WHAT IS A TILE?
A tile is a ceramic product made from the mixture of various ceramic materials and passed through a hardening and solidification process for the purpose of strength and durability. For that reason, tile is usually brittle naturally except special ones made with special materials like the plastic and rubber tiles sold in the market which are products of polymers and latex.
Different categories of tiles such as wall and floor tiles have their various method of making, thickness, sizes, surface appearance, and coloring, etc. to suit the intended purpose.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TILES
Tiles serve no other purpose than to help create smoothness, rigidity, durability, strength, and beauty to the floor or walls of any building.
Tiles have become a norm in modern building designs such that its application in any new building is unavoidable otherwise, the building may not show the real feature of a new one and some beauty of the building may be hidden.
When it comes to using tiles for floors:
- It helps to improve the floor’s surface appearance,
- Reduce the contamination of dust particles,
- Improves the floor coldness,
- Reduce access to rodents like rats that may find it difficult to run on the tiled floor,
- Tiles help the ground of the floor for durability by reducing liquid like water and chemicals from entering into the concrete parts of the floor,
- Tiles help the building floor to look good for habitation, among other importance.
When it comes to using tiles for walls:
- Wall tiles create special beauty to any building where they are applied.
- Using wall tiles on the outside and inside of the building will prevent or reduce the penetration of water into the building for places prone to seasonal flooding.
- Wall tiles are ideal for toilets and bathrooms due to the regular splashing of water in the floor and walls during their use. Hence, wall tiles will ensure the water do not penetrate into the main wall raised with ordinary blocks.
- Wall tiles can be used on the entire outside walls of a building to avoid painting of the walls forever, hence, the building may have its walls washed with pressurized water seasonally to reveal the beauty of the building.
PROBLEM WITH TILING STAGE IN THE BUILDING PROJECT
Among all the various stages of the building project, the most confusing and hard to estimate stage is the tile and its tiling cost. The reason for that is based on the numerous types of tiles with varying sizes and shapes in the market.
The type of tile will determine the method of tiling, and the number of materials to be used. Wrongly estimated tile costs and the labor cost of tiling had been a major area of confusion between the civil engineers/builders and the clients. It is entirely the job of the client to specify the exact type of tile to be used and the places that will need the tiles within the building before any cost and estimation will be done for that stage of the project after the market survey in regard to the specified tile.
HOW TO ESTIMATE THE COST OF TILES AND ITS TILING
Estimating the cost of floor tiles and the cost of tiling it will be based on specific type of tile mentioned by the client otherwise going into the market to get all the figures and estimates for all the types of tiles is like going into the market to get prices of all the cars in the whole country.
To estimate the cost of tiling and the number of tiles needed, obtain the volume of the overall areas in the building for floor tiles, and for the wall tiles.
Obtain the size and type of tile specified by the client and use a measuring instrument to obtain a volume for one tile of the specified type. Then use the volume of a tile to divide the total volume of the areas that the tile will be applied, the figure gives you the total number of that tile for the areas you calculated.
The same method is applicable to all the different sizes and categories of tiles.
MAJOR SIZES OF FLOOR TILES AND WALL TILES IN NIGERIA
The most commonly used size comes in a square form measuring about 1ft X 1ft used majorly for floors and outside walls.
Another popular size is the rectangular form tiles, they measure about 1ft width X 2ft length, found in different colors and designs and used for both floors and walls.
The smallest size so far which is now becoming an old tile in the market usually comes in white color and is used for the tiling of bathroom and toilet walls, measuring about ½ft X ½ft square in shape.
The higher grade of tiles usually used for expensive building floors comes in about 2ft X 2ft square.
THE CURRENT PRICE OF TILES IN NIGERIA
According to their market description of size and types, here are the prices of the tiles in the Nigeria market:
THE POLISHED PORCELAIN TILE PRICE
30 X 30 pack is between N2,500 to N2,750
40 x 40 pack is between N2,700 to N3000
THE UNPOLISHED PORCELAIN TILE PRICE
30 x 60 pack is between N3, 500 to N4500
40 X 40 pack is between N2, 500 to N2, 750
THE VITRIFIED TILES PRICE
30 X 60 pack is between N1500 to N1700
40 x 40 pack is between N1300 to N1600
30 x 30 pack is between N1000 to N1500
THE GRANITE TILES PRICE
30 X 60 pack is between N5,500 to N6,000
30 x 30 pack is between N5,300 to N5,500
40 x 40 pack is between N6,500 to N6,750
60 x 60 pack is between N7,900 to N8000
