Clearance concrete look tiles
The flat, mineral, slightly mottled look of polished concrete, in porcelain. Popular for open living areas and increasingly for bathrooms, where it gives a seamless look without a poured floor.
Buying concrete look tiles: what actually matters
Large format concrete look needs a very flat floor
Concrete look tiles are usually bought in large formats, 600x600 and up, because the whole point is minimal joints. Large tiles are unforgiving: any dip or hump in the substrate that a small tile would ride over becomes a lipped edge. Expect the floor to need levelling, and expect that to be a real line in the quote. Ask your tiler to check the substrate before you order, not after, because on clearance stock you cannot add two boxes later if the levelling changes the lay.
Matt and honed finishes show footprints and mopping marks
The finish that looks best in a photograph, a soft honed matt, is also the one that shows every bare footprint and every streak from a mop that was too wet. It is not a fault and it does not stain, it just needs a different cleaning habit: a barely damp mop and a pH-neutral cleaner. Worth knowing before you put it in a busy kitchen.
How much to over-order, and why 10% is usually the wrong number
Ten per cent is the figure everyone repeats and it is only right for a simple rectangular room laid square with a large format tile. Straight lay in a plain room runs closer to 7 to 10%. A diagonal or herringbone lay wastes far more on the perimeter cuts, so 15 to 20% is realistic. Small formats and mosaics waste more again as a proportion. Rooms with lots of edges, a hob, a niche, a stepped floor, push it up. Because this stock does not come back, round up to the next whole box and then add one more: a spare box costs less than the tile and stops a single cracked tile in year three becoming a whole new floor.
Why this stock is such good value
Clearance tiles are not seconds. Everything here is first grade. It is cheap because it is finite: a line an importer is clearing, a colourway a manufacturer has stopped making, or the tail of a container that nobody wants to keep warehousing. The catch is not quality, it is that you cannot get more. On a normal tile you can go back in six weeks for another two boxes. Here you cannot, so the quantity you order is the quantity you will ever have.