$14.95SF Carrara Hexagon 5×5″ Mosaic Marble Tile

Carrara Bianco Marble Honed Mosaic Tile 5×5″ (ETA June 2012)

Premium Italian Marble Cut into 5″ Hexagon Carrara Marble Mosaic

Earth Day 2012

This year we like every year we look at ways to become more efficient.  Recycling as much as possible, turning off lights, neither heating nor air conditioning our warehouse – which admittedly can become a little uncomfortable and trying to find as many ways as possible to conserve and save.  Not just because it is good for the environment but because it is fiscally responsible allowing us to provide our customers better value.

Earth day is a great reminder to review our company environmental policy.  To our contractors and small businesses that we distribute to, please take the time if not today but Monday to review your own policy.  Even just a simple sticky on the light switch saying “turn me off” or if the office hours are 9am to 5pm have them automatically turn off at 5:30pm.  Every bit helps.

The Builder Depot 1.5″ x 3″ Brick Metal Mosaic installed

1.5″ x 3″ Brick Metal Mosaic Tile from The Builder Depot used as a feature backsplash in this Peter Rose Architecture designed kitchen. Although it is only $14.95SF this premium mosaic is used in the finest of residences throughout North America.

Continuing our review of The Builder Depot products highlighted on the web we say thank you to Houzz.com and Peter Rose Architecture and Interiors for posting the picture.  Wonderful work and not just this and the use of our product as a backslash but all the other incredible work by this Archicture firm.  It makes us proud that our metal mosaic was selected to be used as one of the key decorative features in this kitchen.

Of course the size 1.5″ x 3″ is not typical many other suppliers offer a 1×2″ brick metal mosaic.  We decided (and are the only company to offer) on the 1.5″ x 3″ brick metal to create a slightly cleaner less busy look and it is nice to see consumers and designers in agreement.  Thank you to Peter Rose for taking the time to specify our product on the picture used in the installation click here to see.

This product happily retails for $40-$50 a square foot in boutique Tile & Stone retailers.  The uniqueness of its format commanding the highest of prices. The reality is if you remove all these boutique costs thebuilderdepot.com can sell premium metal mosaics for under $15 square foot.

Calacatta 3×6″ Subway Tile

When installing a small area with Calacatta 3×6″ polished subway tile you need to layout the tile prior to installation.  You can use the white blanks to create a less veined whiter appearance or vice versa.  Here is an example of blanks from a box.

If you remove the heavier veining or add you can end up with a look that is perfect.  This is the difference with Calacatta to Carrara it takes a bit more time to create the design.  It is a puzzle.  The advantage of our Calacatta 3×6″ subway tile is that it costs considerably less.  You can afford to buy an extra 15% and then create the look you want by discarding or adding tiles.

When Calacatta 3×6″ Subway Tile is correctly laid out and installed there is no better marble.  It is one of the most sought after natural stone products in the world. It adorns some of the most exquisite buildings throughout history.  You can see why. It has dramatic and captivating veining along the subtlety of a softer whiter base when compared to its Carrara cousin.

Carrara 2″ Hexagon Bianco Honed Mosaic Tile $10.87SF

$10.87SF Italian Carrara 2″ Hexagon Marble Mosaic Tiles

A builder and developer favorite and one we constantly run out of stock on (just for short periods while we wait fo the next container to arrive). At just $10.87SF (making us the most afforable oline supplier of genuine Italian marble) builders buy this product up in great amounts.  Some have no intnetion of installing for months they just want to know when it comes time they have it.  It is our high standards in regards to the block selection from Itlay, not just any old block will do – so this limits our availability of raw material.

Carrara Bianco Basketweave Mosaic Border

Premium Carrara Basketweave Marble Mosaic Border

Carrara marble basketweave border mosaic tile is one of our most popular borders for our Carrara collections.  We have been out of stock for a few months – however May (next month) we will have a inventory of this product.  We are always asked – why do you not just buy 5 pallets of this and then you would be able to always have stock.  Quite simply while there is 5 pallets of Carrara we could get to turn into Basketweave borders, there is not 5 good pallets that we want to use of one trim.

It all comes back to the same argument.  Getting Carrara is easy, getting “good” Carrara is not and that is simply the reason why we cannot have hundreds of pallets of Carrara in stock and the main reason we run out.  We hold ourselves to a higher standard and sometimes we cannot get a quality of blocks from Italy we want.  If we cannot get premium quality blocks of Carrara we cannot make products for our collection and this is the reason for the interruption from time to time.

Natural Stone Bullet Designs – Poll

#1. LagosAzu Stone + Carrara Marble + White Marble

#2. Carrara Marble + Gray Marble + White Marble

#3. Jerusalem Gold Marble + Crema Marfil Marble + Wood Vein Stone Marble

#4. Crema Marfil Marble + Emperador Dark Marble + Emperador Light Marble

#5.  Crema Marfil Marble + Emperador Light Marble + White Marble

#6. Blue Stone Marble + Moon Stone Marble  + White Marble

Carrara Venato 6×12″ used in Bathroom

Carrara Venato 6×12 Honed used in the shower

Carrara Venato 1″ Hexagon ($10.95SF & Free Shipping) on floor. Note how white the Carrara Venato Collection is making it one of the most sought after stones in the USA

Square 1×1″ Carrara Venato Honed Mosaic used as border

Carrara Venato 6×12″ Honed Subway Tile (Consistent is background color with attractive veining)

Recently these pictures were pointed out to us so we thought it would be helpful to add them to our “reviews” of online reviews.  Uploaded onto Gardenweb September 2011 is a shower using our Carrara Venato 6×12″ subway tile honed.  It shows how white the Carrara Venato collection is with Carrara 1″ Hexagon on the floor and 1×1″ Square mosaic used as a border.  It is this white look that is so desired most other Carrara lines are gray and dull by comparison.  This is the link on the blog: GardenWeb

We would like to say “thank you” to this customer and for going to the trouble of mentioning us in the blog.  There are many home improvement blogs and with the huge quantity of marble we sell it is no surprise that we are reviewed online by many customers.  Our “Reviews” section on our blog is a review of the best we have found to date.

These independent and unpaid reviews are really the “word of mouth” of the 21st century.  It allows consumers to review products and for a company like ours to spend very little on marketing, investing funds instead in the product itself.  70% of our business is from referrals we send very little on marketing instead we focus these funds on offering premium products at low prices.  A zero marketing budget allows us to remove one more cost in the distribution chain.  It is our efficient distribution chain of quarry to consumer (with no additional cost) that allows us to sell premium products like 6×12″ Carrara or 6×12″ Calacatta Borghini for almost unbelievable prices.

It is this unbelievability (not sure that is even a word – spell check likes it) that we hope reviews like this will help resolve.  So many customers ask “how is it possible to sell at these prices?”.  No frills marketing, little overhead and large volume is our answer.

Consumers are so used to buying boutique marble products from high end Tile & Stone retailers that when you strip out the cost of these Tile & Stone retail showrooms and remove the cost of their lengthy distribution channels (as there is little room for a warehouse if you have a showroom – so they buy from a distributor who add 50% mark-up).  You can sell the best Italy has to offer in Carrara and Calacatta marble at incredibly low prices.

And while the Tile & Stone retailers do not like us (to say the least) our customers love us!

Happy Easter 2012

Carrara Venato Herringbone Mosaic Tile

Carrara Honed Herringbone $12.45SF Venato Collection

It is such a classic that occasionally a picture is needed.  Carrara Venato Herringbone marble mosaic just $12.45SF (includes shipping).  Perfect for flooring.  Available in Carrara Herringbone Honed and Herringbone Polished.