Start with the room, not the sample
Format is decided by the plan on the table, not by what looked good in a photograph. Measure the shortest wall, the longest uninterrupted run, the position of every door swing and every change of level, then write down where the eye lands when somebody walks in. A tile size that suits a broad open living space rarely suits the narrow hall running off it, and a house tiled in one module throughout can end up with awkward slivers in the very rooms people look at most.
Sizes that work in smaller rooms
Larger modules mean fewer joints and a calmer floor, but they punish a room that is out of square, because a large unit shows a taper along a wall that a smaller one quietly absorbs. A few working rules carry most projects:
- Check squareness first, because a room out of true dictates the module
- Keep cut units at the room edges wider than half a tile wherever possible
- Set the starting line off the sightline into the room, not off a wall
- Where two rooms meet through an opening, run one module through both
- Mixed modular formats absorb an awkward plan better than one large size
Doorways, level changes and the run of a plan
Every threshold is a decision about whether the floor continues or stops. Carrying a module through a doorway makes two rooms read as one space and demands that both floors finish at the same level, which in turn depends on the substrate under each of them. Stopping at the door is not a lesser answer. It lets each room take the format and face it actually needs, and it gives the installer a clean place to resolve a level difference rather than burying it under a cut tile that will always look like an apology. Decide this on the plan, not on the day, because the answer feeds straight back into the module and the joint line.
Calibration and why lot consistency decides the joint
Joint width is not a style choice on its own. A lot with variable thickness or edge dimension forces a wider joint to absorb the difference, while a tightly calibrated lot allows a narrower one and a quieter floor. Anyone specifying gauged formats for Bermuda interiors should ask what tolerance the lot is held to before settling a joint on the drawing.
- Thickness consistency across the whole lot, not just within one crate
- Edge condition: sawn straight, eased, or tumbled and irregular by intent
- Whether replacements can be drawn from the same production run later
- Whether a spare allowance is being held back for future repairs
Direction, bond and how a floor is read
Once the module is fixed, the pattern decides how the room feels. Running the long dimension away from the entrance stretches a space; running it across shortens and widens it. In corridors and galley kitchens a running bond breaks the ladder effect of aligned joints, while a stack layout only works when the lot is square enough to keep every line true from end to end. Thinking through bond choices for long narrow rooms at drawing stage costs nothing and saves a floor from being set out badly on the morning it is laid.
Pallets, lanes and getting tile to the room
Delivery here is a real constraint on how an order should be broken up. Vehicle-size limits and narrow lanes mean smaller trucks and planned drops rather than a large articulated vehicle at the gate, and stone is heavy in a way that turns a casual delivery into somebody’s afternoon.
- Agree where a pallet can physically be set down before the order ships
- Split large orders into drops that match the access, not the invoice
- Plan a dry, level store for material waiting its turn on site
- Keep the spare allowance stored with the job rather than sent back
Cuts, waste and the allowance to order
Diagonal layouts, radial work and rooms full of returns generate far more offcut than a plain square grid, and an allowance sized for a simple floor runs out on a complicated one.
- Count the cuts from the drawing rather than applying one flat figure
- Add for handling breakage across a supply line and a last mile
- Add again for spares held against repairs years later
- Order the extra with the original lot so that it genuinely matches
Sensitive settings and what the building carries
Planning control here is strict. The Department of Planning and the Development Applications Board work to the Bermuda Plan, and St. George’s together with its related fortifications is a UNESCO World Heritage site where sensitivity runs highest of all. None of that argues against a modern floor, but it does argue for looking up from the drawing. Before tone, format and texture are fixed, establish what the property in front of you actually is, and take the same care with what surrounds it, because a floor inside a listed or heritage-adjacent building is a different conversation from a floor in a new-build in Devonshire or Smith’s. The fabric around a floor may be stone, block, render or timber, and the right module is the one that answers that building rather than a general idea of the island. Set the format against the drawing and against the building, and the layout looks inevitable rather than lucky.