Tile Help

[lordgalvar]

I need help finding a tile. I ordered them a year ago and get the "it's on a boat/dock" or "hasn't been ordered" excuse every time I talk to my supplier. He is usually pretty good and has always treated us fair, but, like most of these construction and construction related companies, they eventually fall apart (for various reasons...seen it many times in my plumbing days).

Basically, I need to know where I can find a tile similar or exact to the one pictured below at a reasonable price. Been fighting it too long and can't find any alternatives (which would be awesome if we could actually find a working alternative). Problem is that the entire kitchen (which is completed) is based around this design...the walls, floor to ceiling, are meant to be this tile. Only option we have found was to have it made at a 300 to 400% price increase (which would be like painting 4 walls for 8k or something). Color, as long it is close, isn't the biggest deal but it has to be of neutral character (no white or other kinda solid colors...linen or tan would be ok I guess...gloss finish is a must). The size is what they call 6x6. Need around 180 sq ft

Don't know if there is anyone that can direct me around here, but it is worth a shot I guess.



Hell, if you lead me in the right direction and it leads to this getting done, I will happily send over a pedal or something. This whole thing has wasted too much of my time.

Already exhausted Tierra y Fuego and other "known" online suppliers.

If you live in a place and know people that will make this for us, we can broker a deal and freight it (pending details). A part of me feels like the LA tile places are a little scammy and kind of refuse to deal with individuals...because we bring in an insignificant profit to their business.

Don't think this thread is appropriate? Delete it.

[DRodriguez]

Have you tried local suppliers? My brother works in stone and marble in Austin, and I know they tend to be cheaper and more reliable than stuff you find online because of the human interaction and whatnot. Try to find someplace like that wherever you are.

[lordgalvar]

Been to around 40 local suppliers...either want to out source to a custom guy (who I also know and talked to about doing it and they all use the same guy), they give me the "I don't know? Never seen a tile like that." thing, or want to charge $40 a sq ft (and take 4 months to make it in another country).

The guy we had been using was local. I keep most of my business local. But when they say crap like "oh, plain subway is your cheapest and in your budget at 5$ a tile" I know most of these a-holes are just that...a-holes here locally...those subway tiles are $0.69 from DalTile.

For the most part, if it doesn't look like "Flip or Flop" (which is that shit marble look), the don't got crap down here in LA....they cater to flippers and high rollers.

I guess what I am getting at is there is no human discount in LA (even if I have already spent 20k with one supplier....they just lie to me). It's one of those places where they have a kitchen sink on the wall for $350 and you go "I'll take that" and they say "oh, that isn't your price that is for our people with credit" "But I have cash" "Oh, we don't do cash"...or they flat out will not talk to you (which actually happens a lot at suppliers and bars...if you don't look like LA Money, you ain't getting helped...and I got the Bakersfield accent*...so fuck me basically).

Sorry, but LA isn't a fun place to do anything. haha.

I'm really not that angry, just explaining the LA dynamic. haha. Just gets old walking into a store and getting ignored or a worse price (and I know how suppliers work...worked with Ferguson, Familian, Hajoca, etc for years...but this is straight "I don't see a commission from accounts in the future" stuff). I'm actually really nice and have waited one year for this tile and never once yelled or even was harsh with the guy. Just kept explaining the situation and then all the sudden it changed. Literally, the most patient person I know.

Honestly, we have looked into buying a kiln...that is where we are at...but I can't even find the unfinished ones like I used to be able to find...

The prices they are giving us are that high...higher than upgrading our electrical panel, buying a kiln, and glazing our own unfinished ceramics. So it is just dumb.

Heck, DRod, if your brother wants to frieght them out to me and can give me a good price, I'd go for it.

* whole 'nother thing...and it wont ever make sense in explanation.

[Invisible Man]

Sympathies, LG.

Feels like I know a great deal about you from your assorted tile travails, torrid affair with ring modulation, anarcho days, and the bits of ethnography you've scattered in posts about Bakersfield/LA. Please just start a thread where you talk about Bakersfield and your thoughts on it, because I don't know anything except the mean stuff people say about it.

Basically, I love that you write novella-length posts on shit only a handful of other people on the planet know about, and feel compelled to encourage you to keep going.

Oh, and Crass.

[spacelordmother]

No promises, but I'm an interior designer and will check my connections.

[Chankgeez]

I knew I recognized that shape from somewhere:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQL9U-fCQ64[/youtube]

[coupleonapkins]

Sympathies, LG.

Feels like I know a great deal about you from your assorted tile travails, torrid affair with ring modulation, anarcho days, and the bits of ethnography you've scattered in posts about Bakersfield/LA. Please just start a thread where you talk about Bakersfield and your thoughts on it, because I don't know anything except the mean stuff people say about it.

Basically, I love that you write novella-length posts on shit only a handful of other people on the planet know about, and feel compelled to encourage you to keep going.

Oh, and Crass.

ALL OF THIS. Mostly I only know of Bakersfield via Buck Owens, so I enjoy hearing about your take on that place, LG, good/bad or indifferent.



Good luck with the tile situation - that's a killer shape!

[Mudfuzz]

fan is a common shape but that longer tail I can see why you are having trouble finding an exact.

[D.o.S.]

Have you tried contacting George Lucas or the Rebel Alliance?

[Chankgeez]

George Lucas isn't gonna be of any help:

[lordgalvar]

Sympathies, LG.

Feels like I know a great deal about you from your assorted tile travails, torrid affair with ring modulation, anarcho days, and the bits of ethnography you've scattered in posts about Bakersfield/LA. Please just start a thread where you talk about Bakersfield and your thoughts on it, because I don't know anything except the mean stuff people say about it.

Basically, I love that you write novella-length posts on shit only a handful of other people on the planet know about, and feel compelled to encourage you to keep going.

Oh, and Crass.

Maybe someday I'll write about Bakersfield. One of the last (if not the last...can't remember the whole story) wild west stand off shoot outs was in Bakersfield if that is any indication of the mentality. My wife has repeatedly told me to stop ramblin on about Bakersfield though and maybe she is right. It was a weird, unique place until urban blight/bad city moves took the character out.

Gotta remember Earl Warren was from Bakersfield! That is something I guess haha.

You forgot lastgasp though! haha...ummmm, yea, I don't get out much working from home and stuff

coupleonapkins: We were so pissed when they changed Pierce Rd to Buck Owen Blvd...though I don't really know why. We got Korn Row too...

Crystal Palace was pretty cool. Got to see Buck Owens there (heck, they would actually bring in some bad ass acts back in the 1990s for dinner shows...which is kinda silly in a way). Totally tacky though. After Buck died, they cleaned out the store rooms there and found a Moog Modular...like one of the earliest ones. I guess Buck bought it and never used it...just stored it for some reason...maybe he was going to started riding a bike several hundred kilometers a day and do a Kraftwerk project similar to his rock alias Corky Jones.

Sadly, Red Simpson died in Jan. Don Rich was a bad ass too.

George Lucas isn't gonna be of any help:

I wanna see Spock swing my tiles at that guy.

Have you tried contacting George Lucas or the Rebel Alliance?

And no Star Wars in the house. Star Trek wins! Speaking of Bakersfield...part of that movie Trekkies was about the Bakersfield Star Trek Club (I think they were called Nemesis...did a lot of charity work for the group homes). I have a giant white wall in the backyard...was going to paint my dogs and cats in a hot air balloon with my wife's band name around it, but I'm doing a Kirk and Spock duel one now since it looks like we ain't getting the tile...

Thanks spacelordmother! Any help I can get is amazing...and like Mudfuzz said, it is probably just difficult to find, esp. in the finish (i've been told that you can only get that finish from Thailand because of the different makeup of the raw clay and glaze...but I don't really know how true that is...it kinda came off like a "we don't want to put the effort forth" kinda comment). But the finish was flexible, which is what I told them (just in the same family of shades).

But yea! Thanks everybody for making this thread fun and any help. Any time Star Trek shows up...'tis a good thing. (not really a trekkie though...just watch it when I get bored sometimes). Shatner did do a charity for my mom when she was assistant director of CPS in Bakersfield once....the coincidences!

We might end up just going with a traditional Hacienda/Arabesque repeating latern style pattern even though it is kinda getting played out...

Kitchen has Sepele cabinets, copper countertops, and encaustic concrete floors if anyone was curious. The light fixtures are cast iron (actual cast iron).