Differences in tiles from the hardware store or tile center

I would be interested to know if there are quality differences between the hardware store tiles and the specialist dealer.

I would be interested to know if there are quality differences between DIY store tiles and specialist dealers.

Cheap tiles can certainly have less quality than expensive ones. However, that has nothing to do with the DIY store or specialist dealer. The specialist dealer also has cheap stuff where the firing was shorter than for high-quality tiles or the edge is not cut cleanly. The higher the price, usually the higher the quality of the goods – whether in manufacturing or in the variety of pattern repetition or other features.

See also my #10.

Quality is not an absolute value, but a standard that relates to the requirement profile. This means, a floor tile for an airport building needs different quality than one for your utility room. A tile exposed to frost outside is different from one for the constantly warm bathroom. This means, the absolute top product is overdressed for a private house. A tile costing 20,- can be functionally just as good in quality as one for 45,- or more, if the area of use is a house for two to four people. In my opinion, the appearance, the fashion, is more of a price driver here than measurable quality. Karsten

We got wood-look tiles 15x90 from Bauhaus for the living and working room "back then," I think 30 €/m². We calculated with generous waste and were able to return tiles worth 300 € to Bauhaus in the end.

The tiler also had nothing to complain about, the edges were fine, one or two tiles were wavy, that was it.
We are satisfied with the look.

With wood-look tiles, the quality is shown by how many different textures have been produced. For example, inexpensive tiles only have 5 different ones, while expensive ones have 15. This is important when the wood-look texture is distinctive and striking. You don't want to see the same knot on every 5th tile.

But shading is also more likely with large formats.

Agree with ypg, we recently also looked towards wood-look and the cheap one immediately shows the fake. The pattern repeats too often and the texture is either not there at all or very "tile-like". We have learned from experience that you definitely have to see the desired tile laid out as a sample beforehand. Looking at individual tiles is pointless. The manufacturers apparently also write nothing about sorting.