Tile Information

Professional tile cutting is available at just £1 per cut, including careful hand finishing of the edges to deliver a clean, sharp, installation-ready result. For further details, please email sales@c20fireplaces.co.uk

Tile Crazing on Glazed tiles:

This is slight cracking in the glaze is normal, and is usually caused by the small expansion of the tile body when wet. This is usually most apparent when the tiles are first laid, or after “slabbing”. However it usually occurs to some degree with time. The commonest cause is expansion of the tile body due to moisture ingress, which produces these tensile cracks in the glaze. It does not affect the serviceability of the tile – the cracks are in the glaze only and not the body of the tile, and may lessen when the tile fully dries out . The thickness of the glaze necessary to reproduce the high gloss glazes also leads to increased likelihood of crazing, so crazing is very likely to occur in most of our glaze colours. The Ivory, Bassalt black, Stockwell grey, 942 and burgundy glaze colours are less likely to show crazing effects, due to the different nature of the glaze formulation.

tile colours available on all tiles

tile colours on limited tiles

SELECTION:

We recommend that all boxes of tiles are opened and the shades matched and mixed as required in daylight and artificial lighting before use. Victorian tiles are reproduced using similar materials and methods to the original item, and the degree of shade variation is inherent and desirable. It is the responsibility of the purchaser to ensure that the material supplied is suitable before fixing. No claims of any nature will be accepted after tiles are fixed or incorporated into a building.

STANDARDS:

Tiles are manufactured to BS 6431 and are not guaranteed against crazing. Whilst most tiles do not normally craze the thickness of glaze necessary to reproduce the very shiny Victorian colours may often cause this to occur. It does not affect serviceability and actually achieves a truer degree of reproduction effect.
In certain conditions high gloss Victorian glazes are prone to discolouration and marking due to chemical attack from certain liquids including hard water and atmosphere. Because of the soft nature of the glazes, Victorian colours are easily scratched and should not be used in areas subject to abrasion.

GROUTING:

Some coloured grouts can stain the backing of the tiles and lead to discolouration under the glaze. If using a coloured grout we advise testing it first on a spare tile. If staining does occur the tiles will need to be sealed first. Fixing When fixing the tiles any known brand of flexible tile adhesive can be used. It is as well to seal the back of the tiles first with a diluted PVA glue or primer which aids adhesion and helps to prevent crazing. The fireplace tiles we sell are all very porous. The wetting of the backs of the tiles just before laying them prevents a dry layer forming between the tile and adhesive , which may stop them sticking so well.

FIXING:

The tiles can be fixed using sand and cement or any well known brand of flexible adhesive such as Bal Flex. If using a water based mix then it is best to seal the back of the tiles with a diluted PVA coating.

Stockwell Grey	Inca Gold	Ivory	Midnight Blue	Cornflower Blue	Victorian Blue
Teapot Brown	Victorian Brown	Olive Green	Victorian Green	Burgundy	Basalt Black