Where to buy tiles?

[wooohooo]

I'm looking at renovating my house and tearing out the linoleum and replacing it with tiles. I talked to a contractor but he just wants me to pick up tiles and he'll put them in. Anyone know where to get good cheap tiles? I prefer the 1x2 feet tiles, and preferably warm to the feet. I think putting in floor heating would raise the floor too high.

Thanks!

[Northendzone]

we bought our tiles at home depot.

i made the mistake of throwing down tiles on my basement floor without in floor heating - you could make ice cream on that floor in the summertime....

[Scoopdogg]

I got mine at home depot as well. I wasn't too worried about the quality of the tile though, I was trying to reduce the cost of my basement development. I ended up getting tile for 49 cents (it was a one day sale on the tile) per 12 x 12 tile. My contractor quoted me $6 per sq. ft, so I saved quite a bit right there.

[bc-chris]

i'm not sure about calgary, but i know in kelowna there are a number of flooring 'outlet' stores that buy up excess stock and sell them at a reduced rate

in kelowna we've picked up tiles at king of floors and tile & stone factory outlet

both had great selection and great prices

[Komskies]

Tiles in the basement eh? That sounds too cold for me.

[photon]

Tierra Sol is a nice tile store, and they have a room where they have stuff that's marked down hugely, discontinued stuff, or stuff that's left over from a big order, I did my downstairs bathroom in travertine for cheap from there!

[photon]

And I'm not sure how having the floor heated raises the floor too high, the electric warming mats are thin, it can't add more than half a cm to the floor can it?

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by photon

Tierra Sol is a nice tile store, and they have a room where they have stuff that's marked down hugely, discontinued stuff, or stuff that's left over from a big order, I did my downstairs bathroom in travertine for cheap from there!

Ditto for Euro-Tile.

[Tyler]

highly recommend Centura Floor & Wall Design

[topfiverecords]

I'm an interior designer and surprisingly I highly recommend Rona on Macleod. They have a really nice low cost selection. Also a ditto for Tierra Sol.

[beachy]

If Rona or Home depot don't have anything you like then I recommend The Tile Shoppe - just off blackfoot Trail in the SE. Best prices around for high quality tiles, not as big of selection as Tierra Sol or Centura but much better pricing.

[Rathji]

Any time I have purchased tile it has been for 99cents a tile or less, from Home Depot. Given I was tiling an area I didn't really care if it looked nice, but wanted it to be functional.

I don't think any situation in a basement would result in warm tiles on the feet, unless you had pre-existing slab heating. If warmth is a must for you, I would go with the heating pads that photon mentioned. They are not that big and you won't notice the height difference unless you are putting the tile in right beside hardwood or something that is crazy low to begin with.

[Caged Great]

I know the shop that's actually the distributor to all the other tile shops in Calgary, I have to look it up can't think of it off the top of my head, but I do know that it's a lot cheaper there.

I want to say Olympia tile, but I'll get back to you shortly.

[Caged Great]

Yes, I was right, it was Olympia tile. If your tile guy is registered with them as an installer, you can get a further discount as far as I remember although they may have changed their policy.

It's off blackfoot at 34th ave and 11th A street SE.

Definitely the best place to go.

[SportsJunky]

Olympia is a distributor just the same as Euro, Tierra Sol, Dal Tile etc... the only difference is that they don't retail to the public like most of the other wholesalers do.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by beachy

If Rona or Home depot don't have anything you like then I recommend The Tile Shoppe - just off blackfoot Trail in the SE. Best prices around for high quality tiles, not as big of selection as Tierra Sol or Centura but much better pricing.

The Tile Shoppe gets their tiles from Olympia, and marks them up a bit. While they're a bit cheaper than elsewhere, they're still more expensive than Olympia, and they're in the same area as well.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Olympia is a distributor just the same as Euro, Tierra Sol, Dal Tile etc... the only difference is that they don't retail to the public like most of the other wholesalers do.

He should definitely ask his installer if he has an account with them then.

For my house, I used marble, and I saved almost $2.50 a tile making a marble cost slightly higher than your average tiles... It is quite a lot cheaper and they have a wide enough selection.

Definitely worth looking into is all I'm saying.

[V]

If you want warmer tiles you'll have to go with a product like DuraCeramix. Even then, I'm not sure how warm they would be in a basement, although it would be a significant improvement over ceramic tile.

[Suzles]

We have a newly tiled bathroom floor in our basement and the height the floor was raised was probably about 3mm's. Got some tiles from Tierra Sol and some from Deerfoot Flooring - ask for Robert at Deerfoot - great guy to work with.

[wooohooo]

Thanks all, really appreciate this. This however is not for a basement, it's for the kitchen. I'm interested in the bamboo tiles which are about $4.00 sq/ft. That about a good price?