In addition to the new Penny Rounds, we are now offering our Kawaii Recycled Glass tiles in a Herringbone pattern. Contrary to the size of the tile shown in the photo, the Herringbone tiles actually come on a 12” x 12” sheet and are paper-faced mounted. They are easy to install as many mounted mosaics are and the Herringbone pattern has been a popular design for many of our customers.

These tiles will make a great complement to a kitchen backsplash to add a unique design that you may not find in many other glass tile collections. The herringbone pattern recycled glass tiles coupled with the 11 unique colors offered in this pattern would make a beautiful kitchen backsplash in any remodeled kitchen. We can also see using the Herringbone pattern as a design over a cooktop when paired with our ceramic tiles much like our customer used our 1” x 1” Kawaii tiles here in this installation. Our Kawaii herringbone recycled glass tiles are in stock and usually ship within one to two days from your order date.

Contact us anytime if you have any questions about our tiles or you need design suggestions to help kick off your remodeling project.

In the last several years in cities with a strong residential urban core like New York, Chicago, or Boston there has been a growing interest in ways for apartment and condo dwellers to have a garden where residents can grow their own food. Space is always at a premium in these settings so folks have been forced to be creative over the years and gardens have been relegated to small areas where there is only room for maybe one or two plants.

There now may be a more attractive solution for apartment and condo residents that allows for a larger garden to be planted while at the same time providing insulation and potentially reducing heating and electricity costs.

Barthelmes Manufacturing Company makes what they call vertical garden products which are often called “edible walls”. The Rochester, NY company has been making the vertical garden products for almost five years now. The units are metal panels filled with soil and seeds and are hung vertically. They can be hung in backyards, parking lots, and other areas on a building. They can be used to plant a wide range of plants with one recent customer using his family’s unit to plant strawberries, lettuce, chives, oregano, parsley, rosemary and thyme.

At a cost that works out to about $125 a square foot, or $500 per planted panel these vertical planters are not for everybody but they certainly will have a following from city dwellers across the country. Advocates of urban farming have embraced vertical garden units as a means of lowering a families food costs, increasing nutritional quality, and cutting fuel consumption and carbon emissions by using fewer delivery trucks. Whatever your reason is for installing such a unit on your property we believe these planters are a nifty way to bring part of a families food source much closer to home.

Our bamboo tiles are for interior, dry areas only. Any area where there is moisture is not a suitable area for installation of our tiles. Install our Bamboo Subway tiles as a kitchen backsplash or as wainscoting for any room. These tiles are water resistant though not water proof so while they will repel water and moisture and will not be affected by light exposure to liquids the fact that small amounts of moisture will not affect the tiles gives opportunities to install the tiles in more places.

For interior designers and architects who specialize in commercial projects our bamboo subway tiles are a great fit for Asian themed restaurants, hotel restaurants, bars and lobbies, as well as office buildings and plazas. The natural variation of the bamboo tiles and the rich colors that are possible by using bamboo make the bamboo tiles an excellent choice to add a unique design element to your project.

Phone us anytime at Anchor Bay Tile at 888 260-7371 if you have any questions about how to use our new bamboo subway tiles for your project. We would be glad to help!

Our Bamboo Subway tile made from real Bamboo is now done, completed, finished and in-stock. The bamboo tile comes in three colors to start with a fourth color to be added in the next several weeks. The initial size of the tiles we will offer in the Bamboo will be a 3” x 6” subway tile size as well as coordinating trim and decorative pieces. More on the trim and decorative bamboo pieces later in the week.

The bamboo field tiles come with a backing for easy installation. Our installation instructions for the bamboo tiles are posted on our website located by clicking the installation specs tab on the bamboo subway tile product page.

This tile was designed by our in-house design team and took almost one year from start to finish. We have gone through countless product designs and numerous product versions until we settled on the final design of what you see today. Our bamboo tiles are made in the USA by our team in Arizona which allows us to keep the material in-stock so customers do not have to wait weeks for their orders to arrive. We are thrilled to finally get the product out to our customers and in to the marketplace and we hope our customers like our bamboo tiles as much as we do.

We expect to have our Bamboo tile ready to go in about two to three weeks so check the Anchor Bay Tile Blog often for updates or log on to our website and click the Wood tile link to be taken to the new product. In the meantime, Bamboo is truly a fascinating plant and there may be some interesting tid-bits of information about Bamboo that you may not already know about and which we wanted to share with our readers.

* Bamboo can grow up to 47 inches in 24 hours and as much as 78 feet high in 40 – 50 days. This compared to trees used for hardwood floors which can take 30 – 50 years to re-grow and are associated with all of the problems cited with clear-cut harvesting.
* Bamboo plants absorb almost five times the amount of carbon dioxide and produce up to 35% more oxygen than hardwood trees
* Bamboo plants are naturally moisture resistant and anti-bacterial with excellent mildew resistance
* Bamboo poles of some species mature in about three years and they regenerate naturally without the need for replanting nor the use of any pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers
* Bamboo has a widespread root system that assists greatly with watershed protection. The Bamboo plant greatly reduces rain run-off and soil erosion and because of the plants high nitrogen consumption Bamboo helps to mitigate water pollution.
* Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials in the world with a tensile strength comparable to steel.

We are excited about our new Bamboo tile line and we hope customers looking for special products and a unique look for their home will appreciate the craftsmanship of our new Bamboo subway tile.

Recycled products used for green design projects are gaining in popularity each and every day. There are even tax credits put in place by the Federal Government to encourage the use of green materials when renovating a residence. And because of the increased awareness of the limitations and stresses our activities place on the environment we believe this is only the beginning. With that being said, in regards to recycled glass tile products, consumers should understand that all recycled glass products are not created equal. For this reason, we wanted to review the main differences in the types of glass used in the production of recycled glass tile products.

Recycled glass tile products come from either post-industrial or post-consumer recycled glass. Post industrial recycled glass is glass waste that is used by factories and manufacturing plants that use glass in their production process. Post consumer recycled glass is glass that comes from cities, community recycling centers, and other community based sources. Both divert waste material from landfills but the quality of useable post-consumer recycled material remains an issue due to bottle labels and other contaminants that are hard to remove from each bottle.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, of the 13.6 million tons of glass in the municipal solid waste system in 2007, only about 24% was acceptable for recycling. This is because for cost reasons more cities use single stream recycling where all recyclables including glass, metal, plastic, and paper are all collected in one bin. This is great for consumers but harder on cities to separate the materials from each other and more costly as well.

We are often asked why our Recycled glass tile products such as our Kawaii glass mosaic tiles are more expensive than traditional glass tiles. We explain that whether post-consumer or post-industrial glass is used, the process of making recycled glass tiles is more labor intensive than making tiles using regular glass and this is what injects more cost in to the final price that consumers ultimately pay. Hopefully after reading this blog post you have a better understanding of what goes in to the making of recycled glass tiles. If you have any further questions please leave a comment with this post or feel free to email us through our AnchorBayTile contacts.