Buying Tiles Online:
What You Need to Know Before You Decide
Selecting the right tiles is an exciting step in transforming your home or office space. While visiting physical tile stores has its merits, online tile shopping has truly revolutionized the experience. From unmatched convenience to a broader variety of options, buying tiles online allows you to make informed choices from the comfort of your own home.
Here’s everything you need to know about getting the most out of online tile shopping and how we make the process simple and stress-free.
Convenience at Your Fingertips
Say goodbye to store hours and scheduling challenges. Visiting tile stores in person often requires taking time off from work and coordinating schedules with family members. If there are children involved, planning these visits can become even more complicated. With limited time available, many people try to visit several tile stores in a single day. By the end of the day, after seeing so many different options, the experience can become overwhelming, and instead of feeling confident in their choice, many homeowners find themselves more confused than when they started.
How Lighting Affects Tile Appearance
One major challenge when selecting tiles is lighting. The color of a tile seen in a showroom will rarely look exactly the same at home. Light has two important characteristics: intensity, measured in lumens, and color temperature, measured in Kelvin. Even if one of these matches the lighting conditions in a home, the other often does not, which means the tile can appear different once it is installed.
Daylight introduces another variable. It is much stronger than most indoor lighting, and under bright daylight many lighter tones tend to appear almost white. In addition, daylight itself changes color throughout the day. Around noon it can make surfaces appear pale, while from the afternoon toward sunset the light becomes warmer. Because of these natural variations, it is very important to see a tile in your own home environment before making a final decision.
Daylight introduces another variable. It is much stronger than most indoor lighting, and under bright daylight many lighter tones tend to appear almost white. In addition, daylight itself changes color throughout the day. Around noon it can make surfaces appear pale, while from the afternoon toward sunset the light becomes warmer. Because of these natural variations, it is very important to see a tile in your own home environment before making a final decision.
An Adventure You Can Avoid: Getting Full-Size Samples from Tile Stores
Now let’s move on to samples. Since seeing a tile in your own home is an important part of the decision-making process, many tile stores are not very willing to hand over their showroom samples. The sample you take home might be another customer’s favorite, and stores prefer to keep their displays complete. While some distributors may provide extra samples, customers are often still charged for the piece they take home.
In most cases, you also have to plan a separate day just to pick up tile samples, often visiting several stores. Today’s tiles are also much larger and heavier than they used to be, which makes transporting them less convenient. You need to carefully carry them in and out of your home, and if the tile gets damaged, you usually cannot return it.
Another important point is design variation. Many modern tiles are produced with multiple faces to create a more natural look. If you are considering a tile with a subtle design, the single sample you went through the trouble of picking up may not represent the overall appearance of the tile. To truly understand how the tile will look, you need to see a room setting image that shows the tile installed across a larger area.
For many reasons, tile stores also do not always use the same product names as the manufacturers and often treat their sources as a trade secret. This can make it difficult to find room-setting images or additional information about the tile online. In this respect, online retailers often have an advantage because they can provide more visual references to help customers make a confident decision.
In most cases, you also have to plan a separate day just to pick up tile samples, often visiting several stores. Today’s tiles are also much larger and heavier than they used to be, which makes transporting them less convenient. You need to carefully carry them in and out of your home, and if the tile gets damaged, you usually cannot return it.
Another important point is design variation. Many modern tiles are produced with multiple faces to create a more natural look. If you are considering a tile with a subtle design, the single sample you went through the trouble of picking up may not represent the overall appearance of the tile. To truly understand how the tile will look, you need to see a room setting image that shows the tile installed across a larger area.
For many reasons, tile stores also do not always use the same product names as the manufacturers and often treat their sources as a trade secret. This can make it difficult to find room-setting images or additional information about the tile online. In this respect, online retailers often have an advantage because they can provide more visual references to help customers make a confident decision.
Will Online Samples Really Help Your Decision
Assuming the quality of the tile is not in question, two things become most important when making a final decision: seeing the tile’s true color in your own home, and touching the surface to understand its texture. Along with these, room-setting images help you imagine how the tile will look once installed across a larger space.
This is exactly how our online store and sample program were designed.
While the majority of online stores offer only 4×4 samples, we provide 10×10 samples, which are about six times larger in surface area. These larger samples give you a much better sense of the tile’s color and surface character.
At the same time, they remain small enough to move easily from one room to another. You can take them to your designer, place them next to other materials, or keep them with you when selecting additional interior elements such as paint colors, cabinets, or other flooring materials.
Just like a full-size tile may not show every face or variation that appears after installation, our 10×10 samples cannot display all pattern variations either. However, you can place the sample next to your computer and compare it with the room-setting images on our website to better understand how the tile will look once installed.
This is exactly how our online store and sample program were designed.
While the majority of online stores offer only 4×4 samples, we provide 10×10 samples, which are about six times larger in surface area. These larger samples give you a much better sense of the tile’s color and surface character.
At the same time, they remain small enough to move easily from one room to another. You can take them to your designer, place them next to other materials, or keep them with you when selecting additional interior elements such as paint colors, cabinets, or other flooring materials.
Just like a full-size tile may not show every face or variation that appears after installation, our 10×10 samples cannot display all pattern variations either. However, you can place the sample next to your computer and compare it with the room-setting images on our website to better understand how the tile will look once installed.
Cost of Interstate Shipping
Tiles are heavy, and freight is an important part of tile pricing. A pallet of tile typically holds around 496 square feet and weighs approximately 2,500 pounds, which makes transportation costly. In many cases, when you purchase tiles from a traditional retailer, you are already paying for the freight because it is built into the price of the tile.
However, freight may not be as expensive as it first appears. For example, if we increased our tile prices by just $1 per square foot, we could easily advertise “free shipping” to most states. Instead, we choose to keep our tile prices transparent by separating freight from the product price and contributing a portion of the shipping cost depending on order size.
So while seeing a $2,500 freight charge on a 3,000 square foot order might seem high at first glance, when you look at the overall cost, you will often find that the total price remains significantly lower than buying tiles where freight is hidden inside the product price
However, freight may not be as expensive as it first appears. For example, if we increased our tile prices by just $1 per square foot, we could easily advertise “free shipping” to most states. Instead, we choose to keep our tile prices transparent by separating freight from the product price and contributing a portion of the shipping cost depending on order size.
So while seeing a $2,500 freight charge on a 3,000 square foot order might seem high at first glance, when you look at the overall cost, you will often find that the total price remains significantly lower than buying tiles where freight is hidden inside the product price
Breakage
Shipping tiles naturally raises concerns about breakage. However, our delivery process is designed to minimize this risk. Instead of relying on standard LTL freight networks, where pallets are often transferred between multiple trucks and terminals, we use transit delivery whenever possible. This approach reduces handling and helps protect the tiles during transportation
We have been shipping tiles across the United States since 2014, and during that time we have not received complaints about breakage during delivery. Our experience has shown that careful packing and controlled transportation methods significantly reduce the risk of damage during shipment. Learn more about our shipping.
We have been shipping tiles across the United States since 2014, and during that time we have not received complaints about breakage during delivery. Our experience has shown that careful packing and controlled transportation methods significantly reduce the risk of damage during shipment. Learn more about our shipping.
Begin Your Tile Shopping Journey Today
Choosing tiles online becomes much easier when you evaluate them in your own space. Seeing the color under your lighting conditions, touching the surface, and comparing the sample with room-setting images can give you a much clearer understanding of how the tile will look once installed.
Explore our collection, order larger samples, and take the time to evaluate the tile in your home before making your final decision.
Explore our collection, order larger samples, and take the time to evaluate the tile in your home before making your final decision.
