Rainforest Green Marble Floor in Longmont

Tile Art recently finished a kitchen, dining room, hall, bathroom and entry floor remodel with 18 x 18 inch rainforest green marble. The homeowner wanted to replace the builder’scera grade ceramic entry and bathroom floors, it was difficult tiling an uneven floor – atlas ceramics were used as well as the wood floor in the remainder of the main floor. After some time of decision making over what type of covering she wanted, she saw the rainforest green marble and fell in love with it.

Although called a marble, rainforest green is technically a serpentinite, commonly referred to as a serpentine stone. This is a rock consisting of one or more serpentine minerals. These serpentine minerals are what form the ribbons and streaks of color through the rock. When quarried and polished they lend a very unique look and flow to the individual tiles. For this reason I find that most people will either love it or hate it – rarely is there a middle-ground. There is also a stone called rainforest brown marble – the only difference being that the main background color is brown rather than green.

Because this is not a normal ‘marble’ it requires a very specific and exacting installation process. It is not installed like most natural stones. If you choose a serpentinite tile you must ensure that your contractor is familiar with this specific type of installation or your floor will not last long-term. If incorrectly installed this stone can actually curl up – really. The edges of the stone can begin to fold up toward the face of the tile, it is not a good look.

The homeowner also decided to have in-floor heating installed throughout the entire installation. This is an absolute great product to have here in Northern Colorado where the weather can swing wildly during the winter. Waking up to a warm marble floor rather than the normal cold (it’s actually room temperature – but that’s a whole other post) tile floors makes your mornings much more pleasant. Well, as pleasant as mornings can be, anyway.

Due to the size of the overall installation (almost 1200 square feet) we split the in-floor heat into two separate zones.  With larger areas this is normally a better option because you can choose to simply heat up the kitchen and bathroom only rather than heating the entire area. It cuts the energy used in half and makes the installation more efficient.

The combination of larger format tiles coupled with the in-floor heat and unique, warm look of the marble transformed this average builder level interior into a high-end, quality home suitable for a large dinner party or simply curling up with some hot chocolate during those cold Colorado winters.

If you need a marble tile installation contractor in Longmont, Fort Collins, or any part of Northern Colorado just give us a call at 970-213-3682 or fill out our contact page. You can click on the images to change to the next, or use the thumbnails beneath the image to choose.

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