Universal Slate – News

Photos coming soon! Keeping on the leading of edge of glass mosaic, we have opted to design our own colors based on what our customers have told us that they wanted. These new color use a special kind of glass, a colorless glass (as opposed to every other glass tile which uses a green glass), that allows us to get very light, very clean, pure colors.

Last week we uploaded a video showing how limestone and marble were resilient to stains caused by common bathroom staining agents.  This week we did a video showing how limestone and marble are resilient to stains caused by various foods found in the kitchen.

Like last week, the stones were sealed with Miracle Sealants’ 511 Impregnator.

A quick synopsis of the results: while we found that none of the stones were stained by anything, there was some mild etching caused by the acidic items we were testing, namely ketchup and balsamic vinegar.  So, while there is no danger of any staining you do want to wipe up any acidic fluids shortly after they are spilled. (Maybe I’ll do a video showing how easy it is to remove etching from honed surfaces…)

Anyways, enjoy!  I realized after I uploaded the video to YouTube that the audio is slightly off-sync with the video, so, bear with it.

Ever since I’ve been working at Universal Slate, people have been telling me that “they heard” that limestone and marble shouldn’t be used in a bathroom because “it’s so porous and stains easily”.

But, is it true?  Watch the video below for some surprising results that may change the way you work with marble and limestone.

P.S. This is my first video and I learned a thing or two through the process.  At the beginning there is a lot of background noise but it goes away after a minute or so.

After a rough year in 2009, we are finally getting back on our feet and focusing on bringing new material.  Our next container from Turkey (estimated to arrive in December) will have three new mosaic tiles and a new stone colour for us.  We have samples of the mosaics, see below, and so we are able to take some halfway decent pictures of them.  For the new stone colour, Silver (vein cut), we only have photos provided by the quarry and photos supplied by quarries are notoriously bad.  So, while I have included it in the photos below, I’ll be hopefully be getting a sample shortly to take some of our own photos.

Click the thumbnails below for larger resolution photos.

These are the three new mosaics we have coming in December.

Cartagena Ivory/Noce blend (1"x1" Squares; 12"x12" Sheet)

Cartagena Ivory (1"x1" Squares; 12"x12" Sheet)

Umayo (Split-face Dolomite with Jet Black dots); 12"x12" Sheet

Now, Silver (vein cut) is going to be most similar to our existing Ocean Blue which is a grey Italian travertine that we stock in 12″x36″.  The differences between them is that Silver will be darker and will have a “curvier” vein flow.  Initially, we wanted to get Silver in to supplement our Ocean Blue as we’ve been finding that the Ocean Blue has been coming in more creamy looking.  With the cream in there, Ocean Blue has been looking more ‘greenish’ and not quite as sharp as we’ve seen in the past.  We’ve checked with the quarry on this and it seems that all the Ocean Blue they’ve been shipping out is looking like this.  I even cross referenced with Stone Tile West since we have those products produced at the same quarry; theirs is look exactly the same.

So, we wanted to get Silver in a 12″x36″ to perhaps go along side our Ocean Blue as an alternative but we couldn’t get it produced in that size.  Instead we got something much better!…

Our Silver (vein cut) is going to be coming in as an 18″x36″ tile!

We’ve only ever stocked 18″x36″ tile once in the past and that was the Morocco Beige, a rather plain looking stone.  It sold out within weeks.  Unfortunately, at the time, we didn’t have enough room to make it a regular addition to our inventory.  Now, we have room and will be starting to regularly stock this incredible size!

This is indeed a rare size and is something not typically available within Canada.  We have only 2000 Sq Ft. coming in for the first order so if this is something that you are interested in working with, drop me a line and let me know so I can try and reserve a sample for you.  Plus, this 18″x36″ stone is going to be completely affordable. Even though I don’t have a final pricing on it yet, our preliminary costings are looking very promising for the Silver (vein cut) to be an affordable stone option.

Silver (vein cut); Shown here as a 12"x24" tile, stacked.

Last week we had the glass installed on our newly built slab shower in the showroom.  We built it out of 3/4″ Bianco Antico granite and 10mm glass walls and includes a niche on the left-hand wall.  The cost on a shower like this, including $2500 in glass, would be about $7500.

Click the photos for a larger view.

This is our new slab shower. It measures 4'x4' and stands about 8' tall. The door is on the right-hand side.

This is from the doorway looking into the shower. Notice the continuous vein running from the slab on the right, through to the slab on the left (in the lower right-hand corner), and on to the base.

This is the sand-blasted slab shower base. The texture is pronounced enough to ensure that there is NO chance of somebody accidentally slipping on it.

We currently have no idea why but our website seems to be in-operative.  We are in the middle of fixing and will post when it’s back on line.  We are anticipating by the end of the week it should be back up.

If you have any questions or sample requests during that time, please just email Connor Ferster at connor@universalslate.com.

Thanks for bearing with us!