Good Master Bathroom Tile Design???

[DrPizza]

I worked at Daltile in the engineering department, quality control, etc. While I didn't work with the 12x12 tile, I worked with the 1" and 2" tile extensively. "B-grade"? wtf is that. Irregular size/thickness? Knowing the method of how the tiles are made, I cannot fathom how that can happen, nor how they're going to sort different grades of tile. It is very easy to control the amount of material pressed into a tile that any differences in size would be imperceptible except to incredibly sensitive instruments. i.e. any difference will be completely negligible. I do know that from time to time there was a bit of color variation, depending on different things that can happen in the kiln (temperatures off by a little bit in one section can cause a slight difference in the final color - imperceptible to most people, and certainly imperceptible if you didn't have a standard to compare it against.

However, think about it - who do you think sells more tile? Home Depot and the other big stores, or the specialty shop? That means 90% of the tile must be B grade, and only 10% A grade??

btw, that job was the nail in the coffin why I'm a teacher and not an engineer. Not enough problems to solve, and the rest of the job was quite monotonous. Make sure the water released from the plant was clear enough; determine if more flocculants needed to be added to the water, assess the quality of the ingredients in the train cars before they were dumped into the plant, test EVERY single batch of powder before it was pressed into tiles & put into the kiln... day after day it was the same tests, same results. Something "new" would be "hey, this company needs a tile *this* color. Make it." After a couple weeks of refinements, we'd be able to match that color so well that any difference would be imperceptible to the human eye.

 

[Duder1no]

keep an eye out for unexpected problems dude: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2151612

 

[jupiter57]

THIS

Also, GAY

 

[alkemyst]

I worked at Daltile in the engineering department, quality control, etc. While I didn't work with the 12x12 tile, I worked with the 1" and 2" tile extensively. "B-grade"? wtf is that. Irregular size/thickness? Knowing the method of how the tiles are made, I cannot fathom how that can happen, nor how they're going to sort different grades of tile. It is very easy to control the amount of material pressed into a tile that any differences in size would be imperceptible except to incredibly sensitive instruments. i.e. any difference will be completely negligible. I do know that from time to time there was a bit of color variation, depending on different things that can happen in the kiln (temperatures off by a little bit in one section can cause a slight difference in the final color - imperceptible to most people, and certainly imperceptible if you didn't have a standard to compare it against.

However, think about it - who do you think sells more tile? Home Depot and the other big stores, or the specialty shop? That means 90% of the tile must be B grade, and only 10% A grade??

btw, that job was the nail in the coffin why I'm a teacher and not an engineer. Not enough problems to solve, and the rest of the job was quite monotonous. Make sure the water released from the plant was clear enough; determine if more flocculants needed to be added to the water, assess the quality of the ingredients in the train cars before they were dumped into the plant, test EVERY single batch of powder before it was pressed into tiles & put into the kiln... day after day it was the same tests, same results. Something "new" would be "hey, this company needs a tile *this* color. Make it." After a couple weeks of refinements, we'd be able to match that color so well that any difference would be imperceptible to the human eye.

seriously, as a "mathsamatician" you are going on record saying an entire tile organization has no subpar tiles?

 

[DrPizza]

seriously, as a "mathsamatician" you are going on record saying an entire tile organization has no subpar tiles?

No, I'm going to say that at one plant that manufactured 1" and 2" tiles that every tile that went out the door was virtually identical to the others in its size, except for color. There was no discernible variation in quality. The vast majority of "defects" were the occasional chips which occurred during handling, both pre-fire chips and post-fire chips. Those tiles were rejected. (who wants a box of tiles with corners chipped off?) The rest of the defects were rare and caused by contaminants (corn was common due to what the railcars carried) Think of an entire railroad car that had previously hauled corn, then after cleaning, was filled with one of the ingredients used in the tile. If 10 or 15 kernels of corn made it through the cleaning, that's 10 or 15 tiles out of millions that would be rejected.

 

[HelloWorl]

keep an eye out for unexpected problems dude: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2151612

Shower floor will be a bath tub

 

[rh71]

We had the same question. I bought about 700 sq/ft of a daltile glazed porcelain from HD for around $.80 a sq/ft. We could buy literally the same exact tile from a specialty shop for $2.75 a sq/ft. The tile shops response was that the HD stuff was "b" grade meaning irregular size/thickness. Our installer never had a complaint about the HD stuff being off in size.

*shrug*

well I asked my contractor about it who has been very honest with me throughout this whole process (gave me credits without asking, etc.)... he said the real tile stores figure in cost to demo existing tile, install, etc. and that's all in the $5/sqft price when it is $2/sqft at Home Depot. I don't know... because I'm pretty sure his installer is going to do everything for us even if we bought our own tile ($2/sqft). So we make money back on this ($5/sqft allowance). But don't those specialty tile shops charge for install on top of their higher prices anyway? *shrug*

The other thing is the tile store he recommended even mentioned they can't compete with the bigger stores because those stores buy in bulk and these mom&pops have to special order everything. I don't know how they're still in business...

 

[alkemyst]

The big boxes get by on buying power. Their design services are subpar and you are dealing with the cheapest subcontractors they can find or you are doing it yourself.

With the smaller shops you get experience, a better knowledge of products and you usually know who is coming to install your goods each time.

It's like buying Levi jeans at a WalMart vs Norstroms.

 

[IronWing]

We ended up buying all our tile from tiles shops simply because they had the colors/styles we wanted and the big box stores didn't. HD and Lowes carried a bunch of tans/browns and not much else. Big tiles (18-24 inch) were the in thing when we were buying and they look ridiculous in a house as small as ours.

 

[bigdog1218]

The glass tile really looks stunning. A friend in the fashion / designer industry even said someone will buy the house because of the tile. We're not worried about that too much, just the overall style. We just aren't totally sold on the way we're using the glass tile, and maybe a different layout would be good.

We can't think of much else, so we're asking around. A horizontal stripe across all three walls of the shower was recommended, but that harsh vertical to horizontal clash doesn't feel right.

It sounds like your absolutely sold on the green tile, which in my opinion and the opinion of most of the other people here is the problem.

You can turn the tile any which way you want it will look completely out of place unless your bedroom and the rest of your house was designed by the little mermaid. Not to mention both tiles are entirely too big for your space.

See that picture of the bathroom you included. It's a bigger space with smaller tile which is why it works. I actually cringe when I think of a big green racing stripe running along the floor of that picture. What color cabinets would you use, aquamarine?

And no one buys a house because of 12sqft of tacky out of place tile.

 

[HelloWorl]

It sounds like your absolutely sold on the green tile, which in my opinion and the opinion of most of the other people here is the problem.

You can turn the tile any which way you want it will look completely out of place unless your bedroom and the rest of your house was designed by the little mermaid. Not to mention both tiles are entirely too big for your space.

See that picture of the bathroom you included. It's a bigger space with smaller tile which is why it works. I actually cringe when I think of a big green racing stripe running along the floor of that picture. What color cabinets would you use, aquamarine?

And no one buys a house because of 12sqft of tacky out of place tile.

The tile is amazing. Rave reviews from all who have seen it. LOLOLOL

 

[iGas]

The tile is amazing. Rave reviews from all who have seen it. LOLOLOL

Could it be that they are trying to be kind instead of saying what they really think of it?

 

[UglyCasanova]

I didn't read through the whole thread, is there a finished product now with pics?

I like the look, and I think it would be a lot better than just some plain jane bathroom. Make sure to have some quality lighting to bring it out.

 

[HelloWorl]

Could it be that they are trying to be kind instead of saying what they really think of it?

Lots of experience with that huh? Hehehehe

 

[Modelworks]

I would get the tile with the fewest seams as possible. No matter what you do or seal it with tile grout lines are something every person should consider when choosing tile unless you can afford paying someone else to keep it clean

 

[Chunkee]

calling george jetson....

very cold, austere and spartan looking. looks like it should be in a 50's nuclear family commercial, but never crapped in.

2cents

 

[SSUSeaWolf]

calling george jetson....

very cold, austere and spartan looking. looks like it should be in a 50's nuclear family commercial, but never crapped in.

2cents

How can you tell all that from a hand drawn sketch? You must be talking about the designer pictures, which obviously is a completely different setup than the bathroom we designed.

 

[SSUSeaWolf]

I would get the tile with the fewest seams as possible. No matter what you do or seal it with tile grout lines are something every person should consider when choosing tile unless you can afford paying someone else to keep it clean

12x24 = less grout lines.

 

[DrPizza]

Several of us have said, and I'll say it for one final time: specific designer colors like that are very faddy, and will be outdated in a few years. There are dozens of ways to add other specific colors that don't involve semi-permanent treatments. If you like it that much, go for it. But if you have trouble selling the house in 10 years, don't blame us. Something like those tiles that are trendy *now* might sell a house *now* - but if they're not the latest fashion, then someone's going to see a bathroom that needs to be remodeled. And, as you know, that can get costly. Best of luck to you on the project.

If you don't believe me about the colors just being a fad, then you seem to believe that this trend is different than all the other trends over the past 50+ years. Just one example: funky colored appliances (now we're back to mainly white, off white, black, and stainless steel; why is that?) Going with green tiles, just because they look good today, goes against the advice of the majority of sensible advice.

Here's just one:
http://homerenovations.about.com/od/bathrooms/a/artbathremodtip.htm
Look what they say about colors. Once you're sick of the amazing green tile, and you will be, it's a major project to rip it out and replace it. Paint the walls & you can change the colors of your bathroom monthly if you wanted.

 

[SSUSeaWolf]

Several of us have said, and I'll say it for one final time: specific designer colors like that are very faddy, and will be outdated in a few years. There are dozens of ways to add other specific colors that don't involve semi-permanent treatments. If you like it that much, go for it. But if you have trouble selling the house in 10 years, don't blame us. Something like those tiles that are trendy *now* might sell a house *now* - but if they're not the latest fashion, then someone's going to see a bathroom that needs to be remodeled. And, as you know, that can get costly. Best of luck to you on the project.

If you don't believe me about the colors just being a fad, then you seem to believe that this trend is different than all the other trends over the past 50+ years. Just one example: funky colored appliances (now we're back to mainly white, off white, black, and stainless steel; why is that?) Going with green tiles, just because they look good today, goes against the advice of the majority of sensible advice.

Here's just one:
http://homerenovations.about.com/od/bathrooms/a/artbathremodtip.htm
Look what they say about colors. Once you're sick of the amazing green tile, and you will be, it's a major project to rip it out and replace it. Paint the walls & you can change the colors of your bathroom monthly if you wanted.

The green tiles are pretty mild. It's a simple design that looks nice and clean. You'll love it, don't worry

 

[peacetoad]

Glass tile is beautiful and definitely not a fad. Ancient Romans and Macedonian Palaces used glass tile mosaics to show their royalty. Glass tile is pretty damn fade resistant and sparkles in all types of lighting. Glass tile also comes in many unique shapes, textures and designs that other types of tile do not come in!

 

[alkemyst]

Glass tile is beautiful and definitely not a fad. Ancient Romans and Macedonian Palaces used glass tile mosaics to show their royalty. Glass tile is pretty damn fade resistant and sparkles in all types of lighting. Glass tile also comes in many unique shapes, textures and designs that other types of tile do not come in!

k thx, it may have been better to start a new topic. They are free.

 

[Fritzo]

Glass tile is beautiful and definitely not a fad. Ancient Romans and Macedonian Palaces used glass tile mosaics to show their royalty. Glass tile is pretty damn fade resistant and sparkles in all types of lighting. Glass tile also comes in many unique shapes, textures and designs that other types of tile do not come in!

I tried to save money by using broken glass tile.

I'm still recovering from the stitches.

 

[arkcom]

Why start a thread asking for opinions, then get mad/ignore what everyone says?

 

[amdskip]

Here's a bathroom I did for a friend in Alaska using tile from Lowes: https://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.waters/House#5490923075292368626