Sandstone Luxury Tile Case

I began laying vinyl tile in my garage as an ongoing project a couple years ago. I would buy 2-3 tiles at a time every time I went to Lowes. I went with the grey sandstone.
I noticed as my project took shape, some of the tiles were darker and some lighter in shade for the same tile. It wasn't so extreme so I didn't worry much.

before long Lowes didn't carry the shade of grey sandstone tile I was slowly outfitting to my garage. After scouring every Lowes store in my area, I was 36 tiles short of completion. As aggravating as this was, I knew going into this slow project that this method could produce this exact outcome.

so I decided to get the new color sandstone tile that they did carry and create a pattern in the floor and be done with it. To my extreme disappointment, the color variations in the new sandstone tiles are ridiculously extreme. So much so that they should have a different stock number. I ensured when I bought the remaining 36 tiles that the boxes all had the same stock number and label.

After removing. everything from my garage and laying the tiles. I noticed the tiles I bought to finish the project were extremely off.

Returning them to Lowes would have required me to secure everything I moved from my garage to my driveway, back into my garage, Make the correction at Lowes, then remove everything from my garage again to continue laying the tile.
I am disabled, doing this task alone is extremely more difficult than it should be already for me. I went ahead and continued with what I had. I am glad it is done and it looks ok but I think it would look great without the extreme color variation. It is frustrating seeing it every time I walk into the garage. These tiles aren't cheap, I would expect better quality control to ensure this doesn't happen.

If you do. take on this type of project, Open every box and take tiles out to compare before putting them In your cart. Don't just use the little window in the box.. Hold them next to one another. You shouldn't have to do this but here we are. Notice in the photos it looks like I have 4 different colored tiles. I assure you there should only be 2.

Otherwise I like the tiles, they are durable, most of them connect without issue and if you color match, it may look graet when you are done.

I purchased this flooring because it inner locks and I installed it in my motorhome. I had to glue the entire floor as recommended by the manufacturer because of the swing in temperature but the flooring looks wonderful and feels wonderful.