In a few hours you can install a real tile or stone floor

Expecting company? Why not wow your guests with a beautiful ceramic-tile or stone floor you installed in a matter of hours earlier in the day? Talk about a conversation piece.

Mission impossible? Not at all. In fact, installation is so ultra consumer friendly it turns the norm of surface prep, messy glues, cracked grout and professional-only installation on its head.

Edge Precizion Tile debuted in front of 90,000 attendees as one of the more talked about new products at the recent International Builders Show in Las Vegas, the annual showcase where innovative home products gain initial exposure.

The advantage to Edge tiles for do-it-yourselfers is that the painstaking, labor-intensive process to put down honest-to-goodness tile or stone floors is out the window. In a few hours, users can go from humdrum floors to ceramics or granite. Lowes officials say the chain of 975 stores has secured exclusive rights for Edge flooring.

Edge CEO Bob Miller says his first-year firm will "open the premium flooring market to do-it-yourselfers of average abilities. Until now, you had to be a pro or have some serious how-to savvy to take on real tile."

Miller's approach is fairly simple. Ceramic, porcelain or granite tile in 1-foot squares is permanently glued to hard tongue-and-groove backerboard. The tiles click together creating a uniform space between tiles for premixed grout squeezed out of a toothpaste-like tube with a flange to guide even the hands of a novice.

Tiles can be cut to fit with a special blade Edge provides along with an instructional DVD. The blade fits on standard circular saws.

The real difference is when the tile meets the floor.

Tiles aren't glued down. Each literally "floats" on rubberized underlayment you roll out. No extensive subsurface preparation is necessary in all but extreme cases of floor damage. Edge tile can be laid directly atop vinyl or wood, saving hours of backbreaking labor to scrape or peel away existing flooring.

In the Edge system, grout and backerboard combine to play important roles, according to Miller. The reason cement board is often laid below most tile is to create a super-stable surface. Rock-hard grout or immovable tile can crack if a house shifts even slightly.

The Edge tongue-and-groove backerboard creates a flexed-hinge effect. The grout, while very hard, is somewhat flexible. This allows the tile to bend and move. But you can walk on it minutes after tile is laid.

That's what thousands of visitors did at the builder show. Edge staff finished laying a large tile floor at the Lowes booth less than an hour before exhibit doors opened. It withstood the heavy traffic without a crack.

"That was the acid test, people walking on this all day without a single problem," says Miller. "The sub-flooring was even bouncy, but it held up just great."

Clint Davis, flooring vice president for Lowes, says simplicity of installation will catch the attention of the do-it-yourself market. "Anything easy for homeowners with good results is a real plus as far as were concerned. That's what is so good about Edge."

Consumers can expect to pay prices starting at $3.48 per foot. Both Lowes and edge officials say this means a substantial savings over professional installation.

"But even professionals will like this approach," says Miller. "They can put down real tile or stone in a few hours, allowing them to do more jobs with fewer callbacks and complaints."