Nero Marquina Black Marble Basketweave Mosaic Tile

Nero Marquina Black Marble Basketweave Mosaic Tile for $10.95 square foot

Carrara Venato 1″ Pennyround Mosaic Tile

Incredible white based Carrara Venato Honed 1″ Pennyround Mosaic Tile from thebuilderdepot.com collection of all Pennyrounds can be found here

I am no hand model, but even I can make this mosaic look good.  Taking the picture one handed as well 🙂

Carrara Bianco 3″ Hexagon Honed Fireplace

Italian Marble Hexagon Mosaic Fireplace.  Bianco Carrara 3″ Hexagon Honed from The Builder Depot for $11.75 a sheet.

 Italian Carrara marble Hexagon looks great as a fireplace for the blog post in Handmade Home Mantel Makeover

And of course the before and after picture.  But to get more details please visit their website the handmade home

Calacatta Baseboard, Chair Rail and Pencil Honed

Incredible lot of Calacatta trims arrived this month.  This picture shows Baseboard 6×12″ Honed • Chair Rail Honed • Pencil Trim Honed this lot# 052014cbh is now in stock.  If you are interested in this particular Calacatta lot please let us know.  If you are matching to existing Calacatta tile you have purchased from another supplier then please really let us know before you buy as matching up to someone else’s stone is not easy and we should work together on that to ensure a good match.

Baseboard $25.75 Piece • Chair Rail $22.50 Piece • Pencil Trim $12.95 Piece 

 

Glass Subway Tiles – Gray Glass Tiles

Brilliant glass tiles Charcoal Gray 3×6″ Subway Tile on the left and Ocean Gray 3×6″ on the right (both $9.95 square foot and Free Shipping

It has been since 2011 but this month The Builder Depot re-entered the Glass Tile market.  Back in the early days we had not agreed the best method of production, so after two years of planning, improvements and investment we are back.  You can see the price point back in 2011 we used to be around $11.80SF and the customer had to pay for shipping.  Today with our improvements the exact same 8mm premium glass tile is just $9.5SF and FREE SHIPPING! (for 2015)

We think this is a Brilliant improvement.  A significantly lower price than two years ago.  In fact we thought it was such a brilliant improvement that there was only one name we could think of for the collection.  “Brilliant Glass“.  So here are two of the products in gray shades.  This collection will be a very subtle collection, soft colors.  A product that can be used in conjunction with Carrara marble.  Like this spectacular bathroom with light Gray glass tile I think a smoke gray would work as it is the lightest gray on the spectrum we offer (we would like to offer one more so from white to Light gray, Smoke gray, Ocean Gray and the Charcoal Gray).  Glass Subway Tiles on the wall and Carrara 2″ Hexagon on the floor, just Brilliant.  Brilliant Glass Tiles from The Builder Depot.

Glass Subway Tile with 2×2″ Hexagon Carrara Venato Floor Tile

Limited time only and you can see the little notation on the bottom right – while we have stock 🙂

From left to right: Brilliant White • Ocean Gray • Smoke Gray

This customer really was great sending pictures before the project really got going.

Then taking pictures before on the other side of the bathroom

AFTER: The customer ordered 65 Square Feet of Ocean Gray 3×6″ for $9.95SF and Free Shipping in 2015 (this price is valid throughout this year). This blog will be up for years. So prices no doubt will change.  What an amazing transformation.  We are so grateful for anyone sharing. We are not aiming to be millionaires just a growing group of people trying to provide the best quality look after our families and give back to the community.  Simple.

The Ocean Gray is such a great color. White grout and just a simple design and you have an incredible bathroom.  All this glass tile was delivered for less that $650.00, erm… Brilliant 🙂

Carrara Bianco Arabesque Mosaic Tile

Premium Arabesque Mosaic Tile available in honed and polished for $16.95 a sheet.

Why the minimum order on Porcelain Tile?

There are only two ways to ship the product:

#1. Freight LTL. This is product placed on a pallet, collected at our loading dock and loaded with a pallet truck onto the UPS freight truck. It takes that truck to the local Atlanta Terminal and then splits up shipments sending them on another truck to a local terminal near you.  Then that local terminal will call to make an appointment for delivery on another truck with a lift-gate.

#2. UPS or FedEx Ground

#1. The rationale for the 40 Square Feet (SF) minimum order:  In short we need weight to stop the drivers picking up your order by hand and damaging it, shippers will pick up lighter shipments (the drivers) and squeeze them between other shipments, if there is a gap, if there is not a gap, they will still try and stand it up on an edge and then just let it fall back down with a crash (once the supporting shipment is pulled out).  We know this, we have seen this with other peoples shipments, we ask then not to, please be careful with the products not just ours but everyones. But they are tired of traffic, hot and can be having a bad day.

Let’s say 20SF ships LTL Freight, it would weigh 110Lbs, the driver can pick it up, he will want to move it out of his way to create more space so he can get other shipments off quicker. If your order is between two shipments and they shift, the top (your product is exposed) to the other two shipments and they will squash it, smashing into it. The pallet has wood all around the edge with the product is in the middle, the wooden pallet not only acts as a support but as a buffer, the product does not hang over the edge. It is designed to ship flat, the pallet protects it from the pallet truck, other shipments and the side of the UPS truck.  They cannot stack on it.  It is not designed to be lifted and stuck on it’s side.

At 40SF we are getting over 170Ls, maybe close to 200Lbs with the weight of the pallet.  The driver is not going to enjoying lifting this, he cannot move it easily, it will not slide.  The percentage risk drops significantly of the driver moving it or even attempting it. Also in transit it will not shift.  The drivers scan down the shipments they carry looking for the light ones.

#2. Ground Shipments; this is not even slightly possible.  Porcelain by nature is fragile and ground shippers see “Fragile Handle with Care” as a suggestion, in addition the conveyor belts the companies use have drops and knock around the shipments. The product will snap, chip and break.

I know you want less than 40SF and the product is really nice. We have priced it at a point where we can have no more than 5% damage or chips during transit (as a chipped tile can be used as a cut end piece – this is acceptable as stated in our shipping and damage policy).  We have not priced our products for 50-60% damage, whereby we would have to keep re-shipping more and more UPS ground to replace the damage.  This would simply increase the cost of the product, UPS or FedEx will not pay the claims and if we have to hire people to have a “claims department” then we have just increased the product cost and something is wrong.  That is not what we want.  Not what you want!

We are able to sell at these prices because of this very reason. The margins are very low. We price it so that when we ship it, it arrives intact (within 5%) and the customer is happy.  Prices go up when companies have to keep re-shipping. This business model does not work for everyone, perhaps 70% of customers.  We apologize to the 30% that it does not fit – the customers that need smaller orders.  But all we can do is control the quality of the product.  We do not control the shipper.  But with weight in the shipment we can ensure they are limited on how much it can move or be moved.  That dramatically increases the likelihood of a perfect shipment.

In time we hope to have another website or option where we will be able to bubble wrap each sheet of mosaic. So people can order just 20SF and after lots of testing be confident it can survive shipping from GA to WA without damage greater than 5%. That would of course be a different business model and the product price; for example of a Dove Gray for $11.25SF would become $16.75SF to pay for the additional labor and packaging materials.  Ultimately anything can be done but it comes down to cost. We have just priced everything to the lowest point aiming at the markets largest segment.

Please note minimum orders do not count for local pick-ups.

Carrara Bianco 1″ Pennyround Mosaic Tile

Carrara Bianco 1″ (25m) Pennyround Marble Mosaic Tile $12.95/SF available online from The Builder Depot.  This is an incredible lot of mosaic sometimes it just looks good it has a slightly lighter base and then the perfect veining in the stone, you can see how it shows in this picture.  Lot# BLG050914 (for reference when ordering).

Layout of our Carrara Bianco 1″ Pennyrounds.

 Premium 1″ Pennyround Mosaic Tile incredible how they cut this stone into circles.  What perhaps is equally amazing is the fact that we can sell this quality for $12.95 a sheet.  How long will this stay in stock?  Not long with retailers selling this for $40.00/SF+.  Why do we sell for just $12.95/SF – because we can.  Keeping our operational costs low and getting this direct from the quarry is the key to being able to sell for incredible prices.  You won’t see us advertising in Home and Garden for hundreds of thousands of dollars or fancy graphics with pictures of ladies in tile dresses.  All our pictures are taken by our warehouse employees with just an iPhone.  That is “No Frills Marketing” taken to the extreme.

Carrara Venato Honed 1″ Hexagon Mosaic Tile

This was one of the first products introduced over a decade ago and is still one of the best selling marble mosaic tiles.  It is such a classic look and at a price of just $10.95/SF you can see why available online from The Builder Depot.

Carrara Bianco 2″ Gray Dot Octagon Mosaic Tile

Carrara Bianco Italian Marble Octagon Mosaic Tile with Gray dot available online from The Builder Depot for $12.75/SF

Premium Italian marble with a Gray dot instead of the usual Black dot