Tile and flooring
The part of the job we are named for. Layout drawings, correct mortar, flat substrates, and a heat mat that will still work in twenty years.
Setting out is the whole game. Before any tile is cut we draw the room at 1:20 with every joint line on it, which tells us immediately where the cut course lands, whether the joint above the vanity will line up with the joint beside the shower, and how much tile to order. Clients often find this the most useful drawing of the project, because it is the first time the finished room is a specific thing rather than a mood.
Large format tile is unforgiving and increasingly common. Anything with a side over 15 inches needs a substrate flat to within an eighth of an inch over ten feet, a medium-bed mortar rather than a standard thinset, a leveling system during setting, and an offset no greater than a third. Most of the lippage complaints we are called to look at in other people's work come from a half offset on a plank tile.
Heated floors go in as a mat or loose cable set into thinset over the tested waterproofing, never under it, and always on their own circuit with a GFCI. We take a resistance reading before the mat goes down, after it is covered and after the tile is set, and all three readings go in your file. If a reading changes, we know which day the problem happened.
What is included
- Room drawn at 1:20 with every joint line, approved before ordering
- Substrate flatness corrected to the tolerance the tile format needs
- Uncoupling membrane over any floor that needs it
- Correct mortar for the format: thinset, medium-bed or large-format
- Leveling clips on all large format work
- Heat mat set in thinset with three logged resistance readings
- Grout chosen for the joint width and the material, sealed where it needs it
- Silicone at every change of plane and at every perimeter
- Movement joints where a field exceeds the span that needs one
How the work runs
Setting out
1:20 drawing of every tiled surface with the joint grid and the cut course marked.
Substrate
Flatness measured and corrected, uncoupling or heat mat laid as specified.
Dry lay
First two courses laid dry on complex patterns before any mortar is mixed.
Setting
Correct mortar, full coverage, leveling clips, coverage checked by pulling a tile.
Grout and seal
Grout to the schedule, silicone to the planes, sealer where the material asks for it.
What moves the price
- Pattern
- Running bond 1.1x, basketweave 1.4x, herringbone 1.5x, diagonal herringbone 1.7x.
- Format
- Large format needs more substrate preparation, better mortar and leveling systems.
- Material
- Natural stone needs sealing before grouting, a stiffer floor and gentler handling.
- Heated floor
- Mat, thermostat, dedicated circuit and an extra day in the programme.
- Substrate condition
- The flatter it starts, the less it costs to make it flat enough.
$22 to $58 per sq ft installed (sample range) is a sample range for this demonstration site. Every project is priced from an approved drawing after a survey, never from a square-foot rate.
Questions about tile & flooring
Every tile at the field edge is a cut, waste runs around 15 percent rather than 10, and the setting rate is roughly two thirds of a running bond. The pattern is worth it, but it should be priced honestly rather than absorbed.
Sometimes, on a sound and flat ceramic floor with an uncoupling membrane over it. Never over vinyl, never over a floor with hollow spots, and never in a wet area where we cannot see what the old waterproofing is doing.
Over. The membrane is the layer that protects the structure, so nothing goes between it and the subfloor. The mat sits in thinset above the tested assembly.
Talk to us about tile & flooring
Send the room dimensions and a photograph and we will tell you what is possible before anyone visits.
Bathrooms only · Licensed and insured in Colorado · 4.9 from 214 reviews (sample)