Setting-out geometry, waste factors, joint widths, grout chemistry, glass tolerances and exhaust figures. It is the same reference our setters use, and there is no reason it should be private.
Almost every disagreement we have ever had with a client came from a number nobody wrote down. How much tile to order. How wide the joint would be. Which sealer, how often. What the glass would cost once it was templated. So we publish the figures instead.
Use the pattern library to see what a layout does to the waste factor before you fall in love with it, the pairing guide to choose a grout against the actual stone rather than a colour chart, and the ventilation table to check whether the fan you were quoted is big enough for the room.
Choosing a tile is the easy half. The layout decides the waste factor, the labour, the joint width and whether a plank tile will sit flat. Every diagram here is drawn from the geometry we actually set out with.
Scroll for all ten layouts
Stack bond reads as a drawn grid, so it flatters large-format porcelain and wall panels where the tile itself is the interest. Because every joint is continuous, any bow in the substrate or variation in tile size shows up immediately along a 3 metre line. We flatten walls to within 3 mm over 3 m before a stack-bond wall is set, and we order from a single caliber and shade lot.
Best for Large-format wall fields, shower back walls, contemporary rooms
Watch out Substrate flatness and tile caliber. Nothing hides here.
A 50 percent offset is the pattern most people picture when they say subway tile. It hides small size variation between tiles and reads quietly, which is why it has survived a century of bathrooms. On tiles longer than about 15 inches a half offset can produce visible lippage at the centre of each tile, because plank tiles usually crown in the middle. On those we drop to a third offset.
Best for Classic subway walls, tub surrounds, powder rooms
Watch out Lippage on tiles longer than about 15". Use a third offset instead.
The TCNA recommendation for tiles with one side longer than 15 inches is an offset no greater than 33 percent. Stepping by a third keeps the corner of one tile away from the crown of the tile below it, which is where lippage becomes visible and where a wet foot can feel it. It is the pattern we use for almost all large-format plank tile on shower walls.
Best for Plank and large-format tile, full-height shower walls
Watch out Plan the starting course so cuts at both ends are over half a tile wide.
Standing the same tile on end changes what the room does. Vertical joints draw the eye up, which is useful in a Denver bungalow bathroom with an 8 foot ceiling, and it visually narrows a wall that is wider than it is tall. It costs slightly more labour than a horizontal field because the cut course lands at the ceiling where it is most visible.
Best for Low ceilings, narrow walls, niche backs, powder rooms
Watch out The top cut course is at eye level. Set out from the ceiling down.
Herringbone needs a tile whose length is exactly twice its width, otherwise the pattern will not close and every third course drifts. Each tile is cut at the field edge, so waste climbs and setting takes roughly half again as long as a running bond. The pattern is worth it on a floor, where the interlock reads as texture rather than as a grid.
Best for Floors, feature walls, entry zones of a large ensuite
Watch out Only true 2:1 tile closes. Check the actual tile, not the nominal size.
Rotating the herringbone 45 degrees sends the pattern into the corners of the room, which makes a small floor read wider than it is. The trade is at the perimeter: every edge tile is a compound cut, waste rises to around 18 percent and the setting time rises with it. We dry-lay the first two courses on the floor before any thinset is mixed.
Best for Small floors that need to read larger, powder room floors
Watch out Perimeter cuts are all compound. Budget the extra box of tile.
Basketweave is the pattern that most reads as period Denver, and it is the one clients most often choose for a 1920s bungalow floor after they have seen it beside plain hex. Because the module is square, setting out is straightforward: find the centre of the room, chalk the module grid, and the cuts fall symmetrically at both walls. It works in marble, porcelain and cement tile.
Best for Period floors, bungalow and foursquare bathrooms, mud-set marble
Watch out Mixed shade lots show badly because the eye follows the module.
Penny round is mostly grout, which is exactly why it belongs on a shower floor: the joint area gives a coefficient of friction well above the 0.42 wet DCOF threshold, and the small format conforms to the slope to the drain without back-buttering every piece. Expect four to five times the grout volume of a 12" field tile, and specify a stain-resistant grout because there is a great deal of it.
Best for Shower floors, curbless pans, steam rooms, slope-to-drain areas
Watch out Grout volume is 4 to 5 times a field tile. Budget for it and seal it.
Chevron is often confused with herringbone. The difference is the cut: chevron tiles are mitred so the ends meet in an unbroken V, while herringbone tiles are rectangular and interlock. That mitre means chevron is normally bought as a purpose-made tile rather than cut on site, and it wants a tight joint so the point reads cleanly.
Best for Feature walls, vanity splashbacks, floors in a long narrow room
Watch out Buy the mitred tile. Cutting chevron from rectangles on site rarely closes.
The Versailles module mixes squares and rectangles in a fixed repeat, traditionally in tumbled limestone or travertine. Because the module repeats, it is far easier to set out than it looks: the whole floor is one square module tiled across the room. Most suppliers sell it as a pre-sorted pallet with the ratio of sizes already correct, and the pieces are usually 12mm or thicker stone.
Best for Large ensuite floors, travertine and limestone, heated slabs
Watch out Buy the pre-sorted pallet. Mixing suppliers breaks the size ratio.
Labour index is relative to a straight stack bond at 1.0. Waste factors assume a rectangular room and one shade lot. Both are working figures from our own jobs and are sample values on this demonstration site.
Grout is between four and eight percent of a tiled surface and it decides how the whole thing reads. Six pairings we specify most, with the joint width, the grout chemistry, the sealer and the cleaner that goes with each.
Calcite marble, soft grey veining, Mohs 3
A joint lighter than the stone keeps the veining as the only pattern. Sanded grout scratches calcite, so unsanded or urethane at a tight joint.
Bright white field, warm gold veining, Mohs 3
Matching the grout to the warm vein rather than the white field stops the joints reading cold against the gold.
Warm cream, fossil flecks, Mohs 3 to 4
Limestone is porous and will pick up a dark joint at the edges, so the grout sits one shade under the stone rather than against it.
Dense volcanic stone, even charcoal, Mohs 6
A joint that disappears into the stone lets a dark floor read as one surface. Epoxy will not lighten as it cures.
Talc-rich, darkens with oil, Mohs 2 to 3
Soapstone darkens as it is oiled, so the joint is chosen against the oiled colour, not the dry slab in the showroom.
Through-body porcelain, water absorption under 0.5%
Porcelain does not etch or stain, so the pairing is purely visual. Where a client wants marble in a family bathroom, this is the honest answer.
Glass is cut to a tenth of an inch and tiled walls are never perfectly plumb, which is why every panel we fit is templated on the finished surface and arrives about a week later. These are the six configurations we specify, in plan.
Fixed panel plus a hinged door in one straight run along the tub or alcove face
The workhorse. Because there is no bottom track the floor tile runs under the glass uninterrupted, so the pattern is not broken at the threshold. We set a 3/16 inch gap under the door leaf for make-up air.
An L: one long fixed panel with a short return wing, no door at all
No door means no hinge to drip and nothing to swing into a small room. It also means the shower must be big enough that spray never reaches the gap: we size the wet zone at least 36 inches from the head to the opening.
Two fixed panels at 135 degrees with an angled door in the corner
The answer when a corner shower is the only way to fit a shower and a tub in the same room. The angled door needs clear floor in front of it, so check it against the vanity door swing before the layout is signed off.
Full-height panels to the ceiling with a hinged transom vent above the door
A steam room is a sealed box, which is why the transom exists: it is how you vent the room after a session without opening the door onto a cold bathroom. The ceiling is tiled and sloped so condensate runs to a wall rather than dripping on a head.
Two panels bypassing on a single header track over a tub or a wide alcove
For a tub alcove where a hinged door would swing into the vanity. Top-hung means no bottom track to clean, which is the single most common complaint we hear about older sliding doors.
A single wide leaf on offset pivots, no fixed panel
A pivot leaf can be wider than a hinged door because the weight is carried top and bottom rather than on the tiled wall. It suits a wet room where the opening is the whole face of the shower.
Size the fan two ways, by floor area and by fixture count, then take the larger of the two and correct it for the duct run. A fan that is undersized, loud or ducted into a roof space is the reason grout grows mould.
| Room | Floor area | Volume | By area | By fixtures | We specify | Duct | Sones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powder room | 20 to 35 sq ft | 160 to 280 cu ft | 20 to 35 CFM | 50 CFM (toilet) | 50 CFM | 4" rigid, 8 ft run | 0.3 to 1.0 |
| Small hall bathroom | 40 to 55 sq ft | 320 to 440 cu ft | 40 to 55 CFM | 100 CFM (toilet + tub/shower) | 80 to 110 CFM | 4" rigid, 10 ft run | 0.8 to 1.5 |
| Standard full bathroom | 60 to 80 sq ft | 480 to 640 cu ft | 60 to 80 CFM | 100 CFM (toilet + shower) | 110 CFM | 4" rigid, up to 15 ft | 1.0 to 1.5 |
| Primary ensuite | 90 to 130 sq ft | 720 to 1,040 cu ft | 90 to 130 CFM | 150 CFM (toilet + shower + tub) | 150 CFM, or two 80 CFM units | 6" rigid, up to 25 ft | 0.8 to 1.3 per unit |
| Ensuite with enclosed water closet | 100 to 150 sq ft | 800 to 1,200 cu ft | 100 to 150 CFM | 200 CFM (2 zones) | Two units: 110 CFM main + 50 CFM WC | 6" and 4" rigid, separate runs | 1.0 and 0.3 |
| Steam room or wet room | 45 to 70 sq ft | 360 to 560 cu ft | 45 to 70 CFM | 150 CFM plus a transom | 150 CFM on a timer, outside the enclosure | 6" insulated rigid, sloped to exterior | 1.5 to 2.0 |
Scroll the table sideways for the duct and sone columns
Six components that change how a bathroom behaves rather than how it looks. Three of them have to be decided at rough-in, before the wall closes.
Holds the outlet temperature whether or not somebody flushes the toilet. The scald limit is set and recorded at commissioning, not left at the factory default.
ASSE 1016 / 1017, scald limit set on site
The cheaper answer. It compensates for pressure change but not for temperature change, which matters on a well supply or an older Denver stack.
ASSE 1016, single handle
A fixed rain head is lovely and hard to clean, and scale builds on it fast in Golden. We pair one with a handheld on a slide bar, always.
2.5 gpm max, or 1.8 gpm WaterSense
Lets the whole pan fall in one plane, which is what makes large-format floor tile possible in a shower. Tileable top or a finished grate.
24 to 48 inch, side or centre outlet
The frame that lets a basin or a toilet float clear of the floor. It fixes to blocking inside the wall and has to be set at rough-in.
Concealed, load rated to 500 lb
Set in thinset over the tested waterproofing, on its own circuit and its own programmable thermostat. Three resistance readings logged.
12 W per sq ft, GFCI protected
If you already know which layout and which joint width you want, we can go straight to the setting-out drawing.
Bathrooms only · Licensed and insured in Colorado · 4.9 from 214 reviews (sample)
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