Luigi’s Answer:
Yes! Although it is uncommon for modern ceramic and porcelain tiles to be out of square, the International grading standard for pressed tiles allows up to 0.6% deviation from rectangularity. If you believe that your order does not meet these criteria, please speak to your local Tile Depot branch before you commence installation.
Discussion:
Ceramic tiles are manufactured firing raw materials such as clay at high temperature in a kiln. The process is very similar to baking cupcakes; once the cakes are cooled, they may vary in size and shape even though the same recipe was used to bake them.
The same process is followed for tiles, just on a much larger scale. The exact size of each tile can only be determined once the tiles are out of the kiln and have cooled down. At this point the tiles are sorted to remove defective pieces and to arrange the tiles into batches of similar size. This sorting is done to a number of different criteria with individual tolerances. 0.6% is the tolerance for squareness.
Luigi Suggests:
- Once you have received your tiles, they need to be checked for defects. Any tiles that have slight problems should be put aside to be used for cuts.
- Setting the tiles with a wider grout space will make any variations in sizing less obvious to the eye.
- When you purchase your tiles, make sure that you have estimated enough tiles to cover the
- intended area. You also need to allow for wastage in your calculations; for tiles up to 450mm an additional 10% is generally adequate whereas you may need up to 20% extra for larger format tiles. If you are unsure please ask the friendly staff at your local Tile Depot.
What to do if:
- You have more defective tiles than the 5% allowed by International standards?
- If you believe that your order breaches the International standards, please contact your local Tile Depot branch as soon as possible before your tiles are installed.
- You are in the above situation, but your tiles are already installed?
- Unfortunately we cannot accept claims for defective tiles once the tiles are installed. Tiles should be checked by the installer before the tiles installed to avoid defective tiles being laid.