ᐅ Differences Between Tiles from a Home Improvement Store and a Tile Specialist Center

Alex85 schrieb:
...and the structure is either nonexistent or very much "typical of tiles."

You mean the surface, right?
I agree, that’s an important factor: especially with wood-look tiles... either the surface is just striped, or with better quality you get irregular grooves that can be deeper or run across the tile. We have wood-look tiles in the bathroom with genuine grooves in them.

DIY store tiles are often very smooth (from what I remember).
With sandstone or slate-look tiles, the price usually reflects the quality.

What do you mean by smooth and ribbed? The surface of a wooden board is also smooth; any grooves just collect dirt.
Now I’ve actually looked at the tile pattern for the first time, and the tiler did place two identical tiles next to each other. This means the tiler also needs to pay a bit of attention when installing. Otherwise, the tiles now have so much printed detail on them that the patterns become secondary.

I am focusing only on quality, not appearance. Our first house, a townhouse, was built in the 1990s by a developer from Lübeck and was handed over to us with no tiles and only painted. That was the standard practice at the time. We then had the tiles installed by a janitorial service, as professional tilers were not available or affordable. Money was tight, so we used materials bought from a discount home improvement store, with a 20% discount on everything except pet food. We chose porcelain stoneware tiles from a spot sale in southern India, priced at 5 marks per square meter (approximately 0.46 square feet). The wall tiles were 4.95 marks per square meter (approximately 0.46 square feet). We never had to replace these tiles until we sold the house in 2016. No chips, no cracks, good slip resistance, all like new when cleaned. Of course, the look was simple, and by today’s standards the tile size was quite small. But the quality was fully sufficient for a private living area. So, even at a discount store, there was no real junk. Karsten

So, I just received an offer from the dealer and have to say: it’s a bit more expensive, but not by much.
You have to consider that I am getting consultation (2 sessions of 2 hours+ each; the first idea was discarded, the second one was followed up).
All tiles are from major manufacturers: the advantage here is that, if you're lucky, you can even get more from the same production batch later on.

Previously, we bought tiles at another specialist store. There were real discounts there. Again, none were no-name tiles. For the basement, tiles in the size 30 x 30 cm (12 x 12 inches) cost between 3.50 and 5 euros per square meter (0.33 to 0.46 sq ft). For the “playroom” in the basement, there were wood-look tiles from Flaviker at 11.90 euros per square meter (1.11 sq ft). Our current tiler was quite surprised at the price.

So, it’s worth shopping around a bit and taking advantage of good advice. Often, the salespeople are former tilers themselves and know what they’re talking about.

Egon12 schrieb:
what do you mean by smooth and grooved? The surface of a wooden plank is also smooth

A brushed and oiled plank is not smooth.

Egon12 schrieb:
What do you mean by smooth and grooved? The surface of a wooden floorboard is also smooth; any grooves just collect dirt.
...

No! That might be true for DIY store products and cheaper floorboards. The more expensive ones have a textured finish that imitates natural patterns.
If you call that a dirt collector, you probably don’t understand the concept of tactile feel.

Here is a tile that isn’t from a DIY store but is rather in the mid-price range for wood-look surfaces:

I can only recommend checking out an inexpensive tile at a hardware store and a more expensive one at a specialty retailer.

We also wanted wood-look tiles for the living room and initially had our eye on a tile from Harrys for 25€/m² (about $23/sq ft). Then we looked at tiles from Marazzi, which were around 55€/m² (about $51/sq ft) but clearly in a different league.

As Yvonne mentioned, the varying wood grain patterns, the visual quality compared to real wood, and especially the feel (printed texture versus a reproduction including "waves") were ultimately decisive for us. We chose the higher-end option and have absolutely no regrets to this day—in fact, quite the opposite.