How tile styles change the work of laying them

Metro and subway tiles

Metro tiles are small rectangles, often bevelled, named after the Paris Métro stations they lined; subway tile is the same thing under another name. Laid in a brick bond they are quick for a tiler, because the cuts repeat and small errors hide. A stack bond or vertical lay looks more modern but shows any wall that is out of true. Grout sets the mood: white metro tiles with grey grout read as a pattern, white on white as a plain wall. Bevelled edges need care at outside corners, where a trim usually finishes them.

Zellige

Zellige are handmade Moroccan glazed clay tiles, small and irregular, with glaze that pools and shifts in colour from tile to tile. That variation is the point, and also what makes them slow. They differ in thickness and size, so they are set close together with narrow, uneven joints, and each one is bedded to keep the face as even as the tiles allow. Edges chip easily and cuts are fiddly. Expect a zellige splashback or shower to take noticeably longer than the same area in machine-made tile. Zellige-look ceramic and porcelain give a similar effect and lay like any other tile.

Terrazzo

Terrazzo is chips of marble, glass or stone set in a cement or resin base and polished flat. Real terrazzo tiles are heavy and porous, so they are sealed, need a strong, flat base and are cut on a wet saw; laying them is closer to natural stone tiling than to ceramic. Terrazzo-effect porcelain gives the speckled look with porcelain's behaviour, so it is quicker to lay and easier to live with in a kitchen or bathroom.

Hexagon

Hexagons interlock with no straight joint, so every edge where they meet a wall, a bath or a doorway is a run of angled cuts. Mesh-backed hexagon mosaic sheets make that manageable; with large single hexagons each edge tile is cut by hand. Where a hexagon floor meets a straight-edged floor, a trim or a neat cut line is needed, and a random mix of two colours is laid out dry before fixing.

Herringbone

Herringbone sets rectangular tiles at right angles in an interlocking zigzag. It is one of the slower layouts, because the centre line is set out first and every row ends in an angled cut. It suits hallways and kitchens, where the zigzag can run the length of the room. The herringbone and mosaic tiling page covers how a tiler sets it out and what it costs.

Encaustic and encaustic-style tiles

True encaustic tiles have the pattern inlaid in coloured clay. Most patterned tiles sold under that name today are either cement tiles, which are porous and are sealed before grouting so the grout does not stain them, or printed porcelain, which lays like any porcelain. Patterned tiles also need setting out so the design is centred and borders line up. Original Victorian floors are restoration work, covered under Victorian tile restoration.

Common questions