Restoration Tile Response
sogo – I’m having trouble posting a response to your question about subway tile so I’ve had to create a new post. We’ve had good luck with Subway Ceramics, for tile restoration projects . You’ll never get a perfect color match, it’s just been too long – but they have the shape and a very…
sogo – I’m having trouble posting a response to your question about subway tile so I’ve had to create a new post. We’ve had good luck with Subway Ceramics, for tile restoration projects . You’ll never get a perfect color match, it’s just been too long – but they have the shape and a very similar light blue in their ‘light colors’ line.
http://www.subwaytile.com/glazes.shtml
Here are the sizes / Shapes: (take a look at ½â€x 6†– flat accent liner, which is not a pencil tile)
http://www.subwaytile.com/elements.shtml
Even if this were a new installation no company will guarantee a match between different batches and they always have disclaimers. I always recommend to buy at least 10% more to account for breakage (I like picturing someone repairing a project 20…30 years from now and happening across an unopened box of tile in the basement 😉
Anyway it’s a great company, their unglazed hex floor tile is a perfect match to what you find in so many of the original bathrooms. It was a good find for us.
I hope this helps.
Drew Stuart
Incorporated Architecture & Design
http://www.incorporatedny.com
Thanks! I guess we designed it, but it’s probably more honest to say we restored it. It had been ‘remodeled’ into a nasty 60’s type of bathroom, with a glass partition screwed down through the tub deck – we ripped everything out and refinished what we could, like to toilet, tub, sink, vanity and replaced everything else (of course the building required us to take all the plumbing back to the risers anyway). The fittings were all Waterworks and another great restoration company called Sign of the Crab.
Drew Stuart
Incorporated Architecture & Design
http://www.incorporatedny.com
This bathroom really is lovely. I appreciate it more after the long discussion with my contractors this morning about how high up the wall tile goes–I know 4′ is standard for chair rail. The tile guy they use tiled up to where the bullnose would go, leaving no space for the border I wanted to reproduce as he assumed we would want the subway tile all the way to the top. I really wanted to replicate the old bathroom. The compromise we have come up with is a higher height to accomodate border-subway tile-border, but not all the way to the ceiling. We have this same tub/shower combo (the original clawfoot tub and new plumbing) so I hoping with the higher height of the tile + the wrap-around curtain it shields the (brand new) wall from water.
And to finish, the border tiles: much as my heart is a preservationist, my wallet is depleted from this project and way into the negatives (as in credit cards). At Kelly’s suggestion on the original post, I went to Lowe’s this morning. The resemblance between the old tile–a much thicker tile and crazed, of course–and the new, thinner tile is uncanny (picture posted under original post as you can’t, as far as I see, post a pic with a comment here). And at $1.28 for a 6″ tile, there was no question what to do.
Thanks for all the information and help, once again.
Yes, that bathroom looks handsome. Was it one that you designed?
Nice bathroom!
Thanks so much for the resource;I really appreciate the time.