Real stone. Real character.

Stone breakdown

Travertine is forgiving — natural pits and variations hide wear and small stains. Best for high-traffic floors, entries, mudrooms.

Marble is the luxury choice. Beautiful, classic, dramatic. Higher maintenance — etches with acidic spills (lemon juice, vinegar, wine) if not cleaned quickly. Best for master baths and formal areas.

Slate is durable and slip-resistant. Naturally textured. Best for entries, mudrooms, and outdoor-adjacent areas.

Limestone is softer and warmer-looking than marble. Lower-maintenance than marble but still requires sealing. Best for living rooms, dining, hallways.

The honest part — natural stone needs care

Natural stone is alive in ways manufactured tile isn’t. Marble etches. Travertine pits. Slate spalls. Sealing is annual maintenance, not a one-time event.

For households with young kids or active dogs, we usually recommend porcelain tile that mimics stone rather than real stone. The look is 95% there, the maintenance is 30%.

For households who’ll commit to the maintenance, real stone has character that no manufactured material matches.

A note on resale value

Real marble in master baths genuinely holds resale-value beyond its cost — it’s one of the few flooring materials that does. If you’re renovating with a 10+ year horizon and the master bath is the priority, real marble is worth the maintenance for the resale return.

Subfloor reinforcement on pier-and-beam homes

Stone tile is heavy — 5 to 10+ pounds per square foot installed once you add thinset and grout. On pier-and-beam homes (common in Lakewood, M Streets, Old McKinney, parts of Old Plano, and older Carrollton neighborhoods), the joists often need to be sistered before a stone install to handle the load. We check joist spacing and condition at the in-home estimate and tell you straight whether reinforcement is needed before we start. Skipping this is how stone tile cracks within a year on an under-built pier-and-beam floor.

On slab, we install a crack-isolation membrane (Ditra or RedGard SLF) before setting the stone — same reasoning as on porcelain tile. DFW slabs move; the membrane keeps that movement from telegraphing into the stone above.

What’s included in your install

• Baseboard pull and reinstall (not shoe-mold over the new floor) — keeps the line clean
• Door undercutting where the new floor’s height requires it
• Transitions to existing flooring — T-mold, reducer, threshold, stair-nose as needed
• HEPA-vacuum dust containment during demo (stone demo runs heavy on dust)
• Furniture moved by our crew — you don’t lift a finger
• Demo and disposal of the old flooring