Heated Tile Flooring - An Affordable Luxury

With the days becoming shorter and the temperatures dropping, many folks are thinking about making their homes more comfortable and cozy. Thanks to advances in technology, heated flooring is becoming much more accessible to the average homeowner and isn't just for million-dollar homes. 

Why should I choose heated tile flooring?

When choosing a remodel project or building your dream home, adding a heat mat under your tile or stone floor not only makes a room more comfortable in cooler climates; it also adds value to your home without adding much more to the bottom line of the renovation costs. 

Many of our customers are able to turn down their thermostats because of their heated floors. The soft heat given off by a heated tile floor is quiet and less drying than forced air heating systems. 

Heated floors systems are much more energy efficient than they used to be and are a great choice for both small and large tiled areas. 

How do heated tile floors work?

At Elite Tile Colorado, we prefer to use Prodeso Heat Mat by Progress Profiles for a quality installation. The Prodeso heat membrane is a polypropylene uncoupling crack isolation waterproof membrane. In simple terms, this product separates the movement of the subfloor from the tile installation. In addition, this heat mat is an anti-fracture membrane. This is the only mat that is rated to protect against flexing of the floor between the floor joists. This translates into a more durable installation that lasts for years whether the heat is utilized or not. 

The Prodeso Heat Mat secures the heating wire and prevents tile from cracking.

The heated wire is inserted snuggly between the square nobs of the mat to ensure proper spacing. The mat also helps protect the wire during installation by keeping the wire below the surface being tiled. 

The floor is heated by the resistance that is created in the wire and can be controlled by a thermostat. Thermostats come in different varieties including programmable types. Some are even able to be controlled by smartphones.

The Prodeso heat membrane is designed to save time on installation which can save money and will have you enjoying your newly renovated space sooner. 

A coordinated effort 

A heated floor installation will have to be coordinated with a licensed electrical contractor with a dedicated power supply for the heating system. The electrician will also connect the power and install the thermostat to control the temperature of the floor. 

Most heated flooring systems run on 110-volt or 220-volt power. This gives you the option to use what is available or to use a higher voltage which can be more cost-effective in the long run. 

All photos and video courtesy of Progress Profiles.

A Custom Solution for Discontinued Tile

Recreating discontinued tiles was meticulous work, but it was worth it to save our customer time and money.

In addition to providing quality installations, we are sometimes called upon to do a repair. In a recent project, some old shoddy exterior renovations broke several tiles in a prominent place on an inside bathroom. Unfortunately, neither the of the two types of the damaged tiles were available, having been discontinued over ten years ago.

The homeowner wasn't in a position to redo the entire bathroom, so we were asked to do a patch so it was at least functional. The broken tiles were located right below the window on one of the most visible walls of the bath including the wainscot that ran around the entire room.

A patch would have been obvious and aesthetically unappealing, to say the least. Since the home was going to be placed on the market, the bathroom didn't need a glaring patch job to detract from the home's value.

The discontinued white base tiles could be cut down from larger white tiles, so that wasn't going to be difficult, but the Marazzi deco tile trim was another situation entirely. 

Tom Weaver, of Weaver Custom Contracting, wondered if we might try to remove the decorative tiles from a less prominent part of the bathroom to transplant into the repair area. I was concerned that the tiles would be damaged in the attempt.

Then I suggested that we try and recreate the discontinued tiles. Tom and the homeowner looked at me in surprise and asked, "You can do that?"

Honestly, I wasn't sure we could duplicate the intricate pattern of the deco tiles, but it was worth a try in order to save this customer a significant amount of money of redoing the entire bath. But my wife Mary and I both have art backgrounds and, together, I thought we just might figure out a solution.

The Process of Recreating Lost Tiles

Recreating the tiles involved finding the best base tile, the right paint that would last, and figuring out how to get the same texture and pattern onto the new tiles.

We bought a few tiles to try, several paints, protective glazes, and tracing paper, and transfer paper. 

There was lots of texture in the original tile, and the pattern was difficult to reproduce. Getting the right shade of the sage-greenish gray was time consuming, and we had to let each sample dry to see if it would match. 

Then the pattern had to be traced and transferred to the tiles that I cut down to match. Several attempts at hand painting the tiles didn't produce all of the textured nuances of the pattern, so Mary went in a new direction.

To create a consistent look between all of the tiles, she decided to get the base color texture first. This was done with a thick coat of ceramic paint. Paper towels were pushed into the wet paint to pull off some of the color. It took several attempts to get all four replacement tiles right, but the results were very close to the original. 

Thick ceramic paint and paper towels helped make the textured base color of the replacement tiles.

Instead of painting white over the green to get the scroll design, Mary etched off the green base paint with a knife to reveal the white underneath.

Hours of etching were employed to recreate the intricate scrolling pattern.

Can you spot the original?

After the tiles were painted and etched to Mary's exacting standards (I won't tell you how many times she scrubbed the tiles clean to start over), I sealed the tiles with a durable finish. 

Finishing the Repair

It was very satisfying to see Mary's hard work be integrated into the repair. As you can see, the results were more than satisfactory!

Making progress on the custom tile repair.

Adding the custom-cut top trim.

Success!

Grouted and finished!

Here at Elite Tile, we're committed to finding solutions for seemingly impossible problems. We're pleased we could help our customer with this unique task and save her thousands of dollars. 

Give us a call and we'd be pleased to help you find creative and cost-effective solutions to your tile repair challenges.

Project Closeup: Penrose Tile Kitchen Backsplash

A panoramic shot of the Penrose Tile Project.

Every so often we get to participate in an artistic vision that we get pretty excited about. After seeing what Elite Tile Colorado was capable in other areas of his home, our customer came to us wondering if we might attempt a Penrose Tile pattern on the kitchen backsplash. 

What is Penrose Tiling?

Sir Roger Penrose, an English mathematical physicist, investigated patterns back in the 1970's and discovered a beautiful and revolutionary pattern of tiling that can cover an infinite plane in a pattern that never repeats. 

Roger Penrose in the foyer of the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, standing on a floor with a Penrose tiling. Photo: Wikipedia Commons.

Math Meets Art

Here at Elite Tile, we live for these sorts of challenges and were excited to make our customer's dream a reality. This Penrose Tile kitchen backsplash came together beautifully with planning and cooperation with lots of contributors. 

We gave our input to decide how large the tile pieces needed to be in order to showcase the pattern effectively. Then the pattern was worked out with the homeowner and plastic templates were created in order to produce a layout. 

Tile Gems

This scope of this project required tile that was an art form in and of itself. Glass artist Hal Bond of Northwest Glass Tiles was commissioned for this lofty task. We worked closely with Bond, sending tile samples back and forth from Washington to Denver, Colorado until we found the best look to showcase the design.

The gorgeous glass tiles are a cobalt blue with different textures. Bond suggested that he incorporate more texture into the large rhombus pieces to give the eye another way to visualize the pattern beyond just the grout lines. 

Brilliant color and texture created by glass artist Hal Bond of Northwest Tile. 

We computed the number and sizes of the custom tiles required for the glass mosaic, and Northwest Tile delivered!

The Process

Bill Parker installing Penrose Tile.

Creating the Penrose tile layout on 3M sheeting.

Grout time

Any mistakes you make will show up when you grout. But when the tile is installed professionally, it's time to shine!

Bill Parker carefully grouts the Penrose Tile. Look at those perfect joint spaces!

The Finished Project

As you can see, this is an incredible one-of-a-kind space that will be a centerpiece to this gorgeous home for years to come.

Let Elite Tile Colorado create a custom tile installation and make your visions become a reality!