Where to find ceramic tile

[red sky]

Hello fellow CPer's,

I am looking at renovating my kitchen floor with ceramic tile and I was just wondering if anyone knew where the best/cheapest place to find some of these in Calgary? I know Home Depot/Rona carry some but I was wondering if anyone knew of other places.

Thanks in advance,

Red

[algernon]

Northland construction supply has pretty decent prices, and were really helpful. Tierra Sol has an excellent selection, but prices are a little steeper.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

2nd for Northland in terms of supplies. My Schluter Kerdi Shower Kit was 20% cheaper than rona there. Tile selection was decent but nowhere as big as Tierra Sol.

Kensington Floors has a good selection and is convenient but they're pricey.

[Ironhorse]

Euro-Tile on 42nd is one of the places where the pros shop. Huge selection, but not exactly cheap though.

[photon]

Tierra Sol has a discount section in the back where they clear out stuff that's discontinued and stuff, I've got some excellent deals from there before.

[red sky]

Thanks, well I think I will take a look at Northland construction supply first and see what I can find there

[Nufy]

Mi wife works at Stone Tile West. Behind the Casino on Blackfoot.

Very good products there. Very expensive......

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

2nd for Northland in terms of supplies. My Schluter Kerdi Shower Kit was 20% cheaper than rona there.

Thats an awesome kit isn't it? did my shower with that..works great

[Flames_Gimp]

i've bought all my tiles at homedepot/rona/totem. so can't suggest anywhere to go

[redforever]

I would go along with Northland construction too. Also Terra Sol.

You should think of porcelain though, not ceramic, if you are doing floors, much more durable product especially for a heavy traffic area like a kitchen.

Northland usually has slate at dirt cheap prices too. That is a nice alternative for a kitchen floor as well.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

Thats an awesome kit isn't it? did my shower with that..works great

Haven't got to that stage just yet but all the research I've done and the install video I watched tells me this is going to be an unbeatable product. I think it'll speed up install quite a bit with the pre sloped pan and preformed curbing.

[red sky]

Yeah, I was actually thinking slate may be a little better for the kitchen.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by red sky

Yeah, I was actually thinking slate may be a little better for the kitchen.

The only thing to keep in mind with slate is it is not an even surface. Now some slate is more uneven than others and any good tile installer will know how to remove the excess. If this is a job you are doing yourself, keep that in mind and ask about the type of slate you might buy. Slate as well has to be well sealed. Not a hard thing to do, but it has to cure properly before you apply the sealant. If parts of the base are still damp, and the slate is not dried completely, once you add the sealant, the color will pretty well stay the same.

A lot of the porcelain tile out has an uneven surface as well. But with porcelain, at least your surface is already sealed. You will have to cure your grout lines though and apply a sealant to them. Well I should say it is desirable, especially in a kitchen area. It will help prevent stains. If you are messy in the kitchen and spill stuff, for sure, seal your grout lines. My installer put on 2 coats of sealant initially and 6 months later, I put on another coat. You can get a small applicator bottle with sort of a little brush end, a snap to seal the grout lines.

Northland Construction has a special sealant for the grout used on floors as well. Penetrates more and is more durable than the stuff you would use to seal grout lines in your bathroom shower.

We just did a big reno in our house, took a year, but is now done. I went with porcelain tile in my kitchen area, back entrance, laundry room etc. I have a large country style kitchen, big area, so went with big tiles, 18" by 18". Keep the size of your tiles in line with the size of your kitchen. For my kitchen, having a bunch of small tiles, with a gazillion grout lines would be pretty awful to look at. The tiles I chose also have an uneven grout line, in other words, not completely straight. I wanted a Tuscany feel, something that would look like old natural stone tiles, and the ones I found really do bring out that feel. They are not uniform in color either, there is variance, so picks up the different hues in my granite countertops and wood in my cupboards. Quite a natural look and feel in the end.

There are a gazillion products out there now, all different looks, sometimes almost too much to look at, can get pretty confusing unless you know exactly the look and feel you want.

[red sky]

Thank you very much red. I appreciate the extended feedback. I am looking at doing it with someone who has some experience on laying both hardwood and tile's. I like the idea of an 18" by 18" as well but my kitchen might be a little small for that. What do you mean that the tiles that have chosen have uneven grout lines? By chance do you have any pics that you can post?

Thanks again. You can always count on CP for the best information gathering system. I swear it is up there with google.

I learned a little something about tiles and 2Girls1Cup today. Pretty good for a Friday if you ask me

[redforever]

Originally Posted by red sky

Thank you very much red. I appreciate the extended feedback. I am looking at doing it with someone who has some experience on laying both hardwood and tile's. I like the idea of an 18" by 18" as well but my kitchen might be a little small for that. What do you mean that the tiles that have chosen have uneven grout lines? By chance do you have any pics that you can post?

Thanks again. You can always count on CP for the best information gathering system. I swear it is up there with google.

I learned a little something about tiles and 2Girls1Cup today. Pretty good for a Friday if you ask me

Ok, the guy who did all my tile does it this way. He takes that plumb line thingey, yeah, I am a female and when I don't know what those tools are called, they are a thingey. Anyhow, you can use it on walls or on floors, you pull out a long line, give it a flick and it makes a straight chalk line. Anyhow, my tiler did this on my whole floor surface first of all, north and south, east and west. So my whole floor was a grid of perfecty square 18" by 18" blocks, well a bit bigger I guess to allow for grout lines. I have a semi circular open stairwell kind of in the center of my house that goes to the walk out in our basement. Now the tiles go north of that stairwell and they go south of that stairwell, but on the east side, the grout lines have to match up, understand what I mean? You can not eyeball something like this, so my whole floor was a big square grid first of all. What was really unbelievable is that my house was originally built 20 years ago, and like everything except for one wee wee small area by the curve of the stairwell is almost perfectly straight. They don't build houses now like they used to, mind you , we had a custom builder and had our own specs made up so that does make a difference as well.

Anyhow, back on topic now, this is how my tiler always does any tile job and then one piece of tile fits within one square on your floor. Now with most tile, they will have a completely straight edge, as if you drew a line on it and cut it perfectly straight. My tiles have a somewhat irregular edge, not perfectly straight, a bit wavey maybe you could say, but not really, just a bit of an irregular edge, kind of if you cut out a piece of natural rock on your own and hand planed it, make sense? The tiles are all still in perfect squares, it is just the grout lines that are a bit irregular. In other words, the grout line is a bit fatter in some areas, a bit skinnier in some areas. It has a real Tuscany feel to it. We live in the country, so have a large country style kitchen and eating nook, wanted it to have that old country warm feel to it. I have all natural materials, well the floor is porcelain but still looks natural, I have granite countertops, travertine backsplash, oak cupboards and have used natural earth tones on the walls and my fabrics etc, sort of that nice soft chammy cloth color.

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by red sky

Yeah, I was actually thinking slate may be a little better for the kitchen.

better check out your floor structure and calculate the floor deflection to make sure you can even install stone tile.

[Flames_Gimp]

i'm installing porcelain tile in my kitchen as we speak..well i'm giving the orders lol

We are going to find the center of the room and lay our first tile centered, and work out from there so we have equal cuts on both sides and a nice centered, even floor. I will post pictures of the install later if you like.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

better check out your floor structure and calculate the floor deflection to make sure you can even install stone tile.

Good point. We had a demolition team that took out all the old flooring in our house, upstairs and downstairs. We had lino before in the kitchen and work areas of the house, with K3 under. For sure, that has to go, you can not put any type of stone or tile product over K3. So they removed all of the K3, down to the original plywood subfloor. Then the tiler added new plywood on the top, glued and screwed it and the tile went over that. You need the proper base to support the weight, any give and your grout lines are going to pop.

[Flames_Gimp]

should know the size of your joists, and the length of the un-supported space. and the joist spacing. check out this calculator http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/deflecto.pl

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by red sky

Yeah, I was actually thinking slate may be a little better for the kitchen.

A friend of mine has slate in the kitchen and it's a PITA to clean if something gooey gets dropped on it due to the uneven surface and bumps. That and it's painful for your feet to stand on after a while.