Why Mother of Pearl Tiles qualify for Green product? - Mother of pearl tile, it is called shell tile, seashell tile, shell mosaic tile. Mother of pearl tiles are 100% natural products that coming from the natural shell, no industrial waste or energy were used in manufacturing the beautiful shell mosaic tile, thus qualifying as green products.The American leading designers & architects have been using mother of pearl tile as wall and floor tile & covering. Mother of pearl tiles is becoming popular as wall tiles, kitchen backsplash tiles, shower tiles, bathroom and more…Only the best quality mother of pearl tile will be selected as our products, both 2mm and 8mm are suited to your remolding project.
Whether or not Mother of Pearl Tiles applies to your kitchen & bathroom project? - Absolutely! Mother of Pearl Tiles are completely impervious materials. And mother of pearl tiles are 100% made of natural shell materials, turning used-to-be waste into beautiful décor products, is great product for your kitchen & bathroom wall and flooring projects. If you visit the most popular professional home improvement and design website: www.Houzz.com, you can see thousands of mother of pearl tile projects that used mother of pearl tiles for kitchen and bathroom wall and flooring projects by leading American designers and architects.
What is the difference between 2mm & 8mm thickness Mother of Pearl Tile? Will 2mm thick shell tile have any installation issue that will not align with other surface covering materials such as glass tile, porcelain tile, stainless steel tile or copper tile? - In fact, the chip (surface) of 2mm and 8mm thickness Mother of Pearl Tiles are same. The only difference is that 8mm thickness is with a porcelain base to make the mother of pearl tile is more convenient to align with other porcelain or glass tile with the same 8mm (3/8” ) thickness, thus making the installation easier. However, the 2mm has much better cost-effective solution because after the pearl tile is installed, the appearance and effect will be the same between 2mm and 8mm. For the shell tile, the beauty is the natural shell iridescence of the surface of the shell, different than glass tile, which the beauty of glass tile partially created by the light reflection inside and through the glass, the thicker glass is, the better reflection and feel it is; that is why 8mm thickness glass mosaic tile is the mainstream in today’s market place.Although the installation of 2mm thick shell tile will be tougher than that of 8mm thickness pearl tile, your tile contractor/installer with experience can easily level the area where the Pearl tiles will be installed to other thickness tile, whatever it is glass tile or porcelain tiles or even stainless steel tile or copper tile or any other wall covering materials.
Most of your Mother of Pearl Tiles look white, but which one is the whitest option for our entire Mother of Pearl Tiles? - In general, we have following three types of Mother of Pearl Tile in terms of color. a. Whitest. Natural White, majority chips are white, with small percentage of natural yellow and minimum natural grey; overall is white. b. Less White. Natural White + Natural Yellow + Natural Grey Randomly Mixed, reflecting the very natural color in original shell. c. Least White (more natural yellow and gray). Gorgeous shine with original color richness of iridescence. Almost every chip with Natural White + Natural Yellow + Natural Grey. The iridescent chips reflect different colors and views from different angles, especially under the light. Different people have different tastes. Some people prefer whitest, some people prefer the natural colors with more natural yellow and gray. No matter what your Before placing a full order, strongly recommend you to get some FREE samples, we are confident that when you see the sample, you will love it.
Is there any color difference between the full order tiles and the previous ordered sample/photos on the website? Can you get a fully refund if you don’t like the color of the tiles? - As mentioned above, Mother of Pearl Tiles is 100% natural products that made/polished by hands. So not to mention the color difference from the products you received and the photo on the website/sample, actually no 2 chips of the pearl tile in the whole world will match each other. Even the photos on the same page of our website, you can see for the exactly description between different product items. This is naturally color variation that comes by the nature of the products. Therefore, we are sorry that the statement "the tile I received does not match the internet description/picture or sample" does not have the ground for the return.However, just for courtesy and we value our customer as we bring it to our personal attention no matter how small the order is, we are offering a conditional return option: if we have other customer who wants to buy this SKU in the US, we will let you know and if you mail these products to our appointed new customer address, we will issue you the refund. You will need to pay for the return shipping and 25% restocking fee as we will use these restocking fee for the coordination and discount to attract our new customer accepting tile from a return, since we have to be honest with them that this is return products but in resalable/brand new condition. This is the best we can do.
What type of grout should you choose? Sand-free or fine-sand? - Please use unsanded (sand-free) grout. Unsanded grout is for smaller grout joints and it will not scratch the polished pearl surface. In order to enhance the luster and shine in your Mother of Pearl tile installation, make sure that the grout haze is removed from the Mother of Pearl right after you finish grouting.
What grout color should you choose? - Choosing the Right Grout is important for your project. Just like picking out tile, there are many different types of grout to choose from. Choosing a specific grout color could change the overall color appearance of the mosaics and the way that your entire project looks! Usually, there are three approaches to selecting grout colors that are used: blending, contrasting, and accenting. Blending is the most common approach and what we recommend for most projects. This involves choosing the grout color that matches with the color in your tile. For example, you can blend by using white grout with our Mother of Pearl tile which is Natural White, majority chips are white, with small percentage of natural yellow and minimum natural grey; overall is white. Similarly, if you are looking to blend grout with our Natural White + Natural Yellow + Natural Grey Randomly Mixed, reflecting the very natural color in original shell Mother of Pearl tiles, we recommend picking up on the beige and white undertones in the tile, so using a beige or white grout would blend perfectly.
Is your “MyBuildingShop Brand Mother of Pearl Tile” made of real mother of pearl or glass? - Absolutely! MyBuildingShop brand is one of biggest brand in the mother of pearl tile business, only selected the best quality REAL mother of pearl tiles for their shell tile products. Although glass mosaic tile is one of the major product lines for MyBuildingShop, when we say “MyBuildingShop Mother of Pearl Tiles”, we mean it. It is made of real mother of pearl tile, shell tile and not glass. However, we do have mother of pearl tile and glass tile blending product and now we do not sell the mother of pearl tile and glass tile blending on our website yet.
What do I cut the Mother of Peal Tiles with? - Sometimes, Mother of pearl tile is used with other tiles for wall and floor covering in different size. Perhaps it needs to cut the Mother of Pearl Tiles into small pieces. Most of our Mother of Pearl Tiles is mesh mounted on high quality fiber glass; however, it is easy for you to cut them into pieces with a knife which is used for cutting paper as bellow, and it will not damage the tiles with rough edges.
I just placed an order for some samples of the mother of pearl tile that does not have the grout lines. We’d like to use this pearl tile in our bathroom and shower area. Do you grout it at all? If not, how do you prevent the water from going through to the wall? - The mother of pearl tile without the grout line does NOT need to grout at all. You just need to use the thinset to install to the wall. The mother of pearl tile is completely impervious, meaning it does not absorb any water. So the water will not go inside the mother of pearl tile but will just slide down on the wall covered by the mother of pearl tile.
