TERRAPIN DESIGN

My husband & I live in upstate SC & have a house at Fripp Island, SC. We are DIYers, & wanted to install all of the tile in our Fripp house ourselves. However, after it took us 2 years to tile only our kitchen, den & a hallway (we live 5 hours from Fripp, & haven't had much time), we admitted to ourselves that if we wanted to see this job completed, we needed help. We had to find a contractor who works with DITRA (see below) & would provide a high-quality tile installation. We had performed HOURS of research, & ultimately decided to use Schluter Systems DITRA uncoupling membrane as our underlayment instead of cement board. (We highly recommend that you investigate the benefits of using an uncoupling membrane. See www.schlutersystems.com or www.johnbridge.com for information.) However, this decision limited our choice of tile contractors. We spoke to several tile contractors in the Beaufort area, but none of them know anything about DITRA. Finally, the SC Schluter Systems sales representative referred me to Dorance Greer & Terrapin Design in Savannah. I called Dorance & told him about our situation. He seemed very personable, very knowledgeable & said that Terrapin Design works exclusively with DITRA & Schluter products. We arranged to meet when my husband & I were down at Fripp, so that Dorance could quote our job. When we met with Dorance, my husband & I were very impressed. Dorance fully explained what he & the team from Terrapin Design would do. We particularly liked that Terrapin Design does not just send a team of tile setters to install tile. The partners, Dorance Greer & David Hamilton, personally work on & supervise all of their tile installation contracts. Dorance provided a quote that, based on our experience tiling our kitchen, den & hallway, was fair compensation for the work involved. After meeting Dorance, we accepted his quote. Because of Fripp?s distance from Savannah, we arranged for the Terrapin Design team to stay at our Fripp house during the tile installation. They arrived at our house on Sunday evening, & they were finished Thursday evening. During the installation, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Dorance was very conscientious & called us nightly to provide progress reports. If he had any questions, he promptly called to clarify the situation, rather than just making an assumption & plunging ahead. When we arrived Friday to settle up with Dorance, we found that our tile installation looks FANTASTIC. The team also left our house neat & orderly. Our neighbors were impressed at how hard the Terrapin Design team worked during their stay at our house. We highly recommend Terrapin Design?s services as your tile contractor. The price you pay will not be the cheapest. But based on our experience with Terrapin Design, you will receive a premium-quality job for the price you pay. After all, you are investing a lot of money in tile. Shouldn?t it be installed properly the first time?