- 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.
What a full shower timeline looks like from start to finish
A standard tub-to-shower conversion or a fresh shower build usually runs seven to ten working days from the first swing of the hammer to the day you can step in and use it. That span is not one long stretch of tile setting. It is a series of short bursts of work separated by waiting periods that are baked into the materials themselves.
Day one is demolition and cleanup. The old tile, backer board, and sometimes the shower valve come out. The walls go down to the studs and the floor gets cut back to the subfloor. After that comes the substrate work. New backer board goes up, seams get taped and mudded, and the shower pan gets built with the correct slope to the drain. A bonded waterproofing membrane gets applied over every wet surface. That membrane has to cure before a single tile touches it, and the cure time depends on the product, the humidity in the house, and the temperature in the room. Once the waterproofing is dry to the touch and fully set, layout starts. The tile setter marks the centerlines, checks the corners for plumb, and figures the cuts so you do not end up with a sliver of tile at the ceiling. Setting the wall tile usually takes two or three days on a standard shower. The floor gets set last, after the walls are up and protected. After the last tile is set, the thinset needs to firm up for at least twenty four hours before grouting. Grout goes in, gets tooled, and gets a first wipe. The haze gets cleaned off later that day or the next morning. Sealant gets applied to the grout once everything is dry, and then the shower sits untouched for another day or two while the sealant cures. Silicone at the changes of plane goes in last. At that point the glass enclosure can be measured and installed, and the shower is ready for use.
Floor tile, backsplash, and tub surround timelines
A tile floor in a single room typically takes two to three days. Tear out of the old flooring and prep of the subfloor happens on day one. The tile gets set on day two. Grout goes in on day three after the thinset has had overnight to cure. A kitchen backsplash is usually a one day job from start to finish, including the cleanup. The space is small, the cuts are straightforward, and the grout can be worked in by the afternoon.
A tub surround moves a little faster than a full shower because there is no pan to build and no floor tile to set. The old surround comes out, the substrate gets repaired or replaced, and the waterproofing goes on. After the waterproofing cures, the tile goes up. Grout and sealant follow. A tub surround often wraps up in four to five working days. The flat price for tub surround tile work is $2,000. That covers the labor to remove the old surround, prep the walls, waterproof, set the tile, grout, and seal. The tile material itself is separate and gets picked out by you at the supply house. For a straight quote on a shower, a floor, or a backsplash, call us and we will come look at the room and measure it. The same person who quotes the job is the one who shows up to do the work.
The cure times nobody sees but the tile setter plans around
Thinset does not dry. It cures through a chemical reaction, and that reaction needs time and the right conditions. A tile setter walks away from a freshly set wall or floor knowing that the clock is ticking and that nobody can speed it up. Walk on a floor too soon and the bond breaks under the tile. Grout over thinset that has not cured and the moisture gets trapped, which weakens the whole assembly.
Waterproofing has its own schedule. A liquid applied membrane might look dry in an hour but still need overnight to reach the point where it can take tile. A sheet membrane bonds immediately but the seams and corners get a second layer that needs to set. Every one of these waiting periods is built into the timeline. On a shower, the cure times between waterproofing and tile, and between tile and grout, and between grout and sealant, add up to three or four days where no one is working in the room at all. Those days are not wasted. They are the reason the shower does not leak a year later. A floor might only need one overnight cure before grouting. A backsplash, set with a rapid curing thinset, can be grouted the same afternoon. The material dictates the pace, and a tile setter who ignores that pace is building a failure into the job.
What stretches a schedule beyond the typical
Hidden rot behind an old shower wall is the most common schedule killer. You pull the tile and the backer board and find the studs are black and soft. The framing has to be cut out and replaced before any new substrate can go up. That adds a day, sometimes two. A subfloor that is out of plane will stretch a floor tile job. Tile needs a flat surface, and if the subfloor has a hump or a dip, it has to be ground down or filled with a self leveling underlayment. That underlayment needs its own cure time before tile can be set.
Special order tile is another factor. If the tile you pick is not in stock at the Temple supply house and has to be shipped from the manufacturer, the whole job waits on the truck. A change of mind mid job will push the finish date every time. If you decide after the tile is set that you want a different grout color, the grout has to come out, which is slow and tedious. If you add a niche after the waterproofing is done, the membrane has to be patched and re cured. None of this is unusual. It is just the nature of remodeling, and a good tile setter builds some flex into the schedule for it. What you can do to keep things moving is have your tile and your trim pieces picked out before the start date, and make your layout decisions early. Know where you want the niche. Know which way you want the pattern to run. Those choices made ahead of time keep the work flowing.
How we handle the timeline at Merlan’s Tile
We lay out every phase of the job before we start so you know when we will be in the house and when the materials need to sit undisturbed. We do not rush a cure. We do not set tile over wet waterproofing or grout over green thinset because the callback is not worth the saved day. On a shower, we protect the pan with a drop cloth once it is set and we do not walk on it until the thinset has cured. On a floor, we block off the room so nobody steps on the fresh tile overnight. We clean up at the end of every day. Buckets, spacers, and cut offs go out to the truck. The room is left broom clean.
We buy our tile out of the supply house in Temple. What you pick is what we set. We do not stock tile ourselves, so there is no warehouse full of boxes for you to dig through. You either bring your own material or you come with us to the supply house and pick it from their stock. That keeps the chain short and the lead times honest. If the tile is on the shelf, we can start as soon as our schedule allows. If it is a special order, we will tell you the lead time before you buy it. Every installation we do carries a written one year limited labor warranty from the date of completion. It covers issues that come from the original installation. It does not cover the tile material itself, because that falls under the manufacturer’s warranty, and it does not cover anything that gets modified after we leave. To get a straight quote on a tile project, call (512) 297-7493 or email info@merlanstile.com. We work out of Killeen and serve Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, Nolanville, Belton, Temple, Salado, Georgetown, Round Rock, Waco, and Austin.