I did, we're buying our tile from the Tile Shop and I'm getting contractors pricing instead of shelf. It has brought my 1700 dollar purchase down to a more reasonable 1275! But I visited the store several times, and asked for the same sales person every time so by the time I was ready for pricing, he knew he had a sure customer and I felt comfortable asking.

Do your research before approaching them. Find out who the manufacture is and price the same tile at another store, and ask the other stores if they offer discounts too.

Price it on the Internet, too. We found our bathroom tile available on a web site, and the price was many hundreds less, even after taking shipping into account. We preferred to buy locally, so we talked with our contractor and agreed to split the difference.

Thanks so much for your responses. The $1275 gives me something to aim for, at least! I haven't asked who the manufacturer is. I was just relieved to find a Ming Green basketweave with white dot somewhere that didn't require a crazy long lead time and wasn't $50+ per square foot.

The tile we used had a mfg showroom about 45 minutes from my home and we went to look a few times and bought a few samples. When I was ready to order, my local tile store could get it for me and gave me a contractor's discount plus they had it delivered free to their store so I didn't have to drive far to pick it up. Well worth asking and finding the best price. I still can't believe that it wasn't cheaper going right to the source, seemed odd to me but that is how it worked for us! I too saved hundreds so it was well worth it.

What a terrific thread! I have been killing myself shopping out all the other things but never thought about it with the tile. Has anyone ever haggled with porcelenosa?

Hmm... All I can get out of them about a manufacturer is that it is "made in China" which I guess makes sense since it is Ming Green marble. Definitely makes it difficult for me to shop around, though!

liti, you just have to get persistent and think out of the box a bit. Ask for the manager, tell him you want to know who the vendor for that tile is. There are lots of places on line that sell it, if you can't get the information from that company call another one.

Well I totally cheesed out and just bought the floor tile and trim pieces. People with New York accents intimidate me, I have to say. And I do think the price was pretty good compared with other retailers I had spoken to.

BUT, I am trying to drive a bargain on my subway tile, because at least with that I have two companies to pit against one another!

fidoprincess thanks so much for the tips, yep I have been to their showroom in fact I have two within driving distance and have been to both. It is great to see these tiles up and in place cause sometimes you like a tile by itself and then when you see a whole wall of it you think naaa too much. It works the other way too. The showroom by me has a whole corner with gorgeous brown tile and then at eye level they did a iridescent 1x6 pencil tile with grays blacks frosted colors with a silver border above and below and it is stunning! I decided later that I didn't want to go with the brown cause I would probably get tired of it. I grew up in a house designed around brown so I didn't want to repeat it, not that I don't like it. The other reason I ditched the idea is I put a tile in my shower and left it there to see how it would handle the daily suds and water and it did spot up. So that killed it too. What I am thinking now is they have a white tile with a hidden linen pattern on it. It is really pretty, and very reflective it is 9.50 right now down from a year ago at 10.95. I am thinking of using it. It is 12x30" tile with the silver trim at three different levels horizontally wrapping the shower. At least that is the plan in my head this hour. Tomorrow it might be a totally different direction. In fact today cause I purchased this thick green sink I am thinking of doing that in the shower and tiny mosaicÂs over the sink area in a ocean wave pattern in tiny little tiles. This would have to be kind of an art piece I do by myself. Have to see if I can grid it up and see if I can pull it off. So many decisions and the tough part is what I do has to be what someone else will like too cause we might end up moving one day. Although after all this work I think I will chain myself to the bathroom. ; 0

jjaazzy, I think I know that white tile you love and it is beautiful. Similar to mine I think. Yes, I love how they do those thin metal strips. I couldn't use those because my construction was different but if you go that route, look at the schluter trims because they were nicer and waaaay cheaper and come in lots of different metals, colors, etc. You must be near NY or NJ to have access to two showrooms, lucky! Were they the same? Both have the same stuff?

I picked Meridian Blanco, 8X12's and hung them vertically on my shower walls with the cool basket type weave texture and then used sliver glass for my shower floor and the accents in a large stripe around, in the shower niches and on the front of my bench. The silver metallic glass is 1X2 in a running bond pattern. http://www.raffiglass.com/yossimetals.html It was one of the few that were rated for shower floors and I did not want a white shower floor so I am happy and it looks beautiful. I also used black galaxy granite.

Originally I fell in love with some red Trend glass tiles (http://www.trendgroup-usa.com) and ordered some but they came in orange, not a true candy apple red and I cried over that. I had already ordered and received my red blown glass light fixture and a red glass vessel sink with a waterfall faucet so you can imagine. In the end, I was so glad that it worked out this way because the silver glass really is more like a neutral and I can change out the sink and light easily enough if I get sick of the red. Apparently red glass is the most difficult to make!

I think I saw your sink on another post-very cool. Here are some links for some cool modern bathroom ideas using glass tiles to give you some more ideas.

http://www.hakatai.com:80/ImageGallery.aspx?tagid=14

http://www.susanjablonmosaics.com/glass-tile/amazing-bathroom-tile-gallery.html

http://lightstreamsglasstile.com/aboutus.aspx

For the last 2, click on a tile color and it shows installations. Some are incredible! I have another bathroom to do soon and I know that I will be doing glass tiles somewhere again. I love it and put it with the porcelanosa tile and it is stunning. Have fun with the planning because the actual construction is no fun at all! Pay special attention to the glass tile installation-get the mfg instructions and use all the stuff they specify. Also check out John bridge tile forums for more tips. Thank goodness I did because otherwise my glass installation would have failed. Because my shower is "floated mud" we had to wait for it to cure 2 days before installing the glass or it might have cracked-ack!

I was sold on The Tile Shop for months. I've been looking at their slate selections for months and haggled the price down to where the salesman agreed to give me original pricing (of course prices had gone up about 10% while I was trying to decide) and contractors pricing of 15% so about 25% total. However over time I had several changes to the shower design & each time he'd requote it for me I'd see the prices creep higher. The pricing wasn't clearly defined on the quote and when I'd ask he'd answer with something that made no sense to me. Frustrated with what I felt was a switch and bate, I decided to shop around. My DH wasn't all too happy with that idea saying the salesman spent enough time with us that we should feel obligated to buy from him. HUH? WHAT?? He has a much softer heart than I do...a true kind soul.

Anyways, I've now found the exact tile we wanted originally in another store. Not only is it priced lower but it actually seems to be cut more uniformly. I also found something else we like even better in the slate called Indian Autumn. Once again the prices were lower & the quality of cut is better than a comparable slate at Tile Shop. The best part though is, they are on sale so every size, mosaic & trim is marked 30% off. I got a quote and it's just shy of 500.00 less than a quote for the same order of tile from Tile Shop that supposedly includes the discounts I was promised. So the way I see it is I haggled and lost, but I shopped around and came out ahead.

Maybe its just me, but if staff is spending significant time educating me on a product I feel there is a moral obligation to purchase from that store. It is not a HUH? WHAT?? situation; staff time and display maintenance is not free.

John90505, Typically, if that salesman had been honest with me, I would have been loyal. But when I start getting jacked around on pricing, sorry, all bets are OFF. Simple as that.

liti, I'm looking at a ming green basketweave. Would you mind telling me what retailers you're working with?

If I were a customer I would always haggle the price of tile. Online deals can be great for glass mosaics and light tile. But for larger orders I would stick to local stores. They have a bigger selection and can save you hundreds off of shipping costs. You should try http://www.italiantilenyc.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Italian Tile