Tiling Sizes

Across Glasgow, when you are selecting tiles for your new kitchen or bathroom, one of the big decisions that many people DON’T think about is the actual size of the tiles.

There are quite a few keys to a successful tiling project ranging from the final detailing and quality of workmanship to the quality of the tiles themselves, but so often, the actual sizing of the tiles is overlooked. So to help you with your decision making process with selecting new tiles, we have put together a guide on the sizing of tiles that can be used across your home.
This is of course just a guide to tile sizing as with every project, we always advise that you our customer goes with what they feel is best because after all, it is your home.

The first bit of advise is this – pick a tile size based on the size of the room. So a small room can work really well with small tiles; a large room with large tiles and a medium room with medium tiles. If you use small tiles in a large room, they may get completely lost in the space. Similarly, large tiles in a small room can sometimes look slightly strange and you can have symmetry issues with grout lines to contend with. There are exceptions to the rule but then this page is supposed to act as a guide rather than facts.

The grout lines between each tile will make an impact on the final tiled result. The more grout lines you have, the busier a tiled wall or floor can look. So if you have a very small space like a downstairs toilet that you want to be tiled, small tiles with many grout lines may then make the space look even smaller. In that circumstance, going for a medium tile may be the best option. This would reduce the number of grout lines you have, hide any symmetry imbalance (ie. a grout line running centrally with the toilet) and can even help bounce more light around the room. You can of course get grout that is closely colour matched to the tiling to help blend it all together and reduce that problem but it is not a perfect remedy.

In commonly tiled rooms such as a bathroom, you can have different sized tiles that help balance out the different areas of the room, both from a visual aspect and also from a practical side. So for example, smaller tiles are better for shower floors because the increased grout lines actually help to increase the amount of grip you have under foot. And in a shower – grip is good. You can then compromise in a bathroom by using small tiles in the shower area and larger tiles in the rest of the room. And with the larger tiles, you can then ‘angle’ them to create a visual trick and make the space seem larger. There are some cracking examples of Victorian style bathrooms that use mosaic patterned small tiles to hide the corners of a room and then larger ‘grand’ tiles on the wall.

A final piece of advice regarding tile sizing involves the final detailing of a tiling project. If for example, you are tiling a small space then there will most likely be tight detailed corners to contend with. So the larger the tile, the more you have to cut and shape the edge tiles to fit in the tight corners of the room and around appliances/units. As one of Glasgow’s few truly specialised tilers, we can perform miracles on tiles but there is always a limit to what can be done. The smaller the tile, the more detailing you can have around things like radiator pipes and tight corners. And it is those little details that people can pick up on and can help make or break a tiling project.

We hope this has been of help. But if you would like to know more then you can simply call us to chat about your tiling project and how we can help you.