- Tub surround tile work: $2,000 flat.
- Kitchen backsplash tile work: $1,000 flat, labor.
- Tile floors: $3 per square foot labor, or $2 per square foot labor on jobs of 2,000 square feet or more.
Replacing Builder-Grade Tub Surrounds Across Harker Heights
Harker Heights sits east of Killeen along US 190 and Interstate 14, where the terrain climbs into hillier ground. The neighborhoods here often feature larger floor plans and newer construction compared to older parts of Bell County. In many of these primary bathrooms, builders originally put in one-piece fiberglass shells or thin acrylic panels. After several years of normal family use, those builder units tend to show their age. They flex when you lean against them, develop hairline cracks near the drain, or pull away from the drywall along the top rim.
Upgrading to real tile turns a hollow tub alcove into a rigid, sealed wet area that handles daily water exposure properly. We work with porcelain, ceramic, natural marble, zellige, terrazzo, and mosaic sheets. Because we pick up our setting materials and tile out of the Temple supply house, you can select your exact tile style there or bring your own boxes directly to the job site. The tub surround tile work is $2,000 flat, giving you clear numbers before any tools come out of the truck.
What We Strip Out and Inspect Behind the Wall
Every quality tub surround installation starts by clearing the space down to the bare framing. We remove the existing surround panels, take down any rotted sheetrock, and pull old fasteners so we can see the exact condition of the wall cavity. Water often finds small paths behind old caulk lines, so we inspect the wood studs for moisture damage, structural deflection, or bowed framing that would throw off your tile courses. If a stud sits out of plumb, we plane or shim the lumber so the backer board sits flat across all three walls.
- Removing old fiberglass inserts, acrylic panels, or loose tile without harming your existing bathtub deck
- Checking the integrity of all wall studs, insulation, and the tub flange around the perimeter
- Hanging cement backer board or applying a bonded waterproof membrane across every wet wall surface
- Taping and sealing all board seams and screw penetrations to stop moisture before tile goes on
Setting the Field Tile, Running Straight Courses, and Building Niches
Once the backing and waterproofing cure, we establish our layout lines. Bathtubs rarely sit perfectly level, even in newer subdivisions. If you start setting tile directly off the tub rim without measuring, your grout lines will follow whatever slope the tub has, resulting in crooked joints by the time you reach the showerhead. We strike a level line around the entire alcove, cut the bottom row to match the exact profile of the tub deck, and keep every horizontal joint straight from corner to corner.
If you want a built-in recessed niche for shampoo bottles and soap, we frame and waterproof the box between the studs. We center the niche within your tile pattern whenever framing allows so you do not end up with tiny, awkward slivers of tile at the niche edges. Every cut around the niche shelf and returns gets measured carefully. We slope the bottom sill slightly toward the tub basin so standing water drains back into the tub instead of sitting in the back corners.
Trims, Corners, Grout Lines, and Tub Deck Joints
The details at the transitions determine how the finished installation looks and performs over the coming years. Where the tile field ends outside the tub alcove, we finish the raw edges with clean satin or brass profiles, or we set bullnose pieces depending on the tile style you selected. Inside corners require deliberate spacing so the grout pattern looks balanced where the side walls meet the back wall. We take our time with cuts around the mixing valve and shower arm so trim plates sit flush against flat tile surfaces.
After the thin-set mortar cures, we pack the grout tightly into the joints and clean the face of the tile to prevent haze. The single most common failure point in bathroom tile is hard grout applied where the bottom row of tile touches the tub deck. Bathtubs expand, contract, and shift slightly under the weight of water and people. Hard grout in that joint will crack within months. We pack grout between the tiles, but we leave the bottom perimeter joint open, filling it with a flexible, color-matched waterproof sealant that absorbs natural movement without splitting.
Working With Merlan's Tile From Measurement to Final Clean
When you contact us about your tub surround in Harker Heights, the same people who come out to look at the room and measure the space are the people who set the tile. Genaro Merlan oversees the work directly. We walk the bathroom with you, discuss where you want your niche placed, check your plumbing access, and review the tile sizes you want to install. You can join us at the supply house in Temple to choose your materials, or you can have your tile on site ready for us to install.
We protect your tub, vanity, and flooring before we start demolition, and we clean up the workspace completely at the end of the job. Every installation comes with a written one-year limited labor warranty from the date of completion, covering issues arising from the original installation. We do not cover materials because those fall under the manufacturer's own warranty, and we do not cover modifications made after our work is finished. For a solid tub surround in Harker Heights, call (512) 297-7493 or email info@merlanstile.com to get your project on the schedule.