Frequently Asked Questions

I am concerned about the health of my employees, customers, and the earth.  I believe global warming is occurring, and will do anything in my power to not help it along. Every person I work for or sit next to at a diner is part of the same community.  As a result, I will not poison my neighbor’s water or leave a pile of carcinogenic dust in the flower beds. I cannot knowingly do work in a house and use products that are toxic when I know there is an alternative.

When we are working on a job we are not just working for a check, we are gaining trust — trust that we have the customer’s best intentions at heart, a trust not to be betrayed. Recycling, using less toxic products, giving to non-profits, being environmentally conscious, and buying enough carbon credits for the company and the guy next to me is all part of helping the community.  You may ask, "well what do you get out of it?" We make enough money to run a business, but most importantly we get to sleep at night knowing we made a difference.  Maybe with a little luck we can get more tile installation companies to see the value of what we are doing and follow our lead.

NO! Donations to non-profits are not considered in the bidding process. If we were to attach hidden fees we would not be able to stay competitive with conventional tile installation companies. We believe the power of giving comes from a selfless act — where you simply give from your heart. We donate a portion of the proceeds from each project to a non-profit organization of your choice.

If you cannot decide on one please visit: Kiva , Seacology, ChannelG , or look through this list of non-profit organizations which contains about 1200 non-profits and their websites.

Good for Our Economy: American companies rely on recycling programs to provide the raw materials they need to make new products.
Creates Jobs: Recycling in the U.S. is a $236 billion a year industry. More than 56,000 recycling and reuse enterprises employ 1.1 million workers nationwide.
Reduces Waste: The average American discards four and a half pounds of garbage every day. Most of this garbage goes into landfills, where it's compacted and buried.
Good for The Environment: Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills.
Saves Energy: Recycling offers significant energy savings over manufacturing with virgin materials. (Manufacturing with recycled aluminum uses 95% less energy.)
Protect and Extend Landfill Disposal Capacity: Conserving landfill space for materials that cannot be recycled makes the most effective use of our valued land resources.
Prevents Global Warming: In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the unit of measure for greenhouse gases) into the air.
Reduces Water Pollution: Making goods from recycled materials generates far less water pollution than manufacturing from virgin materials.
Protects Wildlife: Using recycled materials reduces the need to damage forests, wetlands, rivers and other places essential to wildlife.
Creates New Demand: Recycling and buying recycled products creates demand for more recycled products, decreasing waste and helping our economy.

Cheap work is not good and good work is not cheap. The prices set forth reflect the cost of operating and the value of our services.  We operate by the book and Down to Earth Floors LLC carries an active contractor's license, bonding, and insurance. We also provide health benefits and workers compensation for our employees. These are all heavy expenses to a business, but we must obey all laws and have our employees' emotional and health interests in mind.  Recycling the construction materials is only a marginal increase in our costs, as are the more earth-friendly materials.  We do tend to spend more time on the job making sure we are all on the same page with type of material, grout colors, and design layout. We take the time to properly install every tile that goes in and we do not “lick and stick” anything under any circumstances. Most importantly, when the job is finished you’ll see that Down to Earth Floors is worth every penny.

Ordering extra tile ensures that we have enough tile to make all the cuts we need when installing it. It's also a good idea to store some extra pieces in your basement. Tile’s appearance varies from lot to lot each time it is manufactured and those extra tiles will be worth their weight in gold, saving you from having to replace the entire floor when you damage a tile or purchase a slightly different-sized appliance.

VOCs are emitted as gases from thousands of products such as paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.

The chemicals in VOCs may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. For more information, see the Environmental Protection Agency's Basic Information on VOCs.

According to the EPA: eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. 

At present, not much is known about what health effects occur from the levels of organics usually found in homes. For more information, see the Environmental Protection Agency's Health Effects of VOCs.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.  For instance when we drive to pick up materials for the job and drive to our next project, we release CO2 into the atmosphere creating a “carbon footprint.” Down to Earth Floors counteracts this by investing money into three categories:

• Reforestation: Forests capture CO2 and store it in the trees’ mass and in the soil.  Reforestation projects play a vital role in absorbing emissions and providing time to transition to a new energy future.
• Energy efficiency: This is the application of new technologies, processes or practices to achieve the same benefit or improved benefit while using less energy.
• Renewable energy:  Typically this refers to the development of wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other non-carbon producing energy sources. Down to Earth Floors currently is invested in removing 70 tons of CO2 a year from the atmosphere, which leaves an additional 50 tons to compensate for the shipping and manufacturing of your tile.

Our carbon credits are purchased through www.carbonfund.org

Ceramic tiles are made of natural raw materials such as clays, quartziferous sands, glass substances and other minerals. The raw materials are mixed with water, shaped, and fired at high temperatures to create a naturally beautiful product and to achieve hardness and durability. The beauty and variety of color, design, and decoration made available by glazed tiles have always been one of the most valued qualities of ceramic products in general. The glaze also makes cleaning easier and hygienically more effective.

Porcelain tile (or porcelain stoneware tile) is a ceramic product with a solid structure and a hard surface that doesn't absorb water, doesn't stain, and isn't affected by wear and tear over time. Glazed porcelain tile requires lower maintenance than natural stone, granite, and marble. Benefits include a wide range of colors and textures and an accurate recreation of the look of natural stones, granites, slates, travertines, limestones, marbles, quartzites, terra cottas and even woods and metals, combined with the low maintenance of ceramics and the technical properties of a hard-wearing material that is resistant to all weather conditions, chemical attack, scratches, stains, fading, heavy loads, and fire.

Granite is the hardest of all building stones. Its very close grain makes it almost impervious to stain and uniquely applicable for any interior use. If polished, the high-gloss finish will endure even in harsh environments.

Granite is one of the hardest stones on the earth and has a rating of 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness,just below that of diamonds. These characteristics are ideal for countertops and flooring making granite a reliable stone for these applications.

Marble, a much softer stone than granite, is highly reactive to the acids found in vinegar, orange juice, and lemons. These acids will etch the stone and leave dull marks or rings. Marble scratches easily so should not be cut on.

Marble is formed from limestone. Many natural stones, including limestone and travertine, are referred to as marble because the surface of the stone can be polished to a high gloss finish.