Nexus Blanco Polished Porcelain Tile 60x120cm: What to Know Before You Buy

Nexus Blanco is a bright white polished porcelain tile in a 60x120cm size. It costs £47.99 per square metre. It works on walls and floors, and it suits bathrooms, kitchens and open plan rooms.

This guide covers what the tile is like to live with. Not just the specs. How white behaves in real light, whether polished is safe underfoot, what grout to use, and what your tiler needs to know before the first box is opened.

Nexus Blanco at a glance

What does Nexus Blanco look like?

It reads as a clean white. Not a stark clinical white, and not a cream. There is soft tonal movement across the face, so it does not look flat or printed.

The polish is the part people react to. A polished surface bounces light back into the room. In a small bathroom with one ceiling light, that changes how big the room feels. The same tile in matt would look calmer and smaller.

White also shifts with your lighting. Under a cool white bulb it looks crisp and blue leaning. Under a warm bulb it looks softer and slightly cream. Order a sample and look at it at night, in the room it is going in.

Where can you use Nexus Blanco?

It works in more places than most people expect. Here is where it does well and where it does not.

Bathroom walls. This is the strongest use. The shine throws light around, the big format means few joints, and walls do not need grip.

Bathroom floors outside the shower. Fine in most homes. Read the grip section below first if you have young children or an older person in the house.

Kitchen floors. Yes. Porcelain is hard and does not stain. The one thing to plan for is glare from a window or a spotlight, which shows on any polished floor.

Open plan living and dining floors. This is where the 60x120 size earns its money. Fewer joints, so the floor reads as one surface.

Hallways. Good, with a decent mat at the door. Grit from shoes is the main thing that dulls a polished floor over time.

Shower floors and wet rooms. No. Use a matt or textured tile there instead. More on this next.

Is polished white porcelain slippery?

Polished porcelain has less grip when wet than matt porcelain. That is true of any polished tile, in any colour. It is not a flaw in this tile. It is what polishing does.

What that means in practice:

Dry, it is fine. People walk on polished floors every day without thinking about it.

Wet, it needs more care. A splash by a basin or a bath dries off quickly and is not a problem in most homes. Standing water is different. A shower floor stays wet, gets soapy, and is walked on bare foot. That is the one place a polished tile should not go.

The clean answer is a split. Use Nexus Blanco on the walls and on the floor outside the shower. Use a matt or anti slip tile inside the shower tray area or the wet zone. Our anti slip bathroom tiles are filtered for exactly that job, and you can pick a white one so the colour still matches.

If anyone in the house has trouble on their feet, put matt on the whole bathroom floor and keep the polish on the walls. You lose nothing in looks. Walls are where the shine does most of its work anyway. There is more on picking a floor for grip in our guide to non slip bathroom floor tiles.

Does a white tile show every mark?

Yes and no, and the honest answer is more useful than a sales one.

White shows dry dirt more than mid tones. Dust, hair, crumbs and footmarks stand out on a bright white floor. A grey or beige floor hides all of that. If you have a dog or small children, you will sweep more often.

White hides limescale better than dark tiles. This is the part nobody mentions. Limescale is white. On a dark polished tile it leaves a visible film within days. On a white tile you can barely see it. In a hard water area, white is the easier colour to live with, not the harder one.

Polished shows smears more than matt. A reflective surface shows anything that dulls it. Use a clean mop and do not use a soapy cleaner that leaves a film.

So the trade is simple. You will sweep more and wipe less.

Will it scratch?

Porcelain is hard, so it takes a lot to scratch it. But a polished surface shows a scratch far more than a matt one does, because the scratch breaks the reflection.

What causes scratches on a polished floor is almost always grit walked in from outside. A doormat at every outside door stops most of it. Felt pads under chair and table legs stop the rest.

In a bathroom this is rarely an issue. In a hallway or a kitchen it is worth taking seriously.

Why the 8.5mm thickness matters

Nexus Blanco is 8.5mm thick. That is slim for a tile this size. Some large tiles are 9mm or 10mm.

For walls, it is a benefit. Less weight on the wall, and less depth added to the room.

For floors, it means one thing above all. The tile needs full support underneath. Every part of it, not just the corners. A tiler who beds the tile properly will have no problem. A tiler who uses blobs of adhesive will leave gaps, and gaps under a slim tile are where cracks start.

Ask your tiler if they will use full coverage adhesive and back butter the tile. If they look blank at that, find another tiler.

What does rectified mean for you?

Rectified means every tile has been cut to the exact same size after it was fired. Normal tiles vary by a millimetre or two.

The benefit is joint width. Because the tiles all match, you can use a narrow joint, and the floor or wall reads as one surface with thin lines rather than a grid.

There is a catch. Narrow joints leave no room to hide an uneven wall or floor. If the surface is not flat, one tile edge sits proud of the next, and on a polished white tile that lip catches the light along the whole joint. It is the first thing anyone will see.

So the wall or floor has to be flat before tiling starts. Boarding or reskimming a wall is part of the job with a tile like this. Put it in the budget from the start, not as a surprise later. We go deeper into the trade offs in our guide to rectified porcelain tiles.

What grout colour works with Nexus Blanco?

Three sensible options, and each gives a different look.

White or bright white grout. The joints vanish and the surface reads as one sheet. This is the look most people want with this tile. On walls it works well and stays clean. On floors it will darken over time and there is no full fix for that.

Pale grey grout. The safest all round choice. It reads as almost invisible from a normal distance, but it does not show dirt the way white does. This is what we would use on a floor.

Mid or dark grey grout. Turns the floor into a grid and makes the tile size obvious. Some people want this. Most do not with a 60x120, because the whole point of the size is to lose the joints.

One rule for floors. Do not use pure white grout on a floor you walk on in shoes. It will go grey at the edges and stay that way. If you want the detail on mixing and applying it, our grouting guide covers the method.

Does Nexus Blanco need sealing?

No. Porcelain is fired so hard that it takes in almost no water. There is nothing for a sealer to soak into.

This is the main reason people pick porcelain over real marble. Marble needs sealing, and it needs it again every year or two. Porcelain does not, ever. We compare the two properly in our porcelain versus real marble guide.

The grout is a different matter. Cement based grout in a shower is worth sealing, and worth resealing once a year. That is the grout, not the tile.

Can you use it with underfloor heating?

Yes. Porcelain is one of the better floor coverings for underfloor heating because it passes heat through well and does not mind the warmth.

Two things to get right.

The adhesive has to be rated for underfloor heating and be flexible. A heated floor expands and contracts, and a rigid bond will not cope.

The heating should be run and then turned off before tiling, following whatever the system maker says. Tiling onto a floor that has never been warmed, then heating it hard afterwards, is a common cause of problems. The order of work is set out in our guide to laying porcelain over underfloor heating.

What does the 60x120 size change?

The size is the reason this tile looks the way it does. It is also the reason it needs more care to fit.

Fewer joints. A 60x120 tile covers 0.72 square metres. A 30x60 covers 0.18. You get four times the surface for every joint, and fewer joints means a calmer looking room.

More visible cuts. In a small room, a big tile can leave a thin strip of cut tile at one end. That strip draws the eye. The fix is to set out from the centre so both ends get an even cut, rather than starting from a corner.

Harder handling. A box weighs 29kg and the tiles are 1.2 metres long. That is a two person lift, and a tile this long will snap if it flexes. Carry them on edge, never flat.

A flatter surface needed. Covered in the rectified section above, and it is the single biggest thing to plan for.

There is more on matching tile size to room size in our large format floor tile guide.

Does a big white tile work in a small bathroom?

Often yes, and the reason is not the one people give.

The usual line is that big tiles make a room look bigger. What actually happens is that fewer joints give your eye less to measure the room with, so the surface reads as more continuous. Add a bright white and a polished face, and the room bounces more light around.

Where it goes wrong is cutting. If the room is 1.8 metres across, a 1.2 metre tile leaves a 60cm cut on every row. That is a stripe, not a continuous surface.

So measure first. If the room divides reasonably into 60 or 120, the big format is a win. If it does not, a 60x60 white in the same finish will look better. You can compare the options in our 60x120cm bathroom tiles range.

What pairs well with Nexus Blanco?

White is a base, not a statement. It goes with almost anything, so the choice is about what you want to notice.

Brushed brass or gold taps. The warm metal against cool white is the most popular pairing in UK bathrooms right now. It stops white feeling cold.

Matt black taps and frames. Sharp and graphic. Good in a modern room, less good in a period house.

Chrome. Quiet and safe. It disappears, which is sometimes what you want.

Oak or walnut units. Wood is the fastest way to warm up an all white room. A timber vanity under a white wall does more than any amount of accessories.

A darker floor. White walls with a grey or darker floor is a reliable scheme. The floor grounds the room and hides more. If that appeals, our Orion Grey guide covers a grey polished tile in the same size.

Green or blue in a small dose. A single feature panel or a shower niche in colour reads well against white.

For more on building a scheme round white, see our guide to choosing white bathroom tiles.

How do you clean it?

Easy, and that is one of its selling points.

Use a pH neutral floor cleaner and a clean microfibre mop. Wring the mop out well. Too much water leaves streaks on a polished surface.

Do not use acidic limescale removers. They attack the grout over time.

Do not use bleach on coloured grout. It lightens it unevenly.

Do not use abrasive cream or a scouring pad. On a polished tile those leave fine scratches that show in the light.

For daily dirt, a dry sweep or vacuum before mopping does most of the work. On white, dry dirt is the thing you see, so getting it up first matters more than the mopping. Our tile and grout cleaning guide covers stubborn marks.

What should your tiler know?

Worth saying out loud before they start.

The tile is rectified, so the joints will be narrow, and the surface behind has to be flat.

The tile is polished, so any lip between tiles will show in the light.

The tile is 8.5mm and 1.2 metres long, so it needs full adhesive coverage and no voids.

Cutting needs a diamond blade and a wet cutter. Porcelain this hard will chip on a cheap blade, and a chipped edge on a white polished tile is very visible.

Set out from the centre of the main wall, not from a corner, so the cuts land evenly.

Keep the offset small if they are laying it brick fashion. On a tile this long, a half offset puts each joint at the middle of the tile below, which is where a long tile bows most. A third offset or a straight stack avoids it.

How much should you order?

Measure each wall and floor area in metres. Multiply length by width for each one. Add them up and take off any door or window openings.

Then add extra:

Add 10% for a straight layout in a simple square or rectangular room.

Add 15% if the room has angles, curves, a lot of edges, or if the tiles are going in a diagonal or herringbone pattern.

Round up to whole boxes, because tiles are sold by the box.

Keep the spare tiles. Tile colour shifts a little from one production batch to the next. If one cracks in two years and you buy a fresh box, it may not match. The box in your loft is the only sure match you will have.

Our tile calculator does the sums for you, and the tile quantity guide shows the working if you would rather check it yourself.

What should you check when it arrives?

Five minutes now saves a lot later.

Open more than one box. Lay six or eight tiles out on the floor next to each other and look at them together in daylight.

Check the batch number on every box. They should match. If they do not, tell us before any tile goes on the wall.

Check for chipped corners. Handling damage happens, and it is easiest to sort before fitting starts.

Look at the tone across the tiles you laid out. Soft movement is meant to be there. A clear jump in shade between boxes is not.

Do not let a tiler start until this is done. Once tiles are on the wall, the options get much worse.

Polished white or matt white: which should you pick?

This comes up more than any other question, so here is a straight comparison.

The short version. Polished on walls, matt in the wet zone, and pick either for the dry part of the floor based on the look you want. If matt is pulling ahead for you, our matt tile buying guide covers that side, and you can browse the matt tiles and gloss tiles ranges side by side.

Who is Nexus Blanco right for?

It suits you if:

You want a bright, light, modern room.

Your bathroom or kitchen is on the small side and short of natural light.

You like a seamless surface with thin joints rather than a visible grid.

You are happy to sweep a bit more often.

You have a tiler who is comfortable with large format tiles.

Look at something else if:

You are tiling a shower floor or a wet room floor. Use matt there.

Your walls or floor are uneven and you do not want to pay to flatten them.

You want a floor that hides everything. A mid grey or a beige will do that better.

You want warmth rather than brightness. A beige or a warm stone effect fits that better.

If white is right but this size or finish is not, the full white bathroom tiles and white floor tiles ranges have other options.

What does it cost?

Nexus Blanco is £47.99 per square metre.

To work out your own figure, measure the area, add 10 to 15% for waste, and multiply. A 10 square metre bathroom floor and a half height wall run might come to about 18 square metres with waste, which is around £864 in tiles.

That is the tile only. A full job also needs adhesive, grout, a primer, trims, and the labour. As a rough guide, tiles are often a third to a half of what the finished job costs in the UK. If your tile budget is £900, plan for the whole job to be well above that. Our cost to tile a bathroom guide breaks down the labour side.

Nexus Blanco FAQs

Is Nexus Blanco suitable for a bathroom floor?

Yes, on the floor outside the shower. For a shower floor or a wet room, use a matt or anti slip tile instead.

Is polished porcelain slippery?

It has less grip when wet than a matt tile. It is fine dry and fine for a splash. It is not right for a surface that stays wet, like a shower floor.

Does Nexus Blanco need sealing?

No. Porcelain takes in almost no water, so there is nothing for a sealer to do. Cement grout in a shower is worth sealing, but that is the grout, not the tile.

What grout should I use with it?

Pale grey is the safest choice, especially on floors. Bright white gives the most seamless look but will darken on a floor over time.

Can I use it with underfloor heating?

Yes. Use a flexible adhesive rated for underfloor heating, and run the heating then switch it off before tiling.

Is it good for a small bathroom?

Often yes. The white and the polish both push light around, and the big format means fewer joints. Measure first, because a big tile in a narrow room can leave a thin cut strip.

How thick is it?

8.5mm. That is slim for a 60x120 tile, so it needs full adhesive coverage underneath with no gaps.

What does rectified mean?

Every tile is cut to the same exact size after firing, so you can use narrow joints. The catch is that the wall or floor has to be flat.

Will a white floor show dirt?

It shows dry dirt such as dust and footmarks more than a grey floor. It hides limescale better than a dark floor, because limescale is white.

Can I use it on a kitchen floor?

Yes. Porcelain is hard and does not stain. Put a mat at the outside door to catch grit, which is the main thing that dulls a polished floor.

How heavy is a box?

29kg. That is a two person lift, and the tiles are 1.2 metres long, so carry them on edge rather than flat.

How much extra should I order?

10% for a simple square room, 15% if there are angles, curves or a diagonal pattern. Keep the spares, because shade varies between batches.

Can I use it on a wall and a floor in the same room?

Yes, and it is a good way to make a small room read as one space. Just change to a matt tile inside the shower.

Does it come in other colours?

Yes. The Nexus range also comes in Imperio, Taupe and Natural.

Is it hard to cut?

It needs a wet cutter with a diamond blade. A cheap blade will chip the edge, and a chipped edge shows badly on a white polished tile.

Should you buy it?

Buy Nexus Blanco if you want a bright room, a near seamless surface, and a floor or wall you never have to seal. Pair it with a matt tile in the shower, use pale grey grout on the floor, and make sure the surface behind it is flat before anyone starts.

Skip it if your wet room floor is the main thing you are tiling, or if you want a floor that hides everything.

Order a sample first. Take it into the room, look at it at night under your own lights, and put it next to your taps and your unit. White is the colour that changes most under different bulbs, and five minutes with a sample tells you more than any photo will. You can also browse the wider porcelain tiles and large format 600x1200 tiles ranges if you want to compare before you commit.