- 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.
No waterproofing behind the tile
Tile is not a raincoat. Ceramic, porcelain, mosaic, marble, zellige, and terrazzo all sit on a wall that still needs a waterproof layer. When that layer is missing, water that gets through grout and around fixtures soaks the backer, the studs, and the floor outside the stall. From the room the tile can look fine for a long stretch. Later you get a soft spot in the drywall next to the shower, a musty smell, or grout that stays dark after it should have dried. Standing in the stall, a homeowner has no view of whether a membrane was ever installed.
A bonded waterproofing membrane goes on the backer before tile goes up. Sheet membranes get embedded in thinset. Liquid membranes get rolled in coats until the film is continuous. Water that passes the grout then has somewhere to stop besides wood and drywall. Niches, benches, and soap shelves need the membrane carried through those boxes, not stopped at the opening. Valve holes and shower arm holes get detailed, not left as raw cuts. If the original installer tiled straight onto greenboard or onto a backer with no membrane, the stall is already on a clock. Ring (512) 297-7493 if this stall needs to be rebuilt.
Missing pre-slope, untreated corners, and the drain connection
The floor of a shower is a pan, not a pretty tile field. Under the tile there should be a pre-slope, a mortar bed that falls to the drain at a quarter inch per foot. Skip that bed, or leave it flat, and water has no reason to move. It sits on the waterproofing or in the pack. Corners are where sheet membranes wrinkle and liquid films thin out if nobody treats them. Factory corners, fabric, or extra coats belong there before tile. The drain is the other failure people skip. The membrane must land in the clamping ring, or bond to a bonding flange drain, with weep holes left open.
- Pre-slope left flat, water ponds at the membrane
- Inside corners and benches with no fabric or extra coats
- Drain ring left loose, or weeps packed with mortar
- Curb and niche changes of plane left as raw cuts
Grout is not a membrane, and hard corners crack
Grout fills the joints between tiles. Cement grout is porous. Water moves through it, along every tile edge, and down to whatever sits behind. Epoxy grout is denser and still is not a shower pan. Waterproofing has to live under the tile, continuous, detailed at every penetration. People grout a stall, seal it once, and call it done. The wall cavity then gets a slow feed of water. Dark grout that never really dries at the floor and inside corners is a hint. Paint peeling on the far side of the shower wall is another. Sealer on grout is for dirt, not a membrane.
Houses move. Framing shrinks as it dries. Hard grout packed into every inside corner will crack there. That crack is a path. A soft joint is caulk at changes of plane: wall to floor, wall to wall, bench to wall, curb to floor, and around a fixture plate that sits on tile. Use grout in those lines and the grout usually fails first. On a job like this it tends to show as a hairline at the inside corners after the first real temperature swing. The joint has to stay flexible. Color matched caulk is the finish, not leftover grout forced into a corner.
A curb that wicks, and clues you can read from the room
A curb that wicks drinks water and carries it out into the room. The membrane has to wrap the curb, over the top and down the outside face, not stop on the shower side. The top needs a fall back into the stall so standing water runs in, not out onto the bathroom floor. Leave the outside face as raw wood or as tile with no membrane behind it, and the curb becomes a sponge. Baseboard swelling, a dark stripe in the flooring outside the stall, and a musty smell at the floor are the usual tells.
From the bathroom a few things read as honest clues. Cracked grout at inside corners. A gap around the drain grate. A curb dead flat or tilting into the room. Hollow tile. Staining that returns after cleaning. A floor that gives next to the stall. Soft drywall on the far side of the shower wall. The membrane, the pre-slope, treated corners, the drain clamp, and open weeps stay covered. A stall can look new and still have none of that. If nobody can say how it was put together, treat the stall as unknown. The same people who quote the job are the people who do the job.
How the stall is built so those failures do not start
We look at the room and measure the actual space. You pick the tile. Bring your own, or come to the Temple supply house with us, because that is where the tile is bought and what you pick is what gets set. Porcelain, ceramic, mosaic, marble, zellige, and terrazzo all get used in showers, with brass or satin edge profiles where an edge needs a metal finish. Waterproofing goes on the backer before any tile goes up. The pre-slope is packed to a quarter inch per foot toward the drain. Corners, niches, and the curb get treated as part of the membrane. Then we set, grout, seal, and clean up behind us.
A tiled shower is a different animal from a tub surround. Tub surround tile work is $2,000 flat. Shower rebuilds and new stalls get a number after we look at the room, so pick up the phone. Every installation carries a written one-year limited labor warranty from the date of completion. It covers issues arising from the original installation. It does not cover materials, those fall under the manufacturer's own warranty, and it does not cover modifications made after the installation is complete. Service runs out from Killeen to Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, Nolanville, Belton, Temple, Salado, Georgetown, Round Rock, Waco and Austin. Phone (512) 297-7493. Email info@merlanstile.com. Scheduling is arranged on the phone.