I'd definitely recommend Dal over FLorida Tile. Matter of fact, Florida Tile is only one of two manufacturers I try to steer clear of. (the other being Marazzi)

Thanks! Why would you steer clear of it? Is it not well made?

And if that's not enough for you, I looked at Florida tile and found that their white subways had either a grey cast or a pink cast to them depending on the light. The daltiles were just true white or cream depending on which ones you order.

I'm glad to hear the negative opinions about the Florida Tile. I had a salesperson foist their catalog on me and they were acting like that was the only tile they wanted to talk about even though they had a showroom full of many other brands. The catalog photos looked dingy and were not at all what I was looking for. Needless to say I walked out.
I later went to the Dal-Tile showroom in Elk Grove Village, where I received excellent customer service and many tile samples.
I'm now waiting for my Dal-Tile order to arrive and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in my bathroom.

Bill - why would you steer clear of Marazzi? I'm worried b/c I have a whole house full of Marazzi floor tile. I had installed it in master bath in old house 10+ years ago, liked the color (plus it seemed to hold up well, though of course not much traffic) and found something very similiar for kitchen/mudroom in new house, also liked another color for foyer (about 400 sf total downstairs). Then DS picked a wavy-edged Marazzi for main bath, I liked it so much I got it in a different color for master bath in new house (though we haven't installed it yet). It'll be 2 years this summer that we've had the tile in new house, the bathroom floor I installed is fine, the 400sf downstairs I had some loose tiles installer came back and reset, have some more now, but I put that down to poor install. The tiles themselves seem to be holding up OK, even the ones in the mudroom that get lots of traffic and the other day my washer went off balance with snowpants in it. The loose tile has all been in the foyer and kitchen. No chips (though I know ceramic will chip - I've been lucky).

I steer clear of it because of the sizing a lack of squareness. It's my experience that it's just not a good quality tile. Granted it can be made to look good, but it takes alot more time working with it to GET it to look nice, and there's just no way to charge for that extra time. If I have my choice, I'd rather work with a tile that has a little better quality control at the factory, and that I don't have to fight with from start to finish to make it look nice.

Thanks - so what I've got down shouldn't be a problem (except for poor install I'll have to redo in 30sf sections at a time)? I don't think wavy-edge tile would be too hard to work with if it's not square - I already did small bathroom with it, I'm not sure if I will do master bath myself or have pro do it, but won't use the same guy I did in 2007.

My bro and I did the bath to pass CO, but he was just in town for 4th of July and I was living 100 miles away trying to sell old house and pack, so hired someone to do downstairs mainly due to time constraints. Plus we put Nuheat in part of kitchen and I wanted someone with insurance to install tile over that. He swore he could use the same underlayment on all of the downstairs and make up the mat height, but I have a slope running from edge of mat to FR carpet 18" away so he did a rotten job. (Un?)fortunately, the tiles are not coming loose over the Nuheat, but in the other part of the kitchen and the foyer. Last summer I had him reset 30sf of the kitchen and about 15 sf on each side of front door in foyer, now I've got probably another 15sf or so making "crackling" noises by the basement door in the kitchen, just past where he ended the reset. He swears someone walked on it too soon, we didn't walk on it til he told us it was OK. I think it was b/c he didn't use thinset under the Hardibacker and/or didn't put in enough screws. I was there for Nuheat install, ?'d why no thinset under backer board, he just said he'd been doing it for 30 yrs and you just put in lots of screws and it will hold. Guess he only put in lots of screws in that area b/c when he was pulling up loose tiles 9 months later (I could pull them up with my hands in foyer - grout was the only thing holding them on and once the grout cracked I didn't even need putty knife!) I saw he only had a screw about every foot.

Anyway, we're putting Nuheat in master bath, not sure if I should take the risk of putting it in myself or hire pro tile setter (and electrician) for insurance reasons.

Judging from my recent experience, the wheels are coming off at Dal Tile quality control. I just did a shower using the Rittenhouse Square subway tiles in Arctic White. The good ones look great, but I had to reject about 20% of the tiles for various flaws - pits, black spots, edge defects, etc. More troubling was their 8x10 Polaris wall tile in the PL02 gloss white color. I used this tile less than a year ago with good results. I recently ordered more to find the texture has totally changed, from kind of a low-gloss pebbly finish to a high gloss Arctic White type of finish. It no longer matches the store display samples - I discovered they have changed to a new fabrication line for that tile that uses a 2-firing instead of 1-firing process. But look out - they are still shipping the old trim, so your trim will not match your field tiles. Finally, I literally got only 50% yield out of 13 boxes (20 pieces each) of tile - the rest were broken, scratched, pitted or had black spots - all unacceptable for my walls. Plus each piece has a bead of waxy goo on it (supposedly to protect it in shipping) that I had to clean off with a solvent. Plan on 1 hour per box of tile for cleaning and sorting - that's what it took me. Spoke to the company and found one person who helped me, but no interest there in addressing the root problems.

I recently ordered more to find the texture has totally changed, from kind of a low-gloss pebbly finish to a high gloss Arctic White type of finish.

You might want to check the color numbers. Even though the color may be the same it sounds like you got one bright glaze, and the other "crystalline".

As for the quality of the RS, I have a feeling you may have gotten a bad batch. I use RS quite a bit, and have never seen more than the allowable share of problems you brought up. I believe the industry standard is something like 5% can have minor defects in the glaze and the box still be considered standard grade. That goes for ALL brands of tile, not just Dal. For the most part, atleast from what I've seen, Dal's actually one of the few manufacturers that will try and keep the percentage even below that. I WILL admit I've gotten a couple of bad batches of tile from Dal over the years, but in every case, without exception, they've been willing to take the tile back and exchange it. In one case, the tile had even been set, and the sizing was so bad, that no matter how much I tried to work with it, it looked like crap, so in spite of the warning on all the boxes saying that all claims must be made before installation, they not only replaced the tile, but paid me for my labor the second time around, as well as tearing up the first floor, and dump fees.

THAT'S a manufacturer that stands behind its product, and why I use their tile as much as I can.

I think most subway tile are pretty much the same. There is a difference in shades of white. Do not mix 2 different whites or 2 blacks from different manufactures, because they all have a different shade.

Crossville also has nice subway tiles. They are manufactures in the USA. But Daltile is name brand too.

There are some really good sites online for tiles that will send you free samples and ship the tiles directly to your home.

Here is a link that might be useful: rittenhouse sq tiles online

HOLY CHRISTMAS!! They want an arm leg and first born for their tile!! just as a fer instance, the 0100 they want 5.68 a foot, and that doesn't even include shipping! You can go into almost any Home Depot or Lowes and buy the same tile for about HALF that..... OR LESS!

I just noticed this same person has advertized this site on several threads.

Spamming is not allowed in here. Besides, your site is expensive as hell.

"Besides, your site is expensive as hell."

Now that's the way to get rid of SPAM Bill! ;-)

The thing is, it REALLY IS expensive as hell!! The very same tile that site offers for 5.68 a foot, PLUS SHIPPING, you can get cash and carry from Home Depot for about 2-2.50 a foot. I know they're getting for less than I do, so I'd hate to tell you what kind of money they're steal.....er... making off you!

Although this is an older thread, I'm going to post a reply because 1) I'm just seeing it for the first time and 2) apparently it still gets referred to from time to time. Bill's experience with Florida Tile aside, we're not a fly by night operation and our subway tiles are very popular and of similar quality to Dal's. They are pressed tiles, not cut and come in both a straight edge version and a hand-crafted wavy edge/surface version.

They are also made here in the US using locally produced raw materials and American workers. If you look at the back of the subway tiles you selected, I doubt they will say "Made in USA" on them.

I do my best to make sure our customers are happy, including service after the sale if a problem arises. For every Bill Vincent out there, there are 100's of satisfied and happy Florida Tile customers and installers. I'll be happy to respond to any questions about Florida Tile products or problems.

I got connected to this old thread because we have lately had problems with white 12x12 daltile (1500 Sierra Rainier). Spots, specks, and apparent 'slide marks' like a gun-metal gray smudge where it seems they slide tiles across each other, leaving a light, small discoloration - but it sure shows up easily on white tile. Two differnt lots, no doubt, because one batch had a diamond-pattern backside and some had a honey-comb pattern backside. Anyone else seeing daltile quality slipping in a big way? We had to reject a high percentage before we did our custom printing on the white tiles.

I just want to update for 2019 and say that Marazzi has moved to new ownership recently, and I've seen reviews around the web about people complaining that there is an increased grayish tint to some of the tiles with more recent production beginning around 2018. @bill_vincent stated back in 2009 in a previous comment in this thread that the Marazzi tile he'd used wasn't always square, but we had tile layers this year who recommended it as a good-quality tile, so your mileage may vary. Upon visiting a Marazzi showroom in my area, I was very impressed with the variety and style of the tile on display.

Thanks for all the comments here on Florida Tile. I believe I'll avoid it based on these reviews. We used Italian-made Happy Floors tile for a recent master bathroom project and are pleased with it. The installers said it was very square, and the style we chose was a through-body porcelain.

Every word-of-mouth recommendation and online review I've read about USA-made Crossville tile has been good. Apparently they have a strict system of quality control. The one complaint is that it can be expensive compared to similar tile in other lines. However, the finish coating on some of Crossville's products is supposedly high-tech to make it more cleanable and long-lasting, so maybe it would be worth it. We've found that our area ProSource seems to offer the best price on Crossville and runs periodic sales on it. Note that there is more than one tile company with the name "Crossville," referencing the location of the city of Crossville, Tennessee, where these companies are located, but I'm talking about Crossville Inc. also known as Crossville Studios.

It appears that Dal-Tile's quality is across the board and varies from style to style. Thanks everyone for the input.

My attention was drawn back to this thread due to an advertiser's promo comment above, and I wanted to say that since making my previous remarks about Happy Floors being good tile, I want to add the warning that some people have had bad experiences with the finish on some Happy Floors styles. You can find at least one other thread here at Houzz where people talk about finish wear or difficulty cleaning the surface or even discoloration developing. After 4 years, my Happy Floors tile is still in great condition, so I think that the variances could be related to the fact that some Happy Floors tile is made in Italy and some in Spain, and quality control could vary. I would now never choose to use Happy Floors again knowing the risk for problems. On a second project, I selected a marble-look, porcelain tile from Porcelanosa which is all made in Spain of Turkish white clay for white tile (many other companies use gray-based clay), and the whites in the white tiles really have no competitor at least in the North American market by 2020 when my Porcelanosa project was completed. Porcelanosa has historically run a couple of deep discount sales per year which I took advantage of, ordering through ProSource, and got the best price possible.