Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Looking for subway tile vendors

Master bathroom

I'm looking for replacement tile for repairs for both of my second floor bathrooms. Like many of the projects I discuss here, this one awaits sufficient funds. However, being who I am, I want to complete as extensive research as possible.

The existing tile in the two second floor bathrooms is white, 6x6 ceramic, with a flat glaze profile. The floors are comprised of a round "penny" tile.

There are several areas where replacement tile is needed. The most notable is in the shower in the master bathroom, where the bottom 4 rows of tile as well as the floor were replaced with a bad match at the time that the shower pan was replaced. Another large section was replaced with a slightly better match behind the door in the non-master bathroom. Further, several of the trim pieces around the door to the shower stall broke and were replaced somewhere along the way. There are also some other assorted trim pieces here and there in the bathroom which have been clumsily repaired. I'm unsure as to whether I would want to repair or replace them.

The only vendor I've seen thus far that meets my needs is Subway Ceramics. They have several shades of white and all the trim pieces I need. Clay Squared lists the basic tile at $20 a square foot and the trim pieces between $15 and $25 each.

Does anyone know of other vendors who might have similar tile available? I'm especially interested in seeing other manufacturer's tile so that I can compare the color, to find the closest match to the tile that I have.

2 comments:

artemis said...

Subway Ceramics or Clay Squared might be better bets since they're closer to you, but just wanted to throw out a plug for Art Tile in Oakland, CA, which is one of only a handful of original tile makers still in business. (They've been at their current location practically since this stuff was new!) They don't have a web presence---the site you get on Google is actually some unrelated company---but they're phenomenal at matching historic tiles if you have photos or a sample to send. (They're especially wonderful if you go in person, of course, but that's more of a challenge!) I don't know how their prices compare since we haven't gotten to that stage with our bathroom yet (and are looking at floor tiles anyway, so a different ball game), but it would be worth calling them to see. There's also a place in Seattle that will repair tiles, I think---can't remember the name.

BLuRr said...

Christopher, I haven't gone through these links in a while but you might find something here: http://www.vintagevanguard.com/restoration.html