

**dirtydog** · 03-09-2006, 08:26 PM

any swimming pool suppliers and about 700baht per meter length.

**Spin** · 03-09-2006, 08:40 PM

^^^ B700 m2, quite expensive then, good solution though over slippery tiles.
Waiting for the new thread..

**dirtydog** · 22-10-2006, 01:58 AM

Sod your new thread I am back on tiling again

Ok so you want your floor tiled with your nice new ceramic tiles, now we live in hope that the boxes are labelled up as grade "A" and only have slight variations in color and size, of course this aint likely to happen and you got cheap on the tiles and got grade "B", so the nightmare begins.

First off we got to make sure the tiles will stick to the concrete, if this place is a shophouse with nice smooth concrete floors that have been finished with a steel trowel they aint gonna stick so good, so we got to chip up that nice smooth surface, this is a real poxy job, aint nobody in the world enjoys this job, no safety googles means bits in your eyes etc etc, the normal price for this is 50baht per square meter, but these days you aint gonna get many people to do that at that price.

Next off you need your level, cos you know for a fact that the floor is not level, for this you need a superduper laser, or, a bit of clear hose pipe with water in, so you go round with the water pipe marking the level 50cms above the floor, find the high point in the floor and then mark it all round 2cms higher than the high point, get the chalk line out and mark off the whole lot around the walls, you have now got a level.

Now tell the gits to chip out more of the cement so you get a better bond for your tiles.

The first tile should be layed in the middle of the room, sometimes for cosmetic purposes it is better to start from a wall, depends on the room etc, now don't forget your walls in no way bare any resembalance to anything straight, thats something you will have to live with.

So you need a nice lean mix of cement and sand to get the tiles to stick and off you go, obviously with a line going over 6 meters it will sag in the middle, so your back to the puddle in the middle of the room again

Wall tiling might be tomorrow.

**dirtydog** · 22-10-2006, 02:19 AM

Actually the last few years we have been doing a lot of places with the reconstituted granite tiles, I really can't understand the attraction of these as you can buy the real thing for the same price, now this is really hard stuff to cut, I done a quote a few days ago for a big bathroom all over the place for 400baht per square meter, we supply cement and sand, I think he thinks it is too expensive, BUT, he wants everything to line up, he hasn't got a 90 degree wall, I know 3 Thais that can do this but it can never be 100 percent as the floors need a slope for water drainage, now thats 3 Thais out of 1,000's that I have employed, he has already had the walls tiled and it isn't too bad, in the UK you would get paid for the job, but he want's it better, he complained so much they just gave him his money back, now he wants all the expensive wall tiles smashed out and redone again, it really aint gonna be that much better, there are at least 14 90 degree angles in that bathroom that are not 90 degrees, sometimes I wonder about these kind of people....

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