Carrara Bianco 4×16" (taken from 8×16") Tile and cut to order

4x16 Carrara TileWe now have the ability to customize orders which is a great leap forwards.  This 4×16″ tile was created specifically for a customer.  They found the lot of Bianco Carrara 8×16″ they wanted (an entire crate of 340SF) and then had us cut the number of 4×16″ needed for their project.  The 8×16″ was $8.95 a square foot and was polished.  These are machine cut and the micro bevel is put back onto the 4×16″.

This is not our regular operation and sometimes it just will not work out.  This particular customer was looking for a shower of 8×16″ around the bottom, then a border to go above that (we just happened to have the perfect lot match of random length polished mosaic $11.75SF) and then a 4×16″ tile installed above that.

With Venato Carrara, the collection is very consistent from size to size the base color, veining are all very similar it is great for alternating tile size designs and complete bathrooms.  Bianco Carrara is vastly more complex (as it can have heavier veining or lighter veining the base can vary from very light, lighter gray to not as light gray), we have 6 different lots of 8×16″ alone and 5 different lots of 4×12″, if we do not know what your plans are, how can we select the right matches?  Obviously we will do our best to match up the Bianco and having so many lots really does make it possible (but any information on the comments section when you place your order really helps).

For smaller companies with just 1 or 2 lots it would be impossible (that is why they buy from us).  The same applies for the trims, we have multiple trim lots, so we can match up to the orders.  The idea is when a customer orders a Bianco bathroom everything matches as close as possible, like this room scene (this customer did not email us his plans to go from 8×16″ to 3×6″ we did our best to match everything together and it turned out great.  We just used a different lot of 8×16″ polished that matched the 3×6″ polished – we have to do this hundreds of times a month, it would have been nice if in the comments a little note was there saying ‘for shower; 8×16″ will be at the bottom, then chair rail and 3×6″ at the top, please match as best as possible”, 99.9% of customers do not do this, I have no idea why).

However there are some customers that a) want a perfect match or b) want a certain style that is not available in every format they need (for example they do not want the 4×12″ Bianco Polished we have they want 4×16″ Bianco Polished and they want it to be the exact same veining from the exact same block)  The normal answer here would be “we would need you to buy a block from Italy and then have everything cut from the same block”.  The cost would be 3 to 4x what we have online.  You also need to go to Italy and find the block.  Which is fine for multi-millionaires, but to be fair multi-millionares are not shopping online for the best price 🙂  Their staff is managing it for them and cost is irrelevant.

For the rest of us that are trying to create a 5 Star Bathroom retreat and add significant value to our property we are looking, and price and quality is very important.

There are minimums associated with this type of fabrication, a min order of 300 square feet is required to cut (volume is the key to getting the product going – so definitely not for everyone).  The cost to cut the tile is a minimum of $1.50 a cut and that varies depending on the size of the job.  Little job then higher cost, no one wants to move machine parts, aline, measure for the sake of 40SF. Have your local tile guy do that.

There is also the cost of shipping to and shipping from the Fabricator. However even with all these additional costs you have to remember you are only paying $8.95 a square foot for the 8×16″ marble.  You will incur additional cost for example on this project:  The cost to cut the 8×16″ in half was $1.94.  There was 9% loss (waste).  The cost of the 4×16″ Carrara worked out to be roughly $11.50 a square foot.  Not too bad considering it was a perfect match, as you can see from the picture attached.

If you are considering a really complex bathroom design in Bianco with multiple format (sizes of tiles) changing up the wall then please contact us, we want to match the best we can.  Every bathroom for us is a working display.  If you need sizes we do not carry then please email us at specialties@thebuilderdepot.com we can have tiles cut to size.

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