I am considering installing porcelain pre-attached backerboard quick snap edge flooring from Lowes and was wondering if anyone has read,installed or seen reviews on this product.
Edge Flooring. What a great idea.
you might want to check what others had to say about this stuff, but this is my experience with it.. you can find other comments here -
John Bridge Tiling Forum - Edge Flooring
What a great idea this stuff is.. unfortunately, that's where the positive comments end.
I was at Lowes picking out tile for our master bathroom when my wife commented on spending a little extra on Edge flooring to help to save myself some labor. It seemed like a good idea.. I didn’t really mind the tiling or grouting, but was not looking forward to laying backerboard necessary as it was going to be a second floor installation.
The room is roughly 80 sq ft.
Here is a summary of the problems I had.
The sections being 2 sq feet instead of 1 required a little more planning and thought each time one was placed. I’ve done rooms with real tile before, and it’s mark, cut, and place. But with the edge flooring (maybe I was just getting tired) several times I measured and cut right, but realized when I tried to place the tile that I had cut it with the tongue and grooves on the wrong end.
Even if I chalk that up as my inexperience.. it was still frustrating – Each incorrect cut cost me $6.80, although in some instances I was able to reuse some of the incorrectly cut pieces.
Of concern to me is the way the tiles near the sides tend to rest higher than the main part of the floor.. because the floor sits on padding, it only makes sense that the tiles on the end are not compressing the padding as much. When stepped on those tiles noticeably depress. Not sure the result of this in the long term or not but it does not happen at all with real tile.
The saw and jigsaw blades were a waste of money.. the jigsaw blade lasted through 3 tiles before the cutting edge was nothing more than a bare strip of metal. The saw blade wasn’t any better than a diamond blade that I had for cutting, so I returned the blades and used the diamond one.
The door frame strips didn’t work correctly. Someone else had mentioned how they had to ‘rig’ it to work. Here’s the problem with the frame strips. They are designed to go from a lower surface to a higher (the higher being the tile). I can assume that it would have worked correctly if the previous flooring was laminate even with my old carpet and I was installing ON TOP of the laminate. (thus making the new surface higher).. But it seems to me the more common situation is to remove the old stuff (I had carpet in the room previously). Once installed the carpet is nearly the same level as the tile.. What Edge should do is have a door strip for each circumstance. I would have preferred to have the edge strip snap down over the edge of the carpet to hold it in place.
Grout. Wow.. This needs to really be a message all in itself. How bad is this stuff?
30 Sq Ft per can?!?! Anyone get that? I managed to get 19 Sq Feet for the first THREE cans.. Although, here’s a tip if you are insistent on using Edge flooring.. The Lowes had 2 types of cans.. I only assume now that one is maybe a newer design? The first set of cans I had had a white tip. The ones with the white tip came out way to quick at first. Sputtered in the middle, and then nearly quit working. I returned all of those and got the ones with the green tips on them, and the grout appears to come out a little more consistent. I haven’t completed the install yet so I’m not sure if this is what I will find with all the green tipped cans.
All in all with the project complete, it took me 14 cans to fill 88 Sq Ft of tile.. ($140 worth of grout) although alot of the cans I returned for a refund because only half the grout would come out. This is probably not typical because I had alot of corners and edges that needed to be filled. If the room had been 9x10 it would not have been nearly as bad.
Then there is the issue with the grout sinking into the crack. What’s going on with that? It looks like I’ll need to cover the entire floor twice with grout.. I’ll say that grouting with real tiles is a WHOLE LOT easier.. I could grout a whole floor with real grout in fraction of the time, and I’m just a home do-it-yourselfer.
I also want to mention that the Lowes I had originally purchased the tile was $34.50 per case ($3.40 per sq ft). But when I went to another to pick up an extra case they had it at $29.50 per case ($2.90 per sq ft). The first one refunded me the difference.. but thought that was weird as the less expensive Lowes didn’t have it on sale or clearance.. it was just their normal price.
-Zippyfear.
It's a new product that the company released before it was properly tested. There are countless problems to be found on the internet with this stuff. C'mon, a floating ceramic tile? Lowe's, at least the ones I've spoken to, have quit selling this stuff installed. What's that tell ya? They don't want the problems either.lowes#1fan said:I sale Edge flooring, and have come to this conclusion.
Edge flooring is a awsome product. It should not be attempted by those who can only install peal and stick vinyl sqares.(if you know what i mean) I have people who have no problem with this prodct then i have people who can not figure it out. This is a great item if you know what your doing. Beside its a brand new company with an idea we all wish we would have thought of.
We bought the tiles last week and at that time, Lowes was pulling some of their tiles off the shelf and returning to the vendor due to the cracking, etc. However, the tiles we bought are supposedly ok.wingam00 said:From talking with the flooring guys at my Lowes, they report a lot of problems with this type flooring. A good idea but just does not work like planned. The gouting is the biggest complain. I would stay away for this flooring product.
We bought the tiles last week and at that time, Lowes was pulling some of their tiles off the shelf and returning to the vendor due to the cracking, etc. However, the tiles we bought are supposedly ok.
We found the circular saw worked just fine, but the jigsaw blade left something to be desired. We stripped it the first time we cut a sharp curve. However, Lowes took the whole set back without argument and replaced it. We tiled an approx 200 sq ft kitchen, and nothing cracked while we were cutting or laying the tile.
Using the product was harder than it looked, but nothing I wouldn't put down to inexperience. The grout definitely doesn't go as far as claimed.
In any case, so far so good. I guess the test will be when we put the appliances back on the floor. If anything untoward happens, I will repost.
Edge gave me a full refund for my for my floor with zero hassle and admitted that the original product was severely flawed.. All I had to do was provide the receipt. They claim to have redesigned the product for greater reliability. Unfortunately I had the task of ripping it out, but at least I got my money back minus my personal labor costs. My local Lowes said that they threw all stock of the old tile in the dumpster at the direction of Edge. I could never recommend this product.
I was at Lowes yesterday and I thought I made a great "snap" purchase. They were closing out a bunch of Edge flooring. I purchased 1000 Sq ft. of it for $100 - a dollar a box. Got the underlayment for a buck a roll, and the grout for $0.37 a can. (All the rest of what they were selling was gone in about 10 minutes.)
I was going to use it in my apartment above my garage that I am in the process of building.
But, after reading this thread I am considering not using it. Has anyone had a good experience with the stuff? The stuff cost me less that $200.
Is the Precision edge flooring still working out for you? If so, do you have any other special tips about it?I guess I am one of the few that might have a good word for this product. In a summary: do not follow the installation instructions, do not use the underlayment and you should be fine. I have a relatively small kitchen (approx 120 sq ft. floor). I put the tiles with my wife approx 3 weeks ago, moved a huge whirlpool refr. (and we were not very gentle) and so far nothing cracked. My 2 cents: do not put anything between the floor's plywood (I assume that is what you have) and the tiles. Make sure the floor is not wobbly. If the floor makes noises try to fix it. Do not be pedantic, just do your best. 1 hr shoould be enough to prepare the floor. GLUE the tiles to the floor!!! Use for example underlayment glue (Liquid Nails make such a glue, others as well). Put enough of it on the tile, put in place and leave for at least 4-5 hours (but best 24 hrs). There should not be any moving tiles- if there are you can try to drill holes between the tiles and fill them with expanding wood glue (Bull, Gorilla, etc.). This worked great for me. The grout is hard to put, but is somewhat flexible, so it will not crack when floor moves (and if you do not have concrete it will move). Overall I think this is a great product, but the way it is prtrayed is completely inadequate.
BTW, I am buying these tiles for 30 USD if you still have them if you pay the transport. And if you use my technique and you succeed you owe me 17 bucks as well .
Oh and the underlayment is great, but not for tiles- I already used mine and I am buying if you are selling:laughing:. What discount store got those tiles you were saying ?:yes: