Monica J.
12/03/2013 12:00:00 SA
It took months, nay, years for us to decide on what to do about the flooring in our home. When we bought the house I knew that the carpet was looking worn and would need to be replaced in a couple years. But what to replace it with? There are so many choices today with different styles of carpeting, laminate, wood, and tile. After a few stains (a full glass of pink Crystal Light - that stuff does not come out!) we ruled out carpet. I like the look of wood and so we went back and forth and talked to many people about the merits of hardwood vs laminate. Both don't do well with a lot of moisture and I really wanted the same flooring in the kitchen and main living area, plus the room that leads to/from the pool. So, we settled on tile. A friend of ours has ceramic tile that looks like wood in their entryway so we started exploring those options. Unfortunately, most of the ones we looked at had a wood-ish design to them but really were not going to trick anyone into thinking they were wood. And most were in the short thick rectangular shape (8"x24") pieces.
When we went into Flooring America the first time we kind of browsed around and then left without making any commitments. The sales girl was friendly and answered our questions but didn't put on too much pressure. Once we had narrowed down to the wood look tile we went back in and met with another salesperson who showed us all the options they had. That was when I realized just how many different product choices Flooring America has to offer. The store is just a showroom, they don't have inventory there so that is why it seems so much smaller than going to a tile wholesale place or big box home improvement store. But really they have a huge selection! The type of tile we were looking at ranged in price from $4 a sq ft to $12. We picked a few that we liked and made an appointment for them to home to our home. They want you to see the samples in your own environment with the lighting and your furniture since that is the only way you can tell if you are going to like it or not.
Well, of course I ended up falling in love with the most expensive one they had. It is a porcelain tile made in Italy by Cerdomus (Barrique series, Brun if you are interested). It was the most wood looking because there were a lot of variations in the pattern that looked like natural wood grain and the actual tile pieces had some texture to them instead of being smooth and overly shiny. And it came in a variety of sizes (4X24, 8X24, 4X40, 8X40). Dale gave us a discount as a way of apologizing for missing the first appointment. That was a smart business move since when we were waiting around for him the first time I was already thinking "There's no way we are going to use this company if they don't even show up for the estimate." They were also running a promotion on installation so the overall cost, although very high, was still a good deal since we were getting such a quality product. The main thing I like about this company is that they do it all for you: help with the initial design selections, move furniture and do the demo of old flooring, and install the tile. We ended up using all four sizes to make a really great pattern that looks awesome! The main guy laying the tile was Dale's son and he was very trustworthy and professional.
There were a few glitches with scheduling. But that was mainly our fault since we ended up getting new baseboards (yes, they offer those, too) and then decided we wanted to paint the walls after the tile was done but before the new baseboards went on. So, of course by the time the painters were done the tile crew had moved on to a new job and had to squeeze us in to finish up. Another hiccup was that they ran out of tile (just one size) on the second day and had to order more which delayed things a couple of days. However, the nice thing about that was that Dale ate the cost of the extra tile since he said it was his mistake in measuring/ordering. Another company would have probably tried to pass that cost on to us. In spite of these couple issues the overall process was smooth because of how competent and courteous everyone at Flooring America is. I think we got a very, very high quality tile at a reasonable price and it looks really great! There are a few spots where the tile is not perfectly level (hence minus one star) but so far we have gotten a ton of compliments from friends and family and I am very pleased.