What is shade variation and how can I avoid it?

Manufacturers produce tiles in very large batches, sometimes 100,000m2 and larger at a time. When the manufacturer comes to reproduce the tile again, very small changes in the raw materials used to make the tiles can affect the final colour of the tiles. For this reason the manufacturer will assign a shade or batch number to each batch. This is often shown as a number or letters on the box. This can be expressed as shade number, batch number or tono number.

When tiling it is important to try and use all the same shade to avoid any unnecessary mixing of different shades. The way to avoid this is ensuring you purchase enough tiles, for your project, at the time of purchase. Should you require more tiles of the same batch you should make a note of which shade or batch you require. For help when ordering additional tiles for your project, speak to our customer service team on 01473 805959.