Basement = A Midwest Necessity

As a Midwesterner, you quickly realize we enjoy all four seasons. Each season brings it’s own set of amazingness and challenges. In the summer, we enjoy the outdoors with swimming, boating, camping, gardening and grilling! We also realize the hottest part of the day is sometimes needing to enjoy a few hours indoors cooling off. In the winter, we sled and snowboard and snowplow, ice fish, take winter walks or hikes. We also need a warm place to congregate when the wind is brutal. In the spring we have tornado warnings and in the fall we have Husker football parties!

What do all those activities have in common? They all call for a functional space in your home to serve a variety of needs. Guess what? A great basement fits the bill on ALL those needs. So your next question might be, what does a great basement have in it?

A good basement has these qualities.

  1. Excellent storage
  2. A half bathroom…even better, a 3/4 shower
  3. An inviting gathering place, such as a bar area that includes a sink, seating and a frig.
  4. Proper lighting
  5. Proper Drainage
  6. A focus on functionality
  7. Proper air circulation
  8. A good layout
  9. Proper “exits”
  10. Enough ceiling height

Is there a basement quality that you would add? If we missed something, let us know. It might be worth adding to this inexhaustible list. For if we’ve learned anything. It’s that us Midwesterners, really need a solid basement!

Phillips Tile & Stone has worked on a few basements in since we opened our business doors in 2010. Sometimes, we don’t get a photo. Sometimes, homeowners send us photos. We then turn around and share what amazing clients we have but showing off their new spaces!

Below is a photo of LVP installed by Phillips Tile & Stone. Here is the reel you can see the entire basement transformation!

Happy 12th Birthday, Phillips Tile & Stone!

As you would celebrate anything that you’ve put years of hard work into…today we celebrate Phillips Tile & Stone’s preteen era!

For the past 12 years, we have been installing beautiful spaces either locally, in small towns nearby or a few times our crew as even traveled to install masterpieces in residential or commercial spaces.

The timeline of Phillips Tile & Stone will always blow my mind. We were married in 2009. The economy was terrible and after much looking Trevor decided to start his own business after the company he was with couldn’t survive. Phillips Tile & Stone was created in 2010. In 2011, we had our first baby! Those first years of marriage and business owning and parenthood were HARD. We are so incredibly thankful for our clients, employees, subcontractors and referrals. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Merry Christmas from the Phillips!

“It’s the best time of the year,” that’s what our 8 year old likes to say! Merry Christmas from the Phillips family. We hope you are enjoying all the coziness this season brings. Is anyone else in disbelief we are already in December? January will usher in a New Year. To us, it felt like 2021 went incredibly fast. Every year we realize how fast a year can pass. We hope you conquered personal goals and made 2021 the most successful it could possibly be despite everything going on. If we have learned anything, we’ve learned grit and determination and prayer go a long way during difficult times. If 2021 was a difficult year for you, we’d be honored to pray for you.

2021 brought some highlights for us as a family/company and those highlights are…

-Finding out about baby #6, we are due in March of 2022! We are excited and praying for a healthy baby.

-Moving. We are so thankful we found a house with the market as crazy as it was. Is? Who is keeping track. 🙂

-Squeezing in a few family trips before summer ended. It was crazy, especially after moving trying to make all the trips happen that had previously been scheduled, but so glad that we made that effort.

-Winning Best of Omaha for Phillips Tile & Stone, THANK YOU to all who voted!! It’s not lost on us that YOUR votes are what made it happen. We will continue to provide and install exceptional craftsmanship and value to YOU, our clients.

-We are thankful for the connections we’ve made here in Omaha. We are finding so much joy in deepening our roots in this wonderful city we’ve been planted.

Thank you for being our family friend or a friend of the company. We appreciate you all so incredibly much. Merry Christmas!

The Phillips Family and Phillips Tile & Stone Team

Merry Christmas from Phillips Tile & Stone and the Phillips family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best of Omaha Tile Installer

Every year I look forward to this holiday a little more. There is something endearing about a holiday that’s sole purpose is to “Give Thanks.”

No matter the weather you are experiencing as you celebrate this wonderful holiday. Whether you have decided to dress up or down. Let’s take some time to think about what we have to be thankful for. Since this is our company blog, I’ll come at it from the perspective of Phillips Tile & Stone, but please, take your own situation and think about what YOU have to be thankful for.

So with that, here are 10 things we (Phillips Tile & Stone) are thankful for as a company.

  1. Best of Omaha– 2022 Tile Installer: THANK YOU to ALL of YOU who voted! We are deeply honored!
  2. We are thankful for our subcontractors who demonstrate their craftsmanship abilities day in and day out. Without these guys, Trevor wouldn’t be able to accomplish half of what he does. Because of these craftsmen, we can take on more projects and help more clients! Thank you men!
  3. Word of Mouth- we are thankful for all of you who share the Phillips Tile & Stone name! It’s not easy owning a small business. However, our supportive clients make it worth it.
  4. The people we get to meet and help, it’s amazing. We GET to help families and businesses by creating and installing functional and beautiful spaces.
  5. We are thankful for 11 years of business. Trevor started Phillips Tile & Stone in 2010. Thank you to ALL who have utilized our growing company and services.
  6. We are thankful we get to run this business as a husband and wife team.
  7. This company helps teach our kids the meaning and value of hard work.
  8. We GET to help make Omaha beautiful. Need to set up a free estimate? Let’s make your space beautiful.
  9. We GET to create jobs and careers! We are honored to teach, train and create job opportunities locally.
  10. It’s truly amazing what can happen when you set your mind out to do something. We are thankful for the lessons we’ve learned and the growth that has taken place since we were 26 year old’s and starting Phillips Tile & Stone!

It’s your turn now, we hope you take the time ( it only takes 10 minutes or so) to drum up 10 things you are thankful for. I guarantee it’ll change your mindset and help you enjoy this wonderful holiday with new perspective.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

Here are a few pictures of what we are thankful for.

Happy May 1st!

Happy May Day, to all you beautiful people. The sun is shining and it’s a glorious day in Omaha, Nebraska. We’ve got three boys in baseball with Trevor coaching one team. I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but go enjoy this season of life! Plant the garden. Book the vacation. Sign up for the class. Order the swimsuit! Give it a whirl.

I hope you decide life is exciting and choose to make the steps to go for it!

On the business side of life, we are working hard at getting all the projects installed. Our team is out there doing what they do best. Installing spaces you (our client) adore. On the family side of life, out family is growing up and we are trying to cherish all the moments.

Have a beautiful first day of May. Do you need to get that estimate set up? Let me make it easy for you. Head to this link to get started. We hope to hear from you soon!

-Phillips Family and Phillips construction crew

Laminate Floor Care & Maintenance

Congratulations! You have a brand new Laminate floor!! Yay! Now what? It’s silly to expect any material to get their full years’ of use without proper care. If you have a Laminate floor, keep reading for maintenance tips! It’s easier to maintain than you might think.

Follow routine maintenance guidelines to clean your laminate flooring

*Use a damp cloth to blot up spills as soon as they happen. Never allow liquids to stand on your floor.

*Sweep, dust, or vacuum the floor regularly with the hard floor attachment (not the beater bar) to prevent accumulation of dirt and grit that can scratch or dull the floor finish.

*Do not wash or wet mop the floor with soap, water, oil-soap detergent, or any other liquid cleaning material. This could cause swelling, warping, delamination, and joint-line separation, and void the warranty.

*Do not use steel wool, abrasive cleaners, or strong ammoniated or chlorinated type cleaners.

*Do not use any type of buffing or polishing machine.

*For spots such as candle wax or chewing gum, harden the spot with ice and then gently scrape with a plastic scraper, such as a credit card. Be careful not to scratch the flooring surface. Wipe clean with a damp cloth.

*A more frequent dust-mopping or vacuuming schedule may be required in very sandy areas such as a beach or lake home.

Ways to protect your laminate flooring to keep it looking like new!

*To prevent slippage of area rugs, use an approved vinyl rug underlayment.

*Use floor protectors and wide-load bearing leg bases/rollers to minimize the chance of indentations and scratches from heavy objects. As a rule, the heavier the object, the wider the floor protector.

*Maintain a normal indoor relative humidity level between 35% and 65% throughout the year to minimize the natural expansion and contraction of the wood.

*Avoid excessive exposure to water during periods of inclement weather.

*Keep your pets’ nails trimmed to prevent them from scratching your floor.

*Never try to slide heavy objects across the floor.

*A protective mat should be used for furniture or chairs with casters.

Hopefully you found a few of these tips helpful and useful. As always, please contact us or comment below if you have further questions!

~Phillips Tile & Stone Team

Laminate basement floor