Wall stone
and mosaic

Flooring Correct sells wall stone and mosaic at 15570 Veterans Memorial Pkwy in Wentzville, MO. The category is mostly marble, travertine, stacked stone panel and mosaic sheet, with thin brick a small part of it. Formats run subway, herringbone, hexagon and stacked panel. We help you choose it in the showroom. Call 636-332-0654.

Mostly stone, with one thin brick

The catalog calls this section brick and stone, and that is the label on the tag, so it is the label we keep. It is worth being straight about what sits behind it. Nearly all of it is marble, travertine, stacked stone panel and mosaic. Thin Brick Sedona Mosaic Tumbled is the piece that carries brick in its name. If a brick look is the whole point of the project, say so on the phone before you drive out, because the range in here is stone.

Format is the decision, not the color

Most people walk in with a color in mind and walk out having changed the format. Format sets the rhythm of the wall, and it gets settled first, because it drives the grout, the cuts and how the material is sold. Four of them cover most of this section.

• Subway. A rectangle set in a half offset running bond, a third offset, a straight stack or turned vertical, and the quietest of the four. Size moves the mood more than people expect. Arabescato Carrara Subway Tile 2X4 is small and busy across a wall, Montauk Blue Subway Tile 4X12 is long and calm, and Abani Subway is a third option in that family.
• Herringbone. Small rectangles angled against each other. It is the busiest of the four at close range and the most cut heavy where the wall ends. Carrara White 1X3 Herringbone Polished and Greecian White Herringbone Pattern are both in here, and herringbone at that scale is normally sold preassembled on sheets rather than piece by piece.
• Hexagon. Six sides, so no grout line runs straight across the wall. It reads geometric rather than traditional and holds up as a whole wall or as a band. Calacatta Gold 2 Hexagon Mosaic Tile is the one to look at, sold on a mosaic sheet.
• Penny round. Circles, and by a distance the most grout of any mosaic. Grout color stops being a detail here and becomes the background of the wall. Ask what penny round is on the racks the day you come in rather than counting on a photograph.

Panels and preset patterns work on a different principle. The pattern is cut or assembled at the factory instead of drawn by the grout, so the wall goes up in fewer, larger units and less joint shows. Arctic Panel and Ravello Mini Stack Polished are stacked stone in that form. Midnight Ash Peel And Stick Stacked Stone is the same idea with the adhesive already on the back. Bedford Brown Sq, Durham Fall Squares and Checkerboard Provence Beige Field Tile Ancient sit at the square and field end, where the piece does the work instead of the layout.

Polished, honed or tumbled

The same stone shows up more than one way, and the finish moves the color further than most people expect. Polished is buffed until it reflects. Veining looks sharper, the color reads deeper, and light bounces around a small bathroom. It also shows water spots and fingerprints, which matters within arm's reach of a faucet. Honed is ground flat and stopped before the shine, so it is matte, softer in color and easier to live with beside a sink. Tumbled is knocked back further still, with softened edges. The names often carry it: Carrara White 1X3 Herringbone Polished and Ravello Mini Stack Polished are finished one way, Thin Brick Sedona Mosaic Tumbled another.

Natural stone is porous whichever finish it wears, and the names in this section run to the stone itself: Golden, Silver Travertine, Calacatta Gold, Carrara White, Greecian White. Travertine and marble both want sealing and a pH neutral cleaner, and acid etches them. Worth knowing before a marble goes on the wall behind a range, where grease, vinegar and tomato land whether anyone plans for them or not.

How mosaic sheets work

Anything smaller than your hand is sold on sheets. The pieces are set in the pattern at the factory and held together with a mesh backing or a face paper, usually about a foot square, so the material is bought and handled sheet by sheet instead of piece by piece. Three things are worth checking while the sheet is still on the counter.

• The seam. On a good sheet the joints around the outside match the joints inside it, and the edges stagger, so the grid of the sheet does not appear on the finished wall. Herringbone sheets often interlock for exactly that reason.
• The backing. Mesh sits between the tile and the setting material, and on a translucent stone or a glass it can read through. That is a question to ask about a specific product, not a rule that covers all of them.
• The lot. Natural stone shifts from batch to batch. Look at more than one sheet before you commit, order the whole job at once, and keep what is left over.

What we do with it

Two plain sentences about scope. We sell wall material and we help you select it here in the showroom, with the floor sample sitting next to it. The installation our own crews handle is flooring, and flooring is also what the free estimate and the in-home measure cover.

So the useful order goes like this. If a floor is part of the same project, book the free estimate for the floor and settle the wall material on the same visit. If the wall material is all you are shopping for, come in, put the formats side by side, and we will order what you choose. Whether installation of a wall surface can be arranged is a separate question, and the honest answer is to call 636-332-0654 and confirm it before you plan around it.

Choose the wall and the floor together

The wall and the floor are one decision that usually gets made twice, a month apart, which is how a room ends up slightly off. A honed white marble subway reads cool over a gray plank and warm over an oak floor. Seeing that takes both samples in the same hand, which is the one thing a screen cannot do.

Bring a cabinet door, a counter chip or a photo of the room with the morning light in it. Tile lines in the showroom are Virginia Tile, DalTile, MSI and Emser. The showroom is open Monday through Saturday and the phone is 636-332-0654.