Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/493534
A PR IL 2015 | 47 Hard Surface Flooring PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY AMES TILE & STONE LTD. H Hard surface flooring continues to be a strong choice for designers, builders and homeowners with the pat- terns becoming more stylish than ever. At Ames Tile & Stone Ltd. designs straight from Italy are in vogue for 2015. "We are seeing a lot of products coming down the pipeline lately including a historical look," says Curt Higham, designer liaison and product specialist. "We just bought a line called Terra, which is a nine-inch by nine-inch hexagon tile that comes in three different shades of grey and offers 12 different historic decors." The second exciting new product for Ames Tile & Stone is called District Garage that features a worn, rusty look in a 30-inch by 30-inch tile. "It also has a slight metallic appearance. When we were at the show in Italy, we were sitting in an outdoor café and a woman drove up in a cream coloured Vespa that looked like it came from the 1970s, with scratches on the side of the scooter that had rusted. That reminded us of the colour we had just seen with District Garage," says Higham. Tiles that mimic wood floors are also popular. "We just picked up a line called Inedito which means uned- ited in Italian, so it is a very raw looking wood design," explains Higham. "It has some wet glaze on it to make it look like you've sealed the wood floor but it dripped. The practicalities of wood-look tiles are helping drive the sales. We get so many people coming in and saying their dishwasher flooded and ruined their hardwood floors. If they had a tile floor down it would not have been a problem." Olympia Tile has a number of new products for 2015. Introduced at the Interior Design Show in Toronto, the Alabastri Di Rex series features a 24-inch by 28-inch polished porcelain tile replicating the look of Alabaster. "The Alabastri Di Rex was a winner with the attendees," says Lauryl Sandler, manager, resi- dential division. "Throughout the show designers and architects were shocked at the outstanding features in the new stone duplicates being offered, often asking if maintenance would be required, assuming it was a natural stone." Another st ylish offering from Olympia is the Calcatta Vintage series, a three-inch by 12-inch tile that is a honed replication of marble and can be installed in a herringbone pattern if desired. Calcutta Vintage is also available in large format tiles up to 24-inches by 28-inches. "We also have the timeless style of the hexa- gon with the Castello 16-inch hexagon porcelain tile. Additional new series of two-and-a-half-inch hexagons in matte and gloss will be available for walls and floor applications for the Spring," says Sandler. The look of wood continues to be a popular choice with over 10 series available in numerous sizes. "We also offer a wide range of products for any application, including glass tile, marble mosaics and stainless steel," adds Sandler. Stuck On You MAPEI Inc. has introduced a new single-component, ready-to-use grout that makes the job easier for tile- setting professionals. The MAPEI Flexcolor CQ is a water-based styrene acrylic co-polymer with a propri- etary admixture package using coated quartz aggre- gate technology. This next generation grout offers a triple benefit to installers – workability, cleanability and colour consis- tency. "We are focusing on the commercial installer, to bring them MAPEI quality with the ease of ready-to- use grout," says David Mowery, tile and stone instal- lation systems business manager for colour products and the UltraCare line. "This is not the old-style pre- mixed grout, but a next-generation product that is simple to apply and almost effortless to clean. It leaves little to no haze on the tile after the initial wash." Mowery adds that MAPEI Flexcolor CQ should elimi- nate callbacks from consumers about grout not being colour consistent throughout the area of their tile floor. "This product combines chemical resistance and stain resistance comparable to epoxy grouts with the abrasion resistance of cementitious grout to bring the On Neutral Ground Hard surface flooring draws style inspirations from the past by LAURIE JONES Terra tile from Ames Tile & Stone Ltd.