Kitchen floor tile, by the square foot

Measuring your kitchen floor and adjoining rooms for accurate square footage

A kitchen floor is priced by the square foot of labor. You can work the footage out at home with a tape measure. Measure wall to wall in feet, length times width. Add any adjoining space where the same tile and the same grout lines will keep going, a dining area or a hall. Cabinets stay, so you do not deduct them. The tile meets the toe kick. Break an L shaped kitchen into two rectangles and add the products. That number tells you the labor. Tile floors are $3 per square foot labor. On a job of 2,000 square feet or more the labor is $2 per square foot.

The labor covers looking at the actual room, snapping lines, cutting the tile, setting it in thinset, grouting, sealing the grout and cleaning up the dust and leftover mud. It does not include the tile itself. You choose porcelain, ceramic, marble, terrazzo or mosaic at the Temple supply house or you bring your own boxes. We set what you picked. The same person who walked the kitchen with the tape is the person on his knees setting the field. If the floor needs flattening first that gets talked about when we look at it, because a wavy subfloor will telegraph through large format tile.

Appliance clearance, dishwasher height and toe kicks when the tile raises the floor

Tile plus thinset raises the finished floor. That extra thickness changes how a dishwasher sits in its opening. The unit that cleared the counter before may now rub or leave too little gap for the trim. We dry lay a few tiles and check the height with the dishwasher in place or with a measurement of the new stack. Refrigerators get pulled so the field tile runs all the way under them. Leave a gap and the next owner or you will see plywood when the fridge is replaced. Range and oven doors need swing room over the new surface so they do not scrape. Toe kicks are the boards at the base of the cabinets. They either get a saw cut along the bottom to sit down on the tile or the first row of tile is tucked underneath a fraction of an inch. Either way you do not want a dark line or a place for crumbs to collect.

• Refrigerator pulled so tile runs underneath and no unfinished strip shows later
• Dishwasher test fit after a few tiles are dry laid to confirm the new height under the counter
• Toe kick scribed or cut so it rests on the finished tile without a shadow gap
• Oven and range doors checked for clearance so they swing free of the raised floor

Carrying grout lines out of the kitchen and installing reducers and thresholds

Most kitchens do not stop at an imaginary line. The tile and the grout joints keep going into the next space so the floor looks like one surface. We start the layout from a long wall or from the main sight line and carry those lines through the doorway. That way you do not get a row of tiny pieces right where people walk. If the adjoining room stays the same tile, it is just more square footage added to the total. If it changes to vinyl plank or hardwood or carpet, we stop and install a reducer, a stair nose if there are steps, or a threshold. Those pieces come from the same Temple house so the color and the metal finish match what you chose for the field.

A transition done wrong becomes a trip hazard and a place water from the mop seeps under the next floor. We set the tile side even or a hair higher. Reducers slope down to the thinner floor. Thresholds sit in the doorway and get caulked at the edges. Brass and satin profiles are available if the edge is exposed, say at a step down or an open end. Cuts at walls, around floor vents and at the cabinet bases are planned on the snap lines so leftover pieces are even, not a sliver that will crack out later. The same crew that measured does these cuts on site with a wet saw.

Packing and sealing grout that must handle dropped pans and kitchen spills

Grout is the weak point people notice first in a kitchen. A skillet hits the floor, a bottle of oil tips, a kid knocks over a glass of something red. We wait until the thinset has firmed, most of the time the following day, then pack the joints. After it firms we seal it. Sealer slows stains but grease can still sit on the surface if it is not wiped. You pick the grout color when you pick the tile at the supply house. A darker grout in a working kitchen hides the inevitable better than a bright white. Joint width follows the tile. Wider joints take sanded grout, tight mosaic joints take unsanded so the sand does not scratch the face.

House movement or a heavy appliance dragged across fresh grout can crack it. The written one year limited labor warranty from the date we finish covers issues that come from the original installation, such as a joint that was not packed full or a tile that was not bedded properly. It does not cover the grout material itself, that is the manufacturer's warranty, and it does not cover anything you or another trade does after we clean up and leave. If a tile chips from impact that is usually the body of the tile, porcelain tends to take it, some ceramics chip on the edge. We can replace a single tile if it is our bedding that failed. Cleanup means the haze is gone, the extra thinset is scraped, and the kitchen is swept and ready for you to move the table back.

Looking at the actual Killeen kitchen, choosing tile in Temple, setting and the labor warranty

The job starts when we look at the room and measure the actual space with a tape, not from a drawing. Floors are rarely as square or as flat as they look. High spots and dips show up under a straightedge. We talk about whether the subfloor needs work so the tile does not rock or the grout does not crack from flex. You pick the tile. You can bring boxes you already bought or we go together to the Temple supply house and you choose from porcelain, ceramic, marble, terrazzo, zellige or mosaic that is on the rack that day. What you pick is what we set. No switching later.

Then we set the tile in thinset, let it go off, grout, seal the grout and clean up behind us. The same people who quoted after seeing the floor are the ones doing the work. We run out from Killeen to Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, Nolanville, Belton, Temple, Salado, Georgetown, Round Rock, Waco and Austin. Call (512) 297 7493 or email info@merlanstile.com to talk about your kitchen. The written one year limited labor warranty is issued the day we finish. It is limited to labor issues from the installation we did. Materials have their own maker warranty. Modifications after we leave are not covered. On a job like this the setting and grouting tends to run over consecutive days so the thinset and grout can firm properly.