Choosing bathroom tiles
Walk into any tile showroom around Plymouth and the choice is genuinely overwhelming — hundreds of colours, a dozen materials, sizes from tiny mosaics to slabs the size of a door. But underneath all that, there are really only a handful of tile materials, and each one has a job it does well and a job it does badly. Get the material right for each surface and everything else — colour, size, pattern — is just taste. This guide walks through every tile type we fit in Plymouth bathrooms, what each is genuinely best for, and how to pick a combination that works as a room rather than a pile of samples.
Why the material matters more than the colour
Most people start with colour, and that’s understandable — it’s the bit you fall for in the showroom. But the material is what decides whether a tile belongs on your floor, your shower wall, or nowhere near a bathroom at all. A tile’s material governs three things that colour never touches: how much water it soaks up, how tough it is underfoot, and how slippery it gets when wet. A gorgeous polished tile that looks perfect on a sample board can be a genuine hazard on a shower floor, while a plain porcelain can quietly outlast the rest of the room by a decade.
That’s why, when we talk tiles through with customers across Plympton, Plymstock and Peverell, we start with the surface and work back to the material. Floors need one set of properties; walls a completely different set; wet areas another again. Once the material is settled for each surface, you’re free to choose whatever colour, finish and pattern you love, safe in the knowledge it will actually perform. The tiling is the biggest single surface in the room and the one you can’t easily change later, so this is the decision worth slowing down for. It also feeds straight into the wider bathroom tiling and design choices that pull a scheme together.
The main tile materials, and what each is for
Here are the materials you’ll actually be choosing between, in plain terms — what they’re made of, where they shine, and where we’d steer you away.
Porcelain — the bathroom all-rounder
Porcelain is fired hotter and denser than ordinary ceramic, so it absorbs very little water and shrugs off wear. That combination makes it the safest all-round choice for a bathroom: tough enough for floors, water-resistant enough for showers, and available in slip-rated textured finishes as well as smooth. It’s our default recommendation for floors and wet areas. The only trade-offs are that it costs a little more than ceramic and, being so hard, it’s slower and more skilled to cut cleanly.
Ceramic — great value on walls
Standard glazed ceramic is softer, cheaper and easier to cut, and it comes in the widest range of colours and patterns of anything in the showroom. It’s excellent value on walls and in low-wear areas. What it isn’t is tough or grippy enough for most bathroom floors, so we keep it for walls, splashbacks and feature panels rather than underfoot.
Natural stone — beautiful, but needs care
Marble, travertine, limestone and slate are genuinely one-of-a-kind — no two tiles the same. The catch is that stone is porous, so it must be sealed on installation and re-sealed over its life, and it’s softer and more stain-prone than porcelain. Stunning if you’ll look after it; we’ll always be straight with you about the upkeep before you commit.
Glass & metallic — accents, not acreage
Glass tiles and metallic finishes catch the light beautifully but are best used as an accent — a mosaic strip, a niche lining, a feature band — rather than a whole wall. They show every fingerprint and cost more per square metre, so a little goes a long way.
Mosaic — the specialist
Mosaics are small tiles pre-mounted on mesh sheets. They bend around curves and the falls of a shower floor, and the extra grout lines add welcome grip underfoot — which is exactly why they suit shower trays and wet-room floors so well. They’re also brilliant for feature strips and detailing. The trade-off is simply more grout to keep clean.
For the full, side-by-side comparison of the three big materials, see our detailed guide to porcelain, ceramic and natural stone tiles.
Format matters as much as material
Once you’ve settled the material, the format — the size and shape of the tile — does most of the work in deciding how the finished room feels. The same porcelain in a different format gives you a completely different bathroom.
Large-format
Big tiles (600x600mm and well beyond) mean fewer grout lines, a calm, seamless look and an easier surface to wipe clean. They need a very flat, well-prepared substrate to lie without lippage — so they reward good fitting. More on these in our large-format tile guide.
Metro & brick-bond
Classic rectangular tiles laid in a brick or herringbone pattern. Timeless, characterful and forgiving on a budget — a favourite for period Plymouth homes and shower walls. A contrasting grout shows off the geometry beautifully.
Standard square
The workhorse — typically 300×300 to 450x450mm. Easy to set out, quick to lay and kind on the budget, with a huge range of looks. A safe, tidy choice for walls and family bathroom floors alike.
Plank & wood-effect
Long, thin tiles that mimic timber boards — the warmth of wood with the waterproofing of porcelain. A popular way to get a natural feel on a bathroom floor without the maintenance of real wood.
Hexagon & patterned
Hexagons, encaustic-look patterns and geometric shapes bring personality to a feature floor or wall. They take more careful setting-out so the repeat lands neatly, but the payoff is a room with real character.
Mosaic sheets
As above — the format to reach for on shower floors, curved surfaces and detail work, where grip and flexibility beat a big flat tile.
How to choose a combination that works
The mistake we see most often is choosing tiles one at a time — a floor tile you like, then a wall tile you like — without ever seeing them together. A bathroom reads as one room, so the tiles need to relate. Here’s the approach we take with customers to keep it simple and avoid regret.
A sensible starting formula
- Floor first. Pick a durable, slip-rated porcelain for the floor — this anchors the room and is the surface you can least afford to get wrong. Neutral floors age best.
- Then the wet-area walls. Choose a wall tile for the shower and around the bath that sits happily with the floor — often a lighter, larger, calmer tile to keep the room feeling open.
- Then one feature, if you want it. A single feature — a patterned niche, a metro shower wall, a mosaic strip — gives the room character without turning it busy. One hero, not three.
- Match grip to use. Glossy tiles are fine on walls but never on a floor; save the shine for the vertical surfaces. See our guide to floor tiles and slip ratings.
Practical tips from fitting hundreds of them
- Buy samples and live with them. Take tiles home, look at them against your light morning and evening. Showroom lighting flatters everything.
- Order enough, plus a bit. Always allow around 10% extra for cuts, breakages and future repairs — dye lots change, so a matching tile in two years is not guaranteed.
- Think about cleaning. Big tiles and matching grout mean less to scrub; tiny mosaics and brilliant-white grout mean more. Choose the life you want, not just the look.
- Let the fitter see the room. A quick survey catches the things a showroom can’t — an out-of-square wall, a floor that needs levelling, a doorway the build-up would foul.
If you’d rather have a professional pull the whole scheme together — tiles, layout, grout colour and all — that’s exactly what our bathroom tiling and design service is for.
Budget: what different materials cost you
Material choice is one of the biggest levers on the final bill. As a broad guide for a Plymouth bathroom, ceramic sits at the affordable end, quality porcelain in the sensible middle, and natural stone and large-format at the premium end — both for the tiles themselves and because they’re slower, more skilled work to lay. Bathroom tiling locally tends to run in the region of £800 to £3,500 depending on the size of the room, the material and the amount of preparation involved, and because Plymouth sits roughly 9% below the national average on fitting costs, local labour comes in a touch under up-country rates.
The honest way to think about it: spend where it earns its keep. A durable porcelain floor and properly tanked shower walls are worth doing well, because they’re the surfaces that take the punishment and are most painful to redo. A decorative feature can be as modest or as lavish as your budget likes. For a full breakdown of where the money goes, see the cost of a bathroom in Plymouth. And if you’re tiling as part of a larger project, the tiling usually folds into the price of a full bathroom installation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best tile material for a bathroom?
For all-round bathroom use, porcelain is the best material — it’s dense, water-resistant and tough, so it works on floors and in wet areas, and it comes in slip-rated finishes. Ceramic is excellent value on walls, natural stone is beautiful but needs sealing and care, and mosaics are ideal for shower floors. As a rule we use porcelain on floors and in showers, and ceramic or porcelain on walls depending on the look and budget.
Can I use the same tile on the floor and the walls?
You can, and it can look wonderfully seamless — but only if the tile is genuinely suitable for both. That means choosing a floor-rated, slip-resistant porcelain and using it on the walls too, rather than taking a glossy wall tile down onto the floor. Never put a low-grip wall tile on a floor just to match; safety comes first.
How many tiles should I order?
Measure the surface area and add around 10% for cuts, breakages and future repairs — more for patterned layouts, herringbone or diagonal sets, which generate more offcuts. Keeping a few spare from the same batch is wise, because tile dye lots vary and an exact match later can be impossible.
Are natural stone tiles worth it in a bathroom?
They can be, if you love the look and accept the upkeep. Stone is genuinely beautiful and unique, but it’s porous, so it needs sealing when it’s laid and re-sealing over time, and it’s softer than porcelain. If you want the stone look with less maintenance, a good porcelain that mimics marble or travertine gives you most of the appearance with far less fuss.
What tiles are easiest to keep clean?
Large-format porcelain with a matching grey grout is about the easiest bathroom surface to keep clean — fewer grout lines, a dense wipe-clean face and a colour that hides the odd speck. The more grout you have (mosaics, small tiles) and the whiter it is, the more cleaning you sign up for.
Proud of every bathroom we fit
Talk your tiles through with a proud Plymouth fitter
Bring us your ideas, your samples or just a rough notion of the look you want. We’ll survey the room, tell you honestly what suits each surface, and put it all on one clear written quote — prepped properly, set out true, finished neat.