Buying Tiles Online: What to Check Before and After You Pay

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Buying tiles online can knock a fair bit off the cost of a bathroom or kitchen job. That saving disappears fast if the tiles turn up a different colour from the photo, or you run short and the top-up order doesn’t match.

Most of that is avoidable.

Article Contents

1. Order Samples Before You Order Square Metres

A photo on a screen tells you very little. Colour and sheen shift from one monitor to the next, and a grey that looks warm on a laptop can read cool and flat in a south-facing room. Get a physical sample. Look at it in daylight, then again at night under the lights you’ll actually be using.

Some stores make this easy. Australian retailer Cheap Tiles Onlines lets shoppers order up to five samples at a time before buying the full quantity, though it only posts within Australia. In New Zealand, ask your local supplier whether it runs something similar. Plenty do, and a few will take the sample cost off the final order if you ask.

When the samples arrive, put them where the tiles will go. A floor tile next to the vanity. A wall tile propped against the paint colour you’ve picked.

For a shower floor, tip a glass of water over the sample. Some glossy finishes darken when wet, and you’ll feel straight away whether it’s slippery underfoot.

2. Compare the Price Per Square Metre

Some stores price by the box and others by the square metre, so comparing them takes a minute with a calculator. Convert everything to a per-m² figure. A 600 x 600mm tile covers 0.36m², and boxes of that size commonly hold three or four, so check the label. Three to a box gives 1.08m². Four gives 1.44m². Divide the box price by whichever applies and you have a figure you can hold up against any other store.

Then add what the headline price leaves out. Freight matters most. A pallet of porcelain can weigh several hundred kilos, and getting one to a rural address can add a lot to a small order, so ask for a quote to your address before you pay. Check whether the price includes GST. Adhesive and grout are extra.

A cheaper tile isn’t always the same product. Compare thickness. For floors, check the slip rating: suppliers usually quote a P rating, and a higher number means more grip. Your tiler can tell you what a wet bathroom floor or an outdoor area needs.

3. Match Batch and Shade Numbers

Tiles are made in production runs, and one run can come out a touch lighter or darker than the next. Each box carries a batch or shade code, often with a calibre code for size.

Order everything at once and ask the store to confirm it will all come from a single batch. Keep one box label after the job. If you need more later, that code is the first thing the supplier will ask for, and by then the batch may be gone.

Two batches turned up anyway? Don’t mix them at random. Give each batch its own room, or split them at a doorway, so the difference never sits tile against tile.

4. Allow 10 Percent for Wastage

Cuts and the odd breakage eat into every order. Ten per cent extra covers a standard straight-lay floor.

Say the bathroom floor is 7.5m². Add 10 per cent and you need 8.25m². At 1.44m² a box, that’s 5.7 boxes, so you buy six.

Herringbone and diagonal layouts throw up more cuts at the edges, so allow about 15 per cent. Big tiles in a small room waste more than you’d think. Each offcut is a large piece, and it often won’t fit anywhere else.

Check the returns policy before you round up. Some stores take back unopened boxes, usually minus a restocking fee. Others won’t take tiles back at all.

Whatever is left over, keep a few. A tile that cracks in five years is a simple repair if you have a matching spare in the garage.

5. Inspect the Freight on Arrival

The driver will want a signature and is usually in a hurry. Count the boxes against the invoice first. Then lift a couple: if one rattles, something inside is broken.

Write any problem on the delivery docket and photograph the pallet while it’s still wrapped. “Two boxes damaged” written on the paperwork carries more weight in a claim than an email sent a week later.

Open a box or two from different parts of the pallet that day. Look for chips, and check the shade codes match. Retailers set a window for reporting transit damage, and some are short, so find out what yours is.

In New Zealand, the Consumer Guarantees Act covers tiles bought from a New Zealand business, online or in store. Chasing an overseas seller is slower and harder.

Before any adhesive is mixed, get your tiler to lay out tiles from several boxes on the floor. Swapping a mismatched tile at that stage takes seconds.