Wow! That is some beautiful tile! What online source did you use? Thanks!

Geez, I just read my original post and am horrified by my terrible spelling and grammar. I'm sorry, folks. I was in such a hurry to post.

Anyway, I found the guy through ebay. First, I emailed 4-5 people who had won auctions from him recently to see what they thought of the tile. All were positive. His western name is Simon (he's Chinese...I think his real name is Jun). His business is called Marble Outlet.

I've opened all the boxes, but haven't inspected every sheet of the subway and basketweave yet. So far, I'm very pleased. The prices were fantastic and none of what I've checked so far has been damaged (he said he'd replace anything damaged in shipment for free). I feel like I'm doing a commercial, so I might as well add that this guy's price was about $800 less than what I was quoted at the stores.

Here are some more pictures:
The baseboard and chair rail:

You must be so excited. It's all stunning!

Mesh doesn't seem like such a good idea for this size: what if you wanted something but a running bond pattern? You'd just have to pull it off, I suppose.

But all your materials are very nice, the bath will look great.

Luckily, I'm a traditionalist and I want the pattern as it's been laid on the mesh.

Maybe they put in on mesh so they can ship it in larger boxes. When I ordered the first time from The Tile Shop, I had something like 28 boxes of subway. The UPS guy would have hated me if I had that many boxes delivered!

That looks a lot better than the stuff from The Tile Shop. I'm sorry you had a bad experience w/ them, while mine last spring was so positive. I guess they either are getting inferior product from China (trend), or it's just a bad pallet of marble(isolated). I have bookmarked Simon's ebay store!
I wish I could have afforded marble moldings, they are so classy.
Casey

I remember you posting in my thread back when I got my Tile Shop order in Sombreuil. I don't know if you saw the final chapter in that story, but basically, the salesperson (who wound up being the store manager) told me that no store could find the tile without yellowing.

They had perfect tile on display, but no full boxes to sell. I wrote to corporate and the store manager called me within 30 minutes of my submitting my email. I never heard from corporate, though.

Anyway, I'm glad the picking/buying of tile is behind me.

Beautiful tile!! I guess the only con is that you're restricted to doing a grout thickness that is based on the placement of the tiles on the mesh.

That is really beautiful. I wonder what it would look like as a kitchen backsplash (I'm looking high and low for inspiration....cabinets are white, and countertop is butcher block).....good luck. I hope you post photos once it's installed!

Never seen it on mesh either, but if the spacing is spot-on, I suppose it's all fine and dandy.

I had some mesh-mounted 3/4" by 3" stone in a running bond for a fireplace surround. The spacing was so bad and pieces were tipped this way and that. I ended up peeling them all off and hand-setting them.

Not a big deal because it wasn't a huge job. But a pain nonetheless.

But if it's on mesh it'd better be good, otherwise it's not just bad, it's real bad.

Mongo, that fireplace surround is gorgeous!! Worth the work.

Jeannine, your tile is gorgeous. Spacing looks good to my eye. I just had 3x6 tile done for my backsplash. Personally, I like the running bond pattern - I like the overlap of several tiles so you can see the shading/pattern differences between them - it emphasizes the beauty of the tile to me.

Can't wait to see the finished bathroom! (Bet you can't, either. ;-))

I too have been sourcing inexpensive marble for months now. I looked up the profile of eBay seller, and indeed he does have a manufacturing plant in China. products look good in photos, by my biggest concern is they're using a technique called marble composite, which is marble on the outside and a synthetic composite on the interior. prices are great for marble, but they're not genuine 100% marble.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shanghai Antica Stone

Is there any reason to think the synthetic inside is going to make the tile fail in some way?

FWIW, I'm pretty sure The Tile Shop and other chains are selling the same Chinese made product.

This is not a high budget project in a big home. I'm a single girl in a condo and I want to upgrade the bath for me and for sale one day. I had fallen in love with some thassos basketweave when I was doing my shopping, but putting that $40/sq ft in my 900 sq ft condo (mind you, I like the fact that I don't take up much space) wouldn't make much sense. I wouldn't make back the investment when it comes time to sell my unit and move on and using thassos on the floor would eat up so much of my budget that I'd be reduced to using cheap subway on the walls. I love the look of cheap subway times, but with the company that makes the porcelain chair rail I wanted out of business, I didn't find my trim options attractive.

Mongo, the tile in your picture is beautiful!

Hi jeanninepc99,

I realize I am posting on a thread that is more than four years old, so I am not sure I'll get a response, but I wanted to see if you were still happy with your purchase. Do you have any photos of what the finished product looked like?

We are considering getting the marble subway tile on mesh, too. Is it really that much easier to install?

Thanks!

I wound up pulling the subways off the mesh. My tile guy said that most of it looked good, but there were some spacing issues here and there. What's more, he was a fun guy who liked to lay out the marble the way the marble told him to (he actually said "the tile tells you where it wants to go...love him!).

I started a thread around here of my finished pictures. The only regret I have is not getting larger, 12x12 tile for the floor. I love the basketweave, but there are so many grout lines that I obsess over. I wish I had done a basketweave inset somewhere and stuck with large tiles on the floor. I also wish I had used slightly darker grout. I used Silver Shadow, I think.

That being said, the pattern on the floor probably hides dust. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished bathroom pictures

I just found the pictures that I posted here.

Here's my post about regrets.