D4 Capabilities
Internal Finishes
Everything the client sees and touches. These are the categories where project quantities rarely fill a container per line, which is exactly where consolidation is worth the most, and where the gap between an export-grade factory and a domestic-grade one is invisible on a quotation and obvious on site.
01Scope
| Category | Content |
|---|---|
| Ceramics | Wall and floor tile, porcelain, large format, sintered and porcelain slab, mosaic, trims and profiles, adhesive and grout |
| Stone | Granite, marble, travertine, limestone, quartzite, engineered quartz, cut to size, cladding, worktops, mosaic |
| Flooring | Luxury vinyl tile, stone plastic composite, wood plastic composite, laminate, engineered and solid wood, carpet tile, raised access floor, resin |
| Sanitaryware and brassware | Water closets, basins, bathtubs, shower trays and enclosures, smart sanitaryware, mixers, showers, wastes, concealed cisterns and frames |
| Doors and ironmongery | Internal doorsets, frames and architraves, locks, hinges, closers, handles, access control hardware, seals |
| Drylining and ceilings | Plasterboard, metal stud and track, mineral fibre and metal ceiling, suspension grid, access panels, acoustic treatment |
| Coatings and sealants | Emulsion, trim paint, intumescent coating, anti-carbonation, silicone and polyurethane sealant, tanking |
02Source geography
Where it is made.
Ceramics from Foshan, from the Gao'an and Jiujiang relocation base in Jiangxi, from Jinjiang and Nan'an in Fujian, from Tengxian and Wuzhou in Guangxi, and from Jiajiang in Sichuan. A critical operational point applies: the Foshan trading districts are showrooms, and almost every showroom represents a factory located elsewhere. The showroom is where you negotiate; the kiln is somewhere else entirely, and we know which.
Sanitaryware from Chaozhou, integrated bathroom product from Foshan, brassware from the Kaiping and Shuikou faucet belt in Jiangmen. Flooring from the Jiangsu resilient cluster around Changzhou and Zhangjiagang, and engineered wood from Nanxun in Zhejiang.
Stone from Shuitou in Nan'an, the largest natural stone marketplace in the world, which processes an estimated seventy per cent of all stone imported into China from more than fifty source countries, and from Yunfu in Guangdong. Where the material calls for it, direct from Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Brazil and India.
03What we check
Eight checks that separate export grade from domestic grade.
None of these are visible on a quotation. All of them are visible on site.
- Sorting discipline, not the grade written on the box. Four things separate an export-grade tile factory: calibre and shade sorting into work-size and tone lots marked on the carton; rectified squared edges; export cartons with heavier board, corner protection and shrink-wrapped pallets; and batch reservation for phased projects. We ask a factory for its destination mix, not its grade certificate.
- Slip resistance, because it is the most common specification failure in the category. Dynamic coefficient of friction and R-value under EN 16165 or DIN 51130. We specify it and test it.
- Click system licensing. Licensed Unilin, Valinge or I4F against an unlicensed copy. Unlicensed click profiles expose the importer to patent enforcement in the European Union and the United States. Because we take title, we would be that importer. Licence verification is a hard gate at supplier qualification.
- Wear layer, in millimetres, measured. Under-declared wear layer is the most common misrepresentation in resilient flooring. We specify it numerically and verify it.
- Core composition. Virgin against recycled polyvinyl chloride in a stone plastic composite core. Recycled core is brittle, warps and off-gasses. The price difference is USD 0.50 to 1.00 per square metre; the failure difference is total.
- Sanitaryware body and trapway. Vitreous china below 0.5% water absorption against semi-vitreous. Fully glazed trapway against unglazed, because unglazed trapways block and are the single largest source of warranty claims in the category.
- The valve, specified separately from the ceramic. A Geberit, Fluidmaster or Sanwa fill and flush valve against an unnamed generic. The valve fails long before the ceramic does, and it is almost never on the specification.
- Engineered stone resin content and silica. Seven to ten per cent resin is correct; higher is cheaper, softer and yellows under ultraviolet. Australia has banned high-silica engineered stone benchtops on silicosis grounds, and low-silica product is now the compliant route.
04Standards and conformity
| Market | Requirement |
|---|---|
| European Union and United Kingdom | CE or UKCA to EN 14411 (tile), EN 14041 (resilient), EN 14342 (wood), EN 13329 (laminate), EN 1469 (stone cladding), EN 997 and EN 14688 (sanitaryware), WRAS in the United Kingdom, ACS in France, DVGW in Germany, REACH and phthalate limits, EUDR on timber products |
| United States | ASTM C1026, ASTM C1027, ANSI A137.1, FloorScore, CARB Phase 2 and TSCA Title VI, cUPC from IAPMO with annual factory audit, NSF/ANSI 61 and 372, WaterSense, MaP |
| Gulf | SASO and SABER product and shipment certificates, ECAS |
| Australia | WaterMark, which is mandatory, plus WELS registration, and AS/NZS slip classification |
05Commercial parameters
- Tile loading
- Weight-limited, not volume-limited: a 40-foot high cube holds 2,000 to 2,400 square metres.
- Breakage
- We budget a two per cent breakage reserve as standard and hold a five to eight per cent overage buffer on tile, trim and fixings for project work.
- Flooring
- Minimums 1,000 to 3,000 square metres depending on construction. Lead time 15 to 30 days.
- Sanitaryware
- Minimums are driven by finish, not by body: each finish is a separate plating run.
- Stone
- By the container, weight-limited at 40 to 50 slabs at 20 millimetres in a 20-foot.
Enquire about internal finishes.
Send the specification, the schedule or the drawing package. We will confirm what we can supply, the conformity route for your market, and a delivered programme.
Request a quotation