Tiling in Hendon

Tiling in Hendon: what is different here

Bathrooms above someone else's ceiling

Hendon ward, home to Hendon Central and Brent Street, was 44.6% purpose-built flats and another 13.3% of households lived in converted houses at the 2021 Census. In a converted house the bathroom was often put into a former bedroom or box room, on a timber floor directly over the flat below, so a failed shower tray seal or porous grout shows up as a stain on a neighbour's ceiling.

Before tiling a shower, we apply a tanking membrane to the walls and floor around it, tape every corner and pipe entry, and let it cure. On a timber floor we fix cement board to stiffen it first, because flexing floors crack grout.

Barnet's splashback rule in licensed shared houses

Barnet's adopted standards for houses in multiple occupation ask for a tiled splashback at least 300mm high, which they describe as two standard tiles, behind each wash hand basin, and the same behind kitchen sinks. Where there are five or more occupiers, each household should have a wash hand basin in its own room where that is practicable.

That means a lot of small splashbacks in Hendon student houses, often over basins added to bedrooms. We tile them properly sealed to the basin with sanitary silicone, which is what a council officer expects to see rather than a painted panel or a strip of plastic trim.

Very hard water, grout and shower glass

Affinity Water's 2025 reports for its zones next to Hendon gave total hardness of 333 mg/l for Colindale and Kingsbury and 275 mg/l for Finchley, classed as very hard and hard. Hard water leaves white scale on glass screens, chrome and pale grout within weeks.

In Hendon lets we suggest a mid-grey grout rather than white, a large format tile with fewer joints in the shower, and a frameless or easy-clean coated screen. Telling tenants to squeegee the glass after each shower does more than any cleaning product.

Leasehold flats and hard floors

Many leases in Hendon's converted houses and post-war blocks restrict hard floor finishes or require an acoustic underlay, to keep footfall noise from reaching the flat below. Ceramic or porcelain tiles in a kitchen or hall can breach that clause even if the bathroom floor is tiled already. Check the lease, or ask the managing agent, before choosing a tiled floor. Where tiles are allowed, we use a decoupling or acoustic mat suitable for tiles, which also helps against cracking on older boards.

Period floors around Church End and The Burroughs

Some of the older houses in Hendon's two conservation areas still have original tiled paths or entrance halls. We can lift and relay loose tiles, clean them and replace broken ones with the nearest available match, but we do not attempt large-scale restoration of historic encaustic floors, which is specialist work. If the house is listed, any change to original flooring may need listed building consent, so check with Barnet first.

Shared bathrooms in five-bed student houses

A Hendon HMO with five sharers can put ten or more showers a day through one room, and Barnet's HMO standards say bathroom walls and floors must be non-absorbent and readily cleansable, with a water-resistant screen or curtain on every shower. That traffic finds every weak joint. For those rooms we favour porcelain over soft ceramic on floors, a shower tray with a deep upstand instead of a tiled shower floor, metal trims on external corners that get knocked by laundry baskets, and a full-height tiled shower enclosure so steam never reaches painted plaster.

Booking the work for the summer gap means the grout and silicone have days to cure before the house fills again.

Official sources

• Barnet HMO standards: 300mm tiled splashbacks and basin provision
• Affinity Water 2025 hardness, Colindale/Kingsbury zone
• Affinity Water 2025 hardness, Finchley zone
• Census 2021 flats and converted houses in Hendon wards
• Hendon Church End conservation area appraisal

Last reviewed October 2026 by EliteShires Property Services.