Tile Samples: How Designers and Contractors Sample a Project

A tile sample is one real piece of a product, sent before the order so its color, finish, texture and thickness can be checked in the room where it will go. On our site, 4,056 products have an Order Sample button on the product page: tile, mosaics, moldings, pavers, luxury vinyl and engineered hardwood, each sent as a full-size piece. Slabs are sampled through the request form on each slab page instead. A sample board is a single panel or tray that holds the samples for every surface of one room, so they are judged together. Every sampleable product is grouped in our tile samples collection.

How to order tile samples on our site

1. Open the product page of the exact size and finish you want to see. A sample is of that item, so a polished 12x24 and a honed 12x24 are two separate samples.
2. Select Order Sample. The line under the button reads "Full-size sample · Shipped as a single piece." The sample goes into your cart, and "View sample in cart" appears on the page.
3. Or add from a collection page. Product cards on our collection pages have a "+ Add sample" link, so a shortlist can be built without opening every page.
4. Note the item code. Each product page shows an item code under the title, for example STTL-JAHFH for Crema Marfil Polished 12x24. Writing it on the back of the sample keeps the board tied to the exact product when the order is placed.

For slabs, the slab page has a "Request a Sample or Quote" button instead. That process is covered below and in our guide to buying slabs for a client project.

Which products have a sample

Product	How to sample it	What arrives
Tile, mosaics and moldings	Order Sample on the product page or + Add sample on the card	One full-size piece of that item
Pavers	Order Sample on 357 of our 691 paver pages	One full-size paver; some pavers also list a 6x6 Swatch size
Pool copings	Few have a button; sample the paver of the same stone and finish	A paver of the matching stone
Luxury vinyl and engineered hardwood	Order Sample on the plank page	One full-size plank sample
Stone slabs	Request form on the slab page, choosing "A slab sample" or "Both"	A sample of the stone, arranged with your fabricator
Some large formats	No sample button on the page	Sample a smaller size of the same series where one exists

If a product page has no Order Sample button, that item is not offered as a sample. This applies to some of our largest porcelain formats, such as certain 24x48 tiles. Where the same series comes in a smaller size with a sample, that piece shows the same color and finish.

What a sample settles, and what it cannot

A full-size sample answers the questions a photo cannot:

• Color under the room's own light, next to the cabinets, paint, wood and counters that are staying.
• Finish and texture: polished, honed, tumbled, leathered or sandblasted surfaces look alike in photos and feel different in the hand.
• Thickness and edge: the piece shows how it will meet a neighboring floor or a trim piece, and whether its edge is rectified, straight cut or tumbled.
• Scale: a full-size 12x24 or 24x24 piece shows the size of the format, which a small chip cannot.

A single piece cannot show the spread of a whole floor. Natural stone and zellige vary from piece to piece and from one production lot to the next, and porcelain is made in production lots too, so a sample shows the product, not the exact lot your order will be filled from. For a stone floor, order the full quantity at once and in one lot; our guide to ordering tile by lot, shade and caliber explains how. A sample also cannot show how a large format changes a room with fewer joints; our large format tile guide covers that.

Building a sample board for a client

A sample board puts every surface of one room in front of the client at the same time, so the decision is a comparison instead of a series of separate yes-or-no calls. A board for a bright white marble kitchen might hold four items, all in Bianco Dolomiti so the white and its faint gray veining stay consistent across them:

Lookbook

Bianco Dolomiti kitchen sample board

Floor

Backsplash

Trim

Countertop

All four are polished. The floor tile, the herringbone mosaic and the pencil liner are Bianco Dolomiti and each has an Order Sample button; the countertop is the Bianco Dolomiti Venato slab, sampled through the slab request form. Our marble tile collection has other stones with the same depth of sizes and trims.

A few habits keep a board useful:

• One board per room. A bathroom and a kitchen in the same house are judged against different fixed materials.
• Include what is staying. A cabinet door, a paint chip or an offcut of the existing floor belongs on the board next to the new samples.
• Two or three candidates per surface, placed side by side so the client compares them directly.
• Label each sample with the product name, finish, size and item code, and keep the board after approval: it becomes the reference when the order arrives.
• Save the shortlist online. The heart icon on our product pages saves an item to a named project, and the My Projects page lists each project. Projects stay in the browser you used; signing in keeps them on every device.

Sampling flooring: vinyl and engineered hardwood

Plank flooring is sampled the same way. Our luxury vinyl and engineered hardwood planks have the Order Sample button on the plank page, and the page describes the sample as full-size, shipped as a single piece.

Wood and wood-look floors are worth seeing in more than one plank, because grain and color shift along the length. Order two samples of the same color if the client is deciding between close shades. The luxury vinyl plank collection and the engineered hardwood collection hold the full range.

Sampling outdoor work: pavers and copings

Paver samples are judged outdoors in daylight, next to the house, the planting and any brick or stone already on site.

Of our 465 pool copings, 2 offer a sample, so for a pool job, sample the paver in the same stone and finish as the coping. Our guide for hardscape and pool contractors lists which stones come as both paver and coping, and the paver collection shows which pages have the sample button.

Sampling slabs

Slabs are sampled through the "Request a Sample or Quote" form on each slab page. The form asks what you need (a quote, a slab sample or both), whether the project is residential or commercial, the project ZIP code and, optionally, your fabricator's name and the approximate square feet. Two rules on our slab pages apply to samples as well as orders:

• Slabs are delivered only to a licensed fabricator, and the slab page asks you to have a fabricator in place before requesting samples.
• The fabricator should confirm availability and pricing with us before slab samples are ordered.

A slab sample shows the stone's color and finish. The batch photo on the slab page shows the actual slabs in each batch, and that photo is the better guide to veining across a full sheet. Browse slabs in the stone slab collection, and see our marble slab guide for how batches work.

What contractors check on a sample before ordering

• Thickness against the neighboring floor, using the thickness in the product specifications, so transitions can be planned.
• Edge type: rectified, straight cut or tumbled, which affects the look of the joint.
• Trim: the "Complete your project" panel on our product pages lists matching trim and edging, such as the pencil liner in the board above. Sample the trim with the tile.
• Selling unit: the packaging line on the page shows square feet per piece, box or set, which turns the takeoff into an order quantity. Our tile quantity guide has worked examples.

Samples and our trade program

Designers, architects, contractors and builders who sample for client projects can apply to our trade program. Approved members who are logged in see trade pricing applied automatically at checkout, and a dedicated trade specialist helps with selection, quotes and project support, including narrowing a shortlist before the samples go out. Applying is free. Our trade program guide explains what members get.

Tile samples FAQ

Can I order samples of mosaics sold by the sheet?

Yes, on mosaic pages that show the Order Sample button. The sample is the mosaic as listed on that page, shipped as a single piece, so the pattern, the size of the chips and the mix of finishes can be judged at their real scale. If a mosaic page has no sample button, ask a trade specialist about a similar sheet.

What if there is no sample and no smaller size of the series?

Apply to our trade program or contact our team, and ask a trade specialist to suggest a sampleable product in the same material, color and finish. On the product page itself, the Specifications section lists material, color, finish and edge, which are the fields to match when choosing a stand-in.

Can samples go to a different address from my business?

Samples are cart items, so they go to the shipping address entered at checkout for that order. A designer can place a sample-only order to a client's address and a separate one to the studio, each with its own ship-to address.

How do I find sampleable products in one color?

Open the tile samples collection and use its filters: Color (white, gray, beige, black and more), Stone Color for named stones such as Silver Shadow or Skyline marble, and Price. Every product in that collection has the sample button, so a filtered list is a ready shortlist for one board.