Marble look like porcelain tiles

I bought calacatta gold porcelain 12" square tiles at Canco's for 2 bathroom floors a few years back and the tile was very elegant. I have to renovate the bathroom in my current place and love the look, but not the maintenance, of marble. So I have been looking into a tile places that carry "marble look porcelain". Rather than slabs, you can buy a variety of sizes at several tile stores now. This makes the tile design more interesting.

See cancos, daltile, tile-shop, nemo tile, classic tile new york, tile time online, and artistic tile sites . I can't post the URLs for these sites to bring you straight into the marble look porcelain because streeteasy is bouncing my repsonse as spam. However, here's a good PDF file from canco's that exemplifies the varieties across these sites.

http://cancos.com/download/calacattaHH.pdf

Thank you for your reply.

I was looking inside the large panels 5 ft. x 10 ft. i think i'll be a bit different respect the normal 12" square porcelain tiles right?

http://www.stonepeakceramics.com/plane.php

No one never used this type of panels? What will be the cost for install them?

I've seen some sample bathrooms designs online that use only large slabs. Personally, I think I would get bored with that. I'd like some inserts with designs. If there's a plumbing issue, I think it's easier to deal with smaller pieces. Also, I know my walls and floor have to be leveled.

When you install kitchen counters, it's really a 2 to 3 man job because the slabs weigh so much. I would assume you'd have the same with slabs of porcelain.

I also have been looking into Silestone. I just found out that they make smaller pieces besides the slabs for kitchen counters. I like their style Lyrica that has an even grey/beige marble design. However, I think this would be more expensive than marble since the cutting of pieces is more difficult than for porcelain.

BTW: I already had your URL in my bookmarks for potential bathroom designs.

I'm interested to see what you wind up doing. My bathroom reno is 1 to 2 years out.

lucs, you're not going to be able to get sheets that big into the building.

In a bath with slab marble, you'll often see one as tall as the sink slab is high, with another slab from there to the ceiling.

Also, for it to read as real marble, you have to have some edges showing, for the eye to register that it's a .5-75" slab and not just a thin sheet of something fake.

So the porcelain sheets might be great in some applications but not in others.

NWT, I think you have a good point. During a recent renovation, my contractor had to account for our elevator height to order certain materials. Anything over 8 feet was a problem, especially for wider pieces that are difficult to tilt on a diagonal. My freight elevator is about 5 wide x 4 deep x 8 high , so the diagonal along the floor is about 6.4 feet. A diagonal from the corner on the floor to the opposite corner on the height is about 9.4 feet.

thank you for the reply, i'll follow yours advice and i think i'll go with this standard product with the same marble look like.

I don't know yet what size i'll use for my bath
http://www.stonepeakceramics.com/products-collections-tiles.php?coll=CLASSIC&linea=STATUARIETTO

I like the look.