Our entire house is 12x12 light colored ceramic tile and I use a Floormate to clean it. I love this piece of equipment and cannot imagine having to go back to the old way of cleaning (vacuum, mop and dry). It does it all, and is easy to use and handle as well. When I bought it, the sales person cautioned that it is designed for cleaning hard flooring, but NOT necessarily grout, unless your grout is high enough so as to be nearly level with the tile. According to her, as long as the grout is no more than a fingernail thickness from the surface of the tile it would get it, otherwise it would not. So my expectations were realistic to begin with. What I like best is how well it cleans the tile and how dry it leaves it. For us there are zero marks or streaks, though this may be floor specific. I can imagine that anyone that has a shiny floor might get streaks no what they use to clean it. I do prefer my stick vac for dry vacuuming, so that is what I use most often, but when the floor needs mopped, I get out the FloorMate. To do the kitchen takes about 15 minutes. The hall about 10, and the MBR another 10. The hardest part is getting all the junk off the floor and out of the way--that takes longer than the cleaning process. I guess the only trouble free way to clean is to hire someone else to do it, but until that day comes, I will remain a satisfied FloorMate customer. Lynne

Thanks for replying. The normal wash cycle works fine until it apparently stops at the final 6 min. point. So I'm not getting a final high-speed spin at the end, even tho' I've programmed it for extra spin. Drain/spin and Rinse/ spin work fine, so it isn't a problem with the spin itself; that's why the repairman thinks the electronic board that "tells the machine what to do" is malfunctioning, even tho' no error code has ever shown up. Is this likely? All I can do now is take the wet clothes out at the end, reposition, and punch in "Drain/Spin" and they are spun out fine.

I'm in New Hampshire and the cabinet maker I'm using, Crown Point Cabinetry, does cabinets for people all over the country. They're a "direct buy" company, meaning you deal with them from start to finish, as their cabinets are not sold by other vendors. I believe they'll work to your specifications. Have a look at their website: http://www.crown-point.com/ For kitchens, they have a KD in-house who'll work with you by phone or email and mock up the layout you want, so you can see it on paper. I don't think they do installation except under special circumstances, but they are sending someone to my home (in New Hampshire) to take the measurements. Maybe they'd do that for you too (depending on the size of your job?). Or you can have your installation guy take the measurements.

Don'[t buy them yet. There was an long thread over a year ago, most likely in the hosta forum, because we gardeners are always trying to plant hostas in dry shade under maple trees. As I recall spin-out bags were not a big success. I hope you find the link; it was interesting reading