Tile Plus has been promoting and marketing itself quite heavily since the downturn of our economy which is great for building up our customer base but, what about cutting costs and helping the environment by going green?

Well, we actually have been a pretty green office for several years. Here's why:
Over 96% of the bulbs in our office are fluorescent and they were recently replaced with Philips bulbs which contain less mercury than earlier models. The few halogen bulbs we have are used in our bathrooms and those are usually off.

We recycle our ink cartridges which we think everybody should do, especially based off of the facts below.
"An average toner cartridge, used in laser printers, faxes and copiers is made of 40% plastic requiring up to 1 gallon (3.7 liters) of oil. The rest of the cartridge consists of 40% metal and smaller amounts of rubber, paper, foam and toner.
"Over 375 million empty toner cartridges and ink cartridges are thrown into the trash every year in the US. Most of these printer cartridges end up on landfill sites or in incinerators.
"The plastics used in printer cartridges are made of an engineering grade polymer that have a very slow decomposing rate ranging between 450 to 1000 years depending on the cartridge type. Ink cartridges may also leak printer ink polluting the surrounding environment.
"By recycling printer cartridges, we conserve natural resources and energy by reducing the need for virgin materials. Up to 97 percent of the materials that make up a printer cartridge can be recycled or reused if taken care of. Printer cartridges can in extreme cases be refilled up to 15 times before reaching the end of their life most though averaging between 5-7 refills."
Source: inkguides.com

More actions we do to stay green are: Using both sides of our sheets of paper, setting all of our computers to an optimum power saving mode when they are not being used and our power is supplied by PG&E which produces more than 50% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind, hydroelectric and geothermal energy.

We have aerators on all of our faucets, they are the little mesh screens cover the faucet. Well, recently we installed new aerators which reduce water flow to 1.0 gallons per minute (gpm) which was the lowest gpm supplying aerator our nearest Home Depot carried. Typical aerators may have a gpm of 2 gallons per minute. If one sink is turned on for 1 minute by 15 employees each per day for one week, we saved ourselves 105 gallons just in that single week!

Finally, we recently dug up some tile in our warehouse which we used in commercial bathrooms a few years back. The product is produced by the company, Terra Green Ceramics. All of their tile is manufactured with a minimum of 55% recycled glass and is certified by the, Scientific Certification Systems (SCS). A bit about SCS, they were established in 1991 and their vision is, "To be a global leader in providing third-party environmental, sustainability and food quality certification, auditing, testing and standards development."

We think it would be a great idea for green products to be become more popular in the San Francisco Bay Area such as the tile where the metropolitan area is the 6th largest in the country and the 46th largest urban area in the world. There are over 7.4 million people living here, we sure can create a large impact through setting a good example. Our area is a large opinion leader since we are within the Golden State, we've got Silicon Valley and host such a large computer industry.

Oh, and one more fun fact, "San Jose is not only recognized as the capital of Silicon Valley, it is the safest big city in America according to findings by Morgan Quitno Press based on 2003 FBI crime statistics."

If you have any comments or recommendations on us going green, please jot them down on the bottom of this blog, you can click on the blue word "comment". We would love to hear from anybody and everybody.

 Please visit our Youtube playlist to view videos, they are fun and if you could rate and review them, even better!

 Please visit our Yelp page to leave us a review if you've worked with us.

Our website, TilePlus.net or click on the picture!

Hello again,

This is our new video. (You may need to SCROLL DOWN to see the video because on some computers our blog appears differently. Also, turn on your speakers to listen to the accompanying soundtrack please.)

Tile Plus, Inc. has been quite productive these past few weeks despite the "recession". (In case you haven't read any of our previous articles we think the recession is just a barrier agreed upon by the group and that barrier can be blown to bits through heavy promotion and constant production.)

Just this week we captured hundreds of photos, sorted through all of them to find the best and then created the above video to show you some of the work we are capable of offering. This was all of a home which we recently completed in Los Gatos, CA.

We also recently completed the tile in a TGI Fridays located in San Mateo, CA and a large commercial building, Plant Sciences, which is located in Watsonville, CA. Plant Sciences develops technology to produce high quality, disease resitant fruit.

We are currently in the middle of a job with Hastings Company located in Hillsborough, CA as well as many other residential homes in California's Bay Area.

Soon we will be working on other homes in Saratoga and Los Gatos, CA.

Please go to our Yelp site and write a review if you have worked with us. It gives us further exposure and helps with our PR. And, if you have watched any of our videos, you can visit YouTube and click on one of our videos to rate it and write a review. The greater the quantity of reviews and ratings give us much more exposure.

Tile Plus Yelp Page
Tile Plus YouTube Page

Thanks for following up on our activities,

The Team at Tile Plus

Visit us at our website here, Tile Plus

With the economic state as it is, some people are forced to abandon their homes while others are trying to sell theirs and move out. While we can't quite offer help on the first category, we do have a bit of helpful information for the latter group.

It is an obvious fact that homes with stone flooring, granite counter-tops and olympic sized pools within sprawling backyards sell for a higher value in the Bay Area versus, a one bedro­om, forty-year-old condo.

If the home-owner feels the v­alue of his home is low or needs to sell his home and doesn't quite like the value of it within the market, he can do a little bit of remodeling. That is where we come in.

Remodeling your kitchen doesn't have to be a costly thing. The team at Tile Plus works with you to create the elegant design of your choice while helping you keep costs as low as possible.

For only approximately, $5,000-8,000 a homeowner can create a very luxurious impression on everybody who views it. Leaving such an effect upon possible buyers, of course, increases the demand and thus, the value of your home with a relatively small investment of time and money. So now, not only do you have a much more comfortable kitchen area or bathroom to live in, when you sell you will also have made your money back.

Hands down, one of the biggest returns on investment comes from a kitchen remodel. Most experts agree that if you plan on updating only one room in your home, it should be the kitchen. High-end touches such as granite countertops, richly stained custom cabinets and energy-efficient stainless appliances are the gold standard in modern kitchens. Experts agree that kitchen remodels return an average of 80 to 85 percent of every dollar spent. You can expect an even higher return if you are remodeling a really outdated kitchen.*

But, if you have a previously remodeled kitchen or are rather satisfied with it already, there are generally several other areas in your home which can be remodeled, take for example, bathrooms. Installing ceramic tiles on your shower walls gives a very classy look to any bathroom while adding value to your home. Tiling floors further raises the bar of home standards and increases the longevity of the flooring versus a sad linoleum floor.

Of course, there are plenty of other areas to tile and that includes but is not limited to, entry ways, hallways, patios and garden walkways.

Please give us a call at (408) 938-3494 so we can work with you to give you the durable, beautiful tile-work you desire or visit us on on our home page here, Tile Plus Home Page

*Citation: 

diynetwork.com (2009). 30 Tips for Increasing Your Home Value. Retrieved 14 September 2009 from diynetwork.com:http://www.diynetwork.com/home-improvement/30-tips-for-increasing-your-homes-value/pictures/page-10.html

 

 Tile Plus, Inc.

Tips on sealing your tile & stone

       This blog gives you a few tips on sealing your new tile and stone installation wherever it may be. It is recommended to seal your custom tile or stone job because the sealant helps to preserve a natural look or even enhance the current look while protecting from oil, grease, dirt and water. It is best to seal right after the stone has been grouted since you don't want dirt and oil penetrating the stone or grout joints and then sealing them in. When sealing a ceramic tile job your main focus would be the grout joints because the ceramic tile usually comes pre-sealed.

       If you are going to seal an area where you expect oil and grease to frequently come in contact with the stone we recommend using a deeply penetrating sealer. When it comes to water and dirt, a general sealer should do the job. We recommend Miracle Sealants' 511 Porous Plus for oil and grease or their 511 Impregnator Sealer for water and dirt.

       To apply sealer we first advise you to read the directions. We can give you general tips but you should always follow the manufacturer's directions.

       First, make sure you have purchased enough sealer to cover the square footage you have installed. Then, have a few clean rags or some sort of cloth at hand that you can wet with the sealant. Next, wipe the stone with your sealer wetted cloth in circular movements to ensure your tile is evenly sealed. Generally sealers will penetrate very deeply so we don't recommend pouring the sealer onto the tile directly (especially enhanced sealers) as it may cause some areas to appear more dark than others because it has penetrateted one area much more thoroughly than another.

       Never dilute your sealer with water unless instructed by the manufacterer. It may heavily affect the sealing properties rendering the sealer ineffective.

       If you feel it appropriate to reapply the sealer to provide a stronger coating against water, dirt, etc. then make sure you let the sealer sit for 1-3 hours in this way you allow the first coating to cure.

       The longevity of your sealer depends on the frequency of use upon the treated area. Some areas such as commercial floors may last only for a year while some residential floors may last for 10+ years!

       When you reapply the sealer after it has pretty much worn off, make sure you first clean the area thoroughly with a substance such as diluted vinegar. Mix about 50% vinegar with 50% water and use a scrubbing brush soaked with the diluted vinegar to clean all of the joints and tiles. You need to wash the vinegar off with a sponge and clean water after you have cleaned the area with vinegar. Once it is dry you should be all set for the reapplication of sealer to the tile or stone.

        That should cover much of the subject on sealing your freshly installed floors. If you want to first learn from visual experience how sealing is done and later do it yourself or if you just want us to do it you can give us a call and we will happily do it for you. Our contact information is below and is on the bottom of our web page at http://tileplus.net or by clicking the link below.

 

-The Tile Plus Team