Terico - San Jose, CA

Terico
1723 Junction Ave
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 441-8868
terico.biz

If you're feeling lucky and like to gamble, then Terico's may be a good bet. The best thing about them for someone like me who is building a home, is that it's cash-and-carry, and I mean CASH (or checks) and you have to CARRY your own boxes of tile off the loading dock into your vehicle (unless you buy a pallet, which they load with a forklift for you). You don't order anything, so when I need stuff now, I go to Terico's.

In the realm of building a home, I am a shopping guru...seriously. That means searching everywhere to get the best price without sacrificing quality. Sometimes Terico has the best price for tile, sometimes they don't. Same goes for quality, I found some top-quality marble but poor-quality onyx.

Although Terico does have a lot of tile to choose from, they don't have everything I need, especially when it comes to liners, deco tiles, mosaics and medallions. I purchased some Java Cream, Rainforest Brown, Incas Gold and Crema Marfil tiles from them, but got the rest of what I needed elsewhere. I'm building a house with travertine floors throughout and 8 bathrooms (all of them different) so I had a lot on my tile shopping list!

Service varies greatly here, it's hit or miss depending upon who you talk to. It's definitely a don't-touch-anything-because-it' s-so-damn- filthy place, so be warned. Even some of the samples on display are labeled "clean" and "dirty" so you can see the difference...seems odd, but whatever!

They don't take orders after 1:55pm (it used to be 2:00pm but they seriously changed it to 1:55pm!) on weekdays and 10:00am on Saturdays. Come early because sometimes there's a long wait at the cashier, a long wait to fill your order and I highly recommend that you check your tile before loading it...they don't give refunds.

Also, they have a $280 minimum purchase, so keep that in mind...