Finished tiling is judged at the edges, not the middle

Anyone can photograph a wall of tile. What tells you whether the work was done properly is smaller: the width of a joint where two planes meet, the line of a silicone bead in a corner, the way a floor tips toward its waste. This page groups finished surfaces by type and captions each frame by the detail worth looking at.

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REFERENCE FRAME — A FINISHED INTERIOR FLOOR: READ THE PERIMETER FIRST, WHERE TILE MEETS SKIRTING AND THE THRESHOLD OF THE DOOR.

HOW THIS PAGE IS ORGANISED

By surface, not by address. Each group below sends you to the service page that explains how that surface is built up, prepared and finished.

Six kinds of surface, six sets of details

A shower, a hallway floor and a balcony threshold are three different problems wearing the same material. The photographs below are reference frames — some finished surfaces, some work mid-fix — and they are here to train the eye, not to stand in for a job history.

Showers, niches and wet-area floors — Bathroom Tiling

Bathrooms rebuilt from the substrate up — Bathroom Renovation Tiling

Benches, cooktops and cut-outs — Kitchen Splashbacks

Hallways, living areas and laundries — Floor Tiling

Oversized tiles and slab panels — Large Format Tiling

Elevated decks and ground-level exteriors — Balcony Tiling · Outdoor Tiling

Wet areas: the smallest details carry the most water

In a finished shower the membrane is invisible, so the only evidence left on the surface is geometry. If the joints run true, the corners are soft-filled and the floor tips the right way, the layers underneath were probably set out with the same care. The build-up itself is explained on Waterproofing, and what happens when it fails on Leaking Shower Repairs.

REFERENCE FRAME — A FINISHED WET AREA: READ THE JOINT WIDTH WHERE THE MOSAIC BORDER MEETS THE FIELD TILE, WHETHER THE COURSES RUN LEVEL AROUND THE MIRROR AND VANITY, AND HOW THE TILING IS CLOSED OFF AT EACH INTERNAL CORNER.

GROUT LINES

Look along a wall rather than at it. Joints should hold one width from floor to ceiling, meet the corner without tapering, and sit full and flush rather than hollowed out. Cut tiles belong in the least-seen corner, not beside the door.

SILICONE BEADS

Every internal corner and every junction between two materials should be silicone, not grout — those are the places that move. A sharp, even bead with no smeared edge is a good sign; a cracked one is the earliest warning, covered under Regrouting.

FALL TO THE WASTE

A wet-area floor should drain dry. In a photograph you read it from the joint lines converging on the waste and the absence of pooling around it.

Floors and large format: flatness shows up in the light

Photograph a tiled floor with light raking across it and the substrate confesses. A dish in the screed reads as a dark smear; a high spot reads as a lipped joint catching the light on one edge. That is why the flattening work on tile preparation decides how a floor photographs years later.

Bigger formats magnify all of it. A 1200mm tile cannot bend into a hollow, so it lands on its high points and reports them at every joint — the reason large format work starts with correcting the floor rather than choosing a grout. For standard sizes through hallways, living areas, kitchens and laundries, see Floor Tiling, and for choosing the material itself, porcelain vs ceramic.

REFERENCE FRAME — LARGE TILES BEING SET WITH A LEVELLING SYSTEM: THE CLIPS HOLD NEIGHBOURING EDGES FLUSH WHILE THE ADHESIVE GOES OFF, WHICH IS WHY RAKING LIGHT LATER FINDS NO LIPPED JOINT. NOTE THE FULL ADHESIVE BED AT THE TILE EDGE.

WHAT TO CHECK IN A FLOOR

Joint lines running straight the full length of the room, not drifting toward one wall

No lipping between neighbouring tiles when light crosses the surface

Cuts at the perimeter of an even, sensible width rather than slivers

A clean threshold where tile meets timber, carpet or an outside door

Movement joints present at the perimeter and across long runs

REFERENCE FRAME — AN EXTERIOR MOSAIC WALL BESIDE A BALCONY: READ THE JOINT ALIGNMENT WHERE ONE SHEET MEETS THE NEXT, HOW THE CORNER IS TURNED, AND WHERE THE TILING IS STOPPED AND SEALED AGAINST THE RAILING AND THE OPENING.

Splashbacks, balconies and outdoor areas

A splashback is a small surface with a high density of decisions: where the course starts above the bench, how the tile turns at an end, how a cut-out meets a power point without a visible tear. Those are the things worth looking for in a photograph of one — the layout thinking is on Kitchen Splashbacks, with more on setting out in layout, cut-outs and finishing details.

REFERENCE FRAME — A KITCHEN SPLASHBACK AT BENCH HEIGHT: THE DETAILS ARE WHERE THE FIRST COURSE SITS ABOVE THE BENCHTOP, WHETHER THE SHEET JOINTS LINE THROUGH WITH THE TILE ALREADY FIXED, AND HOW THE RUN IS FINISHED AT ITS OPEN END.

Outside, the same eye goes to drainage and edges. On an elevated deck the question is whether water leaves the surface and where the perimeter is sealed — see Balcony Tiling. On alfresco areas, paths and pool surrounds it is slip resistance, exterior-grade fixing and room for heat movement — see Outdoor Tiling and choosing outdoor tiles for Melbourne weather.

Bring a photograph of your own surface

The quickest way to describe a tiling problem is to show it. A corner, a joint, a stained patch of grout, the stretch of floor that sounds hollow underfoot — a few frames from a phone usually say more than a paragraph, and they make the first conversation about the right layer straight away.

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USEFUL FRAMES TO SEND

The whole surface, square-on, so the setting out is visible

A close frame of the corner, joint or crack that prompted the call

Anything showing outside the room — a stained ceiling, swollen skirting, lifted floorboard

For exteriors, a frame that includes the drain, step or threshold

Working across Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Hughesdale, Oakleigh, Chadstone, Malvern East, Bentleigh East, Ormond and McKinnon — see service areas or the full services hub.