Do you have first hand experience or you are quoting common saying? To me, HD won't sell defective product deliberately. HD's supplier won't run a inferior production line just to supply mass market products.

You found a good tiler! Now listen to them. Box store tile is junk.

"To me, HD won't sell defective product deliberately. HD's supplier won't run a inferior production line just to supply mass market products."

Defective? Maybe not, but the line between defective and high-quality is pretty wide and gray.

There's some good stuff at HD, and some mediocre stuff (and some really bad stuff) and most of us pros don't have time or inclination to keep up with all that. It's a lot easier to find suppliers we trust and build relationships with them.

Got Daltile @ HD (for kitchen), it seems to be better quality than the tile I got from tile store (for bath).

The difference is that higher quality tile will be flat. Tiles with a bit of a bow to them will stick out from the wall in the center, forming “lippage” that is obvious and ruins the look of a job.

Higher quality tile will have uniformity in all its dimensions, so that your grout lines are even. It will be easier to lay when uniform, too. No chipped edges from bad packaging in transit.

Higher quality tile will snap (break) or cut better, making the tiler’s job of cutting ends and last row heights easier. Glaze will be thick enough and fired at the right temperature to have the desired look. No wiggly unevenly glazed edges where the glaze does not hide the color of the tile body underneath it. No problems with a shipment of tile in two or more lots, where the color is noticeably different between them.

We have all seen showers on this forum made with poor quality tile. It makes the DIY person’s shower look like crap and the master tiler’s work look like an apprentice’s. Save yourself the bother of having to tear out and start over. Get a tile that your professional approves of.

If your tiler is experienced and with great references; then please listen to your tiler and do what he suggests❣️

The poster is actually asking a good valid question: is the Daltile from HD the same as the Daltile from the big city tile retail store?? It’s really hard to fathom that Daltile takes their uneven batches and sends them to Home Depot but saves their perfect tile for the retail store?? Also anyone making a general statement about the quality of HD should be on top of what is HD doing TODAY as they now do carry a lot more manufacturers. We all were told 10 years ago that the sinks at HD were cheap and “out of square” etc, do we really know if this is still happening? One more story to prove my point: I recently bought tile this spring and did all of the internet searches (since I’m not in an area with choices). I started with the tile bar and selected “Ivy Hill” tile (a name I later learned is used for some online retailers). I ordered several samples from HD to see color, size, etc. Then I went to order it from HD and found it was out of stock. I called HD to find out about it and somehow got a salesperson who I think was trained at Nordstroms (back in the 90’s though). Anyhow, he calls the tile company-in New York which goes by another name (can’t remember) to ask about the tile when it will be in etc. I get all the specifics-“It will be ready to be shipped May 17”. This is too long for me so I move on to visit some tile retail stores to find an alternative. Lo and behold, what do I find in 2 different tile stores? The same tile going by a different name and different color name. I ask my salesperson-is this tile available? They call the tile manufacturer and find out “it will be ready to be shipped May 17”. hmmmm strange coincidence. I visit one more stile store in the same city and am told the exact same thing. So there you have it. BTW I did end up buying a tile from one of those retail stores I visited because it was in stock that day, so it all worked out but I did learn something. I’m not trying to advertise for HD, I’m making the point that an old reputation of something or someone should be reverified from time to time. Good luck!

When we bought subway tile from Home Depot for backsplash, we set aside any broken or chipped tiles an returned to Home Depot for full credit.

We did a very expensive home renovation, and among others, used HD standard white subway tile and a bathroom floor tile, and had zero problems with either. We had a high end tiler and he had no issues with them.

final post- Contractor finished the job. It looks okay. Just like the tiles available from HD. I ended up paying 3X price of HD and stuck with 2 extra boxes that I cant return. On a 30k job, this is a little sour note.