A custom blend of the CartGlass Classic Series of mosaic glass tile is shown, designed bv Hiromi Architects and installed in a California residence.

The wood-look porcelain tile in mambo red is pictured.

European bathrooms: Steuler LED and Terranova Tiles

Don't meddle with metal tiles. They can differentiate a bathroom, and a builder, from its competition.

A custom blend of the CartGlass Classic Series of mosaic glass tile is shown, designed bv Hiromi Architects and installed in a California residence.

The StoneXPress/Laura Ashley collection is shown here.

A Chicago residence features a waterjet cut tile mural in the foyer by Creative Edge.

Finally, there has been a resurgence of tiles emulating wood in the market as of late. The newer, higher levels of technologies used in the porcelain tile process have enabled manufacturers to create incredibly realistic wood-looks, which can be taken beyond the place where, according to Young, "real wood could actually go — both in look and durability.

When considering real wood vs. tile emulating real wood, there are a number of advantages on the tile side of the equation. First, it is obvious that tile will stand up better under any wee conditions. Additionally, tile can be used outdoors and in commercial situations that could be challenging for wood. Tile is also fire and frost-proof and does not take the life of a tree, which helps deal with the environmental concerns that many across the globe are expressing today.

Waterjet cuts it

Today's most knowledgeable designers as well as "with-it" contractors and even savvy home-owners know something about waterjet technology; The process is a computerized, cold cutting procedure that can cur most materials into any two dimensional shape. Anything that can be drawn on a computer can be cut by an abrasive waterjet system. Marble, granite, porcelain and even terrazzo are excellent materials for the waterjet process and frankly, cannot economically be cut into complex shapes, over and over again, in any other way.

According to Harri Aalto, co-owner of Fairfield, Iowa-based Creative Edge Master Shop, a waterjet fabrication facility, "die process is almost like making a large jigsaw puzzle out of hard-surface materials. We get a design, deckle which materials are needed based upon color, availability and of course, performance and then cut this custom project to die customers* specifications. Today’s rile contractors know how to install waterjet-cut pieces. But to help them, we provide a large schematic indicating which pieces go where. Each piece obviously is marked accordingly," concluded Aalto.

Waterjet murals for walls and floors, once only offered to the commercial sector, are making their way into the nations most custom-designed homes. And the process is now more affordable, as well.

Tile and stone can add uniqueness and flair to today's home designs

By Ron Treister

Tile for today's residential applications is offered in a plethora of materials, sizes, shapes, colors and surface treatments. Tile is no longer just used for entryways and/or the "wet areas" (kitchens and baths). There are appropriate tile products for virtually every room of every home built or remodeled. Here are some of die trends in the current marketplace.

Don't meddle with metal

Creative Metalized Products had always worked with metal, and it wasn't until approximately four years ago, when it began producing lightweight metal tiles.

"We restructured the company because it had been mainly doing metal architectural elements such as doors, columns and cladding for walls — not decorative riles," said Mario Klappholz of Ceramic Consulting Corp. and co-owner of Creative Metalized Products. "We saw a market demand for metal tiles."

Klappbolz believes that today’s metal tiles are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also solve many architectural and design problems. They are a fraction of the weight of solid metal. Solid metal veneer is only 1/32 of an inch thick, he stated.

"They are used for inlays, decorative purposes for backsplashes in kitchens and bedrooms, decorative o walls and for wainscots in hallways of public areas," said Klappholz.

"Basically, we make every size you can imagine — 1 by 1 in., 2 by 2 in., 4 by 4 in., 6 by 6 in. and even larger. We have all sizes and shapes for different applications. As tar as design goes, what we otter is limited only to one's imagination. We can go completely three-dimensional."

The tiles are available in five metals, including bronze, nickel/ silver, brass, copper and iron rust. These metals are offered in many different finishes — gloss, satin, antique, rust and verde, which is A greenish patina that is the result of oxidation.

"We seal all our dies with a special sealer that we developed with a chemical company," he said, "It offers water and UV protection, and maintains die tile at the level that you buy it at. Once we seal the tile, it completely stops die aging and oxidation process. Scaling protects the riles real metal look tram changing, and makes maintenance simple and easy."

According to Klappholz, the tiles are not metal all die way through. "The back of the rile is a resin product," he said. "The tile surface is metal. It's a process that gives you real metal as you see it, hut the filling and backing is resin to get much better adhesion, and its lighter than pure metal. Additionally, these tiles are easy to cut if necessary, making user-friendly installations."

Stone is not just for castles

While the entire floor covering industry remains strong, stone has continued to lead the way in terms of annual growth rate for die past several years. Stone is becoming more and more important to distributors, dealers and installers, as tile industry has quickly adjusted to capitalize on the growing popularity and acceptance of stone, not to mention the chance for the much larger profit margins that stone products can provide. A remarkable 50 percent of stone is imported from world markets, historically led by Icily, but several other countries are chipping away at market share each year as Turkey, Brazil, China and India all enter the mix. Granite, long die most sought after stone product, has begun to slip back to die pack with travertine, slate and limestone continued rise in popularity. The No. 1 usage of stone in die United States is now exterior facades, followed closely by flooring and countertop installations. Still, the bottom line remains that stone is one of the honest markets in the industry today.

"The natural stone market is booming," says Bill Reid, executive vice president of sales and marketing for StoneXpress in Kennesaw, Ga. "The growth has exceeded ceramic, porcelain and hardwood for the past three years. Leading the way is travertine, and what they call honed, filled, or tumbled finishes. Polished marble is another new trend to look for in die next few years. Up until about five years ago, stone was used primarily as a kitchen backsplash or countertop, but now we are seeing explosive growth in upscale residential bathrooms, as well as foyers, dining rooms and hallways."

Glass is class

The increasing popularity for tile products isn't just limited to ceramic, porcelain and stone; glass tile has been on the steady rise, too. More and more architects are specifying glass tile for its splashy colors, performance and overall versatility. Perhaps the easiest product in the industry to manufacture and purchase, glass tile not only offers unlimited design capabilities, its relatively inexpensive compared to other products. More and mare American firms haw created comprehensive Web sites where glass tile can be inexpensively purchased online in large quantities. A popular product in residential backsplash remodels and wet areas of the bathroom, the commercial building sector has begun using glass tile for mosaic glass walls and artistic glass murals for entranceways of hotels, restaurants and casinos.

"Since around 2002, the marker for glass tile really started 10 grow," said Ann-Brit Maiden, vice president of marketing for Hakacai Enterprises in Ashland. Ore. "In the past two years, glass rile has really come into the forefront as a surfacing material for more than just an accent or decoration. The trend of glass tile has gone beyond more traditional uses of residential kitchen backsplashes and tub surrounds... and more and more architects and designers are specifying glass rile, both commercially and residentially."

European bathrooms have emigrated to the U.S.

European bathroom design and consumer awareness to this have come a long way over the last ten years. From the plain and necessary "wet room," it has clearly developed into an area where one feels good and wants to spend time. Hence, die awareness for materials used, especially tiles, has increased considerably.

According to Paul Heklens, CEO of Steufer-Plicsen, a leading German manufacturer or "higher-end design tiles," it is a specific aim to design and produce tiles that allow consumers to decorate, energize and personalize their bathroom with extraordinary, though affordable tiles. They allow wails and floors to radiate and provide that extra touch 10 a room. We believe dial high-design tiles allow bathrooms to be decorated with a classical texture making use of today's selected collection of larger size ceramic and glass tiles.

Currently there is an increasing tendency where European bathroom designs are moving over to the United States. Tilt: manufacturing companies throughout Europe are convinced to provide an interested consumer community with truly original und individual tiled bathroom spaces," concluded Heldens.

Porcelain rules in a big way

In the past decade, porcelain dies have rapidly gained ground vs. traditional ceramic tile that has dominated the market for centuries. Why? For many years porcelain tile was only available for commercial type products and not really suited well for residential applications. So, a technology evolved of glazing porcelain tiles similar to how a glazed surface was added to traditional ceramic tiles. This opened the door for limitless new designs and applications for porcelain. Consumers have begun to understand the advantages of glazed porcelain tiles and in many cases are asking, to see only porcelain rile products, rile, higher firing temperatures for

According to Paul Young, general manager of Mediterranea, "the process of porcelain tile production product, This process provides a frost-proof material chat has less than a 0.5 percent water absorption rating, and is typically much more chip-resistant than traditional ceramic tiles. Another trend is the move to larger format files. Young adds, "Where 8 by 8 in. was the standard years ago and 12 by 12 in. in the '90s was still going strong, many markets have migrated to 18 by 18 in., 20 by 20 in. and even larger sizes. For many manufacturers today, the majority of their sales nationwide are in their larger format tiles. We at Mediterranea believe the simple fact that larger format tiles simply look better in almost all installations and that consumers prefer fewer grout lines. Even a small 10 by 10-ft. bedroom appears to be larger with 18 by 18-in. tiles installed than it would with 12 by 12-in. tiles."