Congolium Duraceramic

robertc65

Has anyone had any experience with the DuraCeramic tiles from Congoleum. We are looking at replacing the tile in our kitchen, however the only thing I like about tile is the look. This stuff seems to be a sort of Vinyl / Ceramic hybrid. Sounds like a good idea. I just wanted to see if anybody had anything good or bad to say about it.

Thanks

Rob

PrecisionFloors

I have done quite a bit of it Rob. It is a great product but like anything the installation will determine how the job turns out and how long it lasts. Grouting it is a little bit different than standard ceramic. The pre-mixed stuff is more like an epoxy and is a mofo to get off if you get too far ahead of yourself. Also do not over water during cleanup as it will surely lead to cracks in the grout after a week or so. Read the install instructions and follow them to the letter and you will be fine. Three tips tha will make the job go smoother:

1. Use Tavy spacers in the thickness you prefer. You can get them at Lowes in the tile section.

2. Use a hard edge float and keep a good edge on it, it will make cleanup ALOT easier. After packing the joints you will want to remove excess grout with the float in a nearly vertical position at an angle to the grout lines.

3. Use square edge sponges during cleanup, round edge ones will wipe the grout right out of the joints and you will become frustrated.

Other than that make sure you have a clean, dry, structurally sound, and flat subfloor.

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Precision Flooring
(772) 237-9900
Tile, Hardwood, Laminate, and Resilient
Installation, Sales & Repair - "We do it right the FIRST time"

painterman

Used this product two times now. Easy to install and looks great. Yes I would use it again

robertc65

Thanks for the comments. I actually won't be installing the floor tiles myself. I'm pretty handy with a lot of stuff , but so far my few attempts at laying tile with grout have resulted in some less than desirable results.

Thanks again

Rob

Floorwizard

Duraceramic has proven to be a good product.

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

lawndart

One of the best Vinyl products on the market, but it's very expensive. For the price I'd rather go with real ceramic.

robertc65

I hear ya , but as I said we really don't like ceramic all that much except for the way it looks. It's cold, loud, can crack easily and then there's the grout issues. My current house had ceramic in the kitchen and master bath. My last house had ceramic in the kitchen and all baths. I've had all the ceramic tile I can take for now. I'm not out to impress anyone with how much my floor costs, so I just don't see any advantage to using it. Maybe I have never experienced good tile. I don't know for sure, but what I have experienced is far from impressive to me.

PrecisionFloors

Actually around here, total installed price is very comparable. It is cheaper labor wise in addition to the fact that you do not need a cbu.

The biggest selling point to Duraceramic is the fact that it is ALOT warmer and softer to the foot than ceramic/stone products unless radiant heating is used. It is also easier to replace a damaged tile and it is more resilient leading to a lesser chance of dropped items to break or break a tile. The grout also requires virtually no maintenance outside of normal floor cleaning.

__________________
Precision Flooring
(772) 237-9900
Tile, Hardwood, Laminate, and Resilient
Installation, Sales & Repair - "We do it right the FIRST time"

J&J Home Imp.

I have seen the product but never installed it. Does it go down with a mortar or more like a thinspread like VCT?

PrecisionFloors

Its an acrylic thinspread/clearset adhesive. Sticks like a sumbich, but is water soluble when wet. Only downside I have found is you can't fan dry it because it will flash the surface off real quick and the underlying adhesive will never dry, resulting in a bond failure. That leaves you with some l-o-n-g dry times sometimes.

__________________
Precision Flooring
(772) 237-9900
Tile, Hardwood, Laminate, and Resilient
Installation, Sales & Repair - "We do it right the FIRST time"

J&J Home Imp.

That sucks that ya can't fan dry it but thats good to know if I get any.

robertc65

Thanks again for all the comments. Sounds like DuraCeramic will be in my future. Not to worried about the drying time. We'll just go out to dinner a couple of nights if needed.

Thanks again

Rob

dshcontracting

I can't believe so many people like this stuff. I live within 10 minutes of the Congoleum factory, and no one around here likes the stuff. Everyone I know is having problems with it. My one customer has started a lawsuit against Congoleum. I've been on the job with the Congoleum rep and watched him have a difficult time with the product. Has anyone had any problems with this product shipping up with dogs on the floor? Everyone I have seen is having chipping problems on the edge.

Dan

PrecisionFloors

Dan, I have not had any problems with chipping on the Duraceramic and I have laid well over 4000 feet of it now...Durastone (also by Congoleum) is an entirely different matter, however. That stuff was indeed crap, and chipping was a huge problem with it. I thought they discontinued it though. Maybe that is what you are hearing about all of the problems with?

__________________
Precision Flooring
(772) 237-9900
Tile, Hardwood, Laminate, and Resilient
Installation, Sales & Repair - "We do it right the FIRST time"

dshcontracting

The stuff was the one with the grout. The customer of mine had problems with the grout, and the tile. They have a golden retreiver which has torn the floor to shreds. The corners started peeling almost immeadiately after install. The pictures of the floor are on my website, http://www.dshcontracting.com/albums.../IMG_3972.html, you can see the tile in that picture. I looks ok there, but up close it looks like a cutting board. We did the install on that job, and Congoleum did come out and verify that everything was done right. Maybe a bad batch? The customers were originally annoyed because the salesman sold them on the fact it was a solid limestone tile. gotta love dopey people that don't actually look at what they bought.

J&J Home Imp.

How could anyone pass that for a solid tile?

robertc65

We decided to go with the DuraCeramic and the install is scheduled for tomorrow. It was my job to remove all our old ceramic tile and get the floor ready for the new stuff. One of the guys from the floor place came out last week to take a look at the floor and said that it was ready and that I did not have to scrape anymore glue off. In some spots you can still feel the ridges left from the old ahesive. I don't think it's acually adhesive as it cracks just like the grout. It's very slight but noticable. The guy said it was fine. I don't trust him 100% as he works in the office all day and has not installed a floor himself in years. The last thing I want to happen is the installers get pissed because the floor is not ready. I can't actually measure how high the ridges are but if I had to estimate I would say 1/32 of an inch or so. Just wanted to see if anyone could comment.

Thanks

Rob

Taurus Flooring

Probably the most important part about installing Duraceramic tiles, is that the floor is to be absolutely flat. It does not mould to a wobbly floor very well. Secondly, the room has to be room temperature and the tiles should acclamatize for 24 hrs at least. Thirdly, the tiles need pressure after application.

TimNJ

I was looking at ceramic at Worldwide on rte 1 in Lawrenceville and the display they had of this stuff had the corners peeled off! Looks like junk to me.

robertc65

Well,

We had it installed yesterday and so far I'm happy with the look and feel. It's been down for almost 24 hours now and so far the corners are not cracking. We'll see in time, what kind of milage we get out of it.

Later

Rob