Metro tile fitting in Barking Riverside. Splashbacks, bathrooms and feature walls set out so the bond runs true across the whole wall.
Barking Riverside is new-build, and new-build brings a particular set of tiling questions. The walls are plasterboard, they are flat, and the finish standard people expect from a new home is high - which means a metro bond that wanders is very obvious indeed.
Metro tiles look simple and are not. A running brick bond shows every millimetre out across a long wall, a stack bond shows it twice as badly, and herringbone needs the centre line set before the first tile so the pattern arrives at both ends correctly. The setting out is most of the skill.
On plasterboard the surface needs priming and, behind a shower, replacing with a board that can take water. A new-build wall is not automatically a waterproof one, and the guarantee on the house does not cover what happens behind tiles that were fitted afterwards.
The other new-build detail is the sockets and switches, which tend to be positioned to a plan rather than to a tile. Cuts are planned around them so the faceplates sit flat and symmetrical rather than half-covering a joint. Tiles that sound hollow when tapped, grout cracking in the same line twice, or a floor that gives underfoot are worth looking at before anything new goes over them.
Send a photo or a quick video of the room on WhatsApp, or get a free fixed quote, no obligation, and we’ll tell you straight what it needs.
Brick, stack or herringbone - the centre line and the first tile decide how the whole wall reads.
Primed, and swapped for a water-resistant board where it will get wet.
Metro tiles are as much about the joint as the tile. Dark grout makes a feature, light grout disappears.
Symmetrical cuts so faceplates sit flat, which is where new-build tiling usually gives itself away.
A finished edge where the tiling stops, agreed before we start.
Floors protected and the flat left clean - it matters more in a new home.
Brick bond is classic and forgiving, stack is modern and less forgiving, herringbone is the most work and the biggest effect. We will show you how each sits on your wall.
Tiling is a finish, not structure. Where we replace board behind a shower we do it properly and tell you what has been done.
Grey is the safe choice behind a hob and in a shower. White looks sharp on day one and shows everything afterwards.
Most are a day to tile and grouted the following morning. Herringbone takes longer.
Yes, and in a new-build it often looks better than stopping at a trim halfway up.
Barking Riverside, Creekmouth, Thames View, Barking and nearby.