Our Quality Commitment

Here at Tiles360, we want to make sure you love your tiles as much as we do, we are committed to providing tiles of the highest quality. We wanted to share our process with you of how we ensure our tiles have undergone rigorous inspection and quality checks.

 

Curating Our Range

Our vastly experienced buying team not only selects the latest trends but also ensures we offer you timeless classics and styles that have longevity. They travel throughout Europe meeting with reputable manufacturers to discuss and choose an extensive range of tiles. Once the tiles have been selected, we then use an industry-recognised freight company to ensure the import logistics run smoothly and quickly.

 

Ensuring Quality

Once the tiles arrive with us from the manufacturer all tile types are inspected. We do this because we want the tile to be as visually stunning as the images you see on our website. To do this we take a tile, hold it on its point checking all of its sides are straight and that there is no bowing. Putting multiple tiles together checking for spacing and ridging issues ensuring they all sit together correctly and are properly shaped. We then inspect the face of the tile for imperfections, loose glaze, gaps where the glaze hasn’t taken correctly or digital print lines through the tile. Checking batch numbers and calibres is also very important as different tile calibres may not sit together accurately, especially in patterned tiles as the patterns would not match up right. The size tolerance in tiles varies in length, width and thickness. For example, a 200mm x 200mm tile may vary up to 1mm. The tolerance is important as excessive variations can result in uneven joints and misaligning.

 

 

 Testing Slip Rating

The pendulum test (PTV) is the British standard method of measuring slip resistance and the Health and Safety Executives preferred method of accurately testing the slip potential on clean and dry tiles.

To do this we take a tile, clean it with methylated spirit and ensure it is at room temperature. Checking the reading is set to zero on the machine to ensure the reading will be accurate, we then change the shoe on the arm for the relevant test we are carrying out this could be a barefoot test or shoe test.

The rubber pad on the testing instrument is softer for barefoot and harder for footwear which replicates the sole of a shoe. The arm is then released imitating the swing of a foot and the measurement is taken.

This is then repeated ten times wiping the tile clean after each swing working out the mean of the readings. As the texture of a tile can give a different reading the tile will then be turned diagonally, then vertically and the same test repeated. When this has been done with a dry tile the test is repeated with water applied to the tile.  

 

 

Here are the classifications based on the PTV values

 

0-24 High Risk

24-35 Moderate Risk

36+ Low Risk