January 2010 - Tiles

We have ordered the tiles for the downstairs of the house. Everywhere will be tiled except for the lounge and the dining room, and we have ordered enough to also do the breakfast room when we get round to adding that room. The breakfast room is the bit at the back that steps in and initially we asked the planning office if we could just add it to the plans but they said that it would require a whole new planning application, not just an amendment. As we didn't want to wait another age to get new plans passed we decided to just build the original house and add the room on later. We have the same issue with the garage as it was not on the original planning application (we bought the plot with full planning permission). Ironically as soon as the house is signed off by the council we can just add these things without permission as they are under the size for which planning permission is required. We've had the foundations laid anyway and they are doubling up as a patio and a dog run for the time being!

Back to the tiles. Our requirements were for a neutral tile that wasn't too dark, wasn't too slippery (because of the dogs), and wouldn't show the dirt horrendously. Oh, and was in budget as there were lots that our budget wouldn't stretch to for such a big area. We liked the look of natural Travertine tiles but were put off by the sealing that was required and we weren't too sure about how these would cope with the inevitable constant washing down that is the norm when you have lots of dogs. So we have gone for a Travertine lookalike from Topps Tiles. When we put one of these tiles next to the display of Travertine it was difficult to tell them apart actually. So we now have 2 pallet loads of tiles on site ready to lay and another 2 pallets in their warehouse awaiting collection. As well as the downstairs floors these tiles will also be used for the walls in the downstairs wet room but we may add a border or some mosaic tiles to the walls too to break it up a bit. Haven't decided on that bit just yet.

Here are some photos from the website:

We're not having the tiles with the silver inlay as we were warned that the tiles with the inlay cut into it could be substantially different in shade to the plain ones on order and we didn't want to take the risk of such a large shade variation. I dare say we'll easily find a border tile or mosaics that blend in with the plain ones quite well.