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

Hi,

there are significant price differences between buying tiles from a specialized tile supplier or from a hardware store.

We would tend to go with the hardware store since the construction specification lists 20€/m2 (20 €/sq ft).

What are the differences between them?

Best regards & thanks

Hardware stores are expensive and have poor customer service. Don’t you have a specialist store near you, something like Harry's Tile Market here in the north? Advantages include a large, very large selection, quantity calculation based on construction plans, free delivery to the building site for large orders, good prices, and knowledgeable sales staff. A wall tile is affordable at $19.90, but a floor tile could be tight on the budget. You can also order edge profiles there right away. Karsten

Especially with floor tiles for bathrooms, keep in mind how little you actually need. Since it’s only a few square meters (square feet), the cost hardly plays a role, and you can afford to treat yourself a bit here.

@Nordlys Sometimes I don’t understand you—you cut costs everywhere, but when it comes to tiles, you start talking about service!

What kind of service do you expect for a piece of fired stone? Delivery service? No problem, they can easily handle that.

As a price example, Heidelberg cement costs 2.4 euros per bag, but it’s not available for less than 4 euros at the specialty store.

There are things where it doesn’t matter where you buy them, as long as the price is right.

And that brings us back to the tiles—buy what you can afford. If you buy too many, you can return them without issues, which isn’t always possible in specialist stores. They often say things like, sorry, no stock items.

The question now is whether you can remove the tiles from the scope of work and also receive a credit of 20 € / m² (2 USD / ft²)...

At that time, we also bought from the home improvement store because we had a lot of tiling to do. The price at the home improvement store was about half of what you pay at a specialist retailer. Delivery to the curb was not a problem either. However, transport into the house was not included. The tiler didn’t do that either, since the tiles were not supplied by him.