- 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.
Waterproofing and the substrate behind shower wall tile
The tile on shower walls does not keep water out. Grout lets water through. Whatever sits behind the tile has to stop it. We look at your existing shower walls first. Greenboard or drywall comes out. Cement backer board or shower foam panel goes up, fastened so it stays flat. Waterproofing follows. Liquid membrane in even coats or a sheet membrane stuck down. Seams and corners get extra membrane because leaks start there. If this layer is thin or missed in a spot, water hits the studs. You end up with rot, mold, and tile that lets go later on.
After the board is up we apply the waterproofing so it is continuous. The membrane folds into the pan and over the top of the curb. Inside a niche the same membrane lines the back, sides and shelf. You will not see any of this once tile covers it. That is the layer that stops water from reaching the framing. A missed corner or a thin coat fails later, usually as a soft spot or stain on the other side of the wall. We go over the membrane ourselves before tile starts. Genaro Merlan quotes these jobs and then does them.
Layout that keeps cut tiles out of the main view
We dry lay or at least map the tile on the walls before thinset hits the board. The goal is full tiles in the places you see every day, like the back wall at eye level. Cuts go down at the pan, up at the ceiling, or in the corners behind the door. A sliver cut in the middle of a wall looks wrong and stays wrong. We measure the actual opening, not the plans. Tile size you picked changes how the joints land. Large format porcelain needs more attention to keep the grout lines straight.
- Ceiling course kept even with leftover height placed at the pan
- Full tiles centered on the back wall at standing height
- Corner cuts placed on the side wall or behind the door swing
- Niche opening lined up with the field grout joints
Corners, curbs and niches on the shower walls
Corners take water and slight movement every day. We leave a small gap and fill it with caulk, not grout, because grout will crack there. The curb gets tile on the top and both faces. We pitch the top surface back toward the pan at an eighth of an inch per foot so water does not sit. Dead level curbs hold puddles that soak the joints. Waterproofing covers the whole curb first. A niche is a box in the wall. The shelf inside gets the same slight pitch. Field tile grout lines continue through the niche so it does not look stuck on later.
Brass or satin edge profiles can finish the outside corner of a curb or the face of a niche if you want a metal look instead of a tile return. We set those in the thinset so they are solid. If the profile is not bedded well it rocks later. Inside corners of the niche get caulk too. All of this is part of the shower wall job. Tub surround tile work is $2,000 flat. Shower walls with a pan, curb and niche are not the same job so we quote after we measure. The people who look at the room are the ones who set the tile.
The joint where wall tile meets the shower pan
The joint where wall tile hits the pan is a movement joint. We do not grout it. A flexible sealant goes there after the tile is set and grouted. If you grout that line it cracks the first time the pan shifts a little. Water then sits in the crack. We leave the right gap and tool the caulk so it sheds water. The first course of wall tile sits on a ledger or spacers so it is straight and the gap is even. Too tight and the pan lip has no room. Too wide and it looks sloppy.
We also check that the pan already has its slope, a quarter inch per foot toward the drain most of the time. Wall tile does not fix a flat pan. If the pan is wrong we talk about it before we start the walls. After the walls are tiled we grout, then seal the grout if the tile needs it, then clean the haze and the room. The written one year limited labor warranty starts on the completion date. It covers problems from the way we installed the tile and the waterproofing. It does not cover the tile material itself or anything changed after we leave.
Measuring, tile choice and the steps for shower walls near Killeen
We come look at the room and measure the actual space. You pick the tile, either what you bring or what we select together at the Temple supply house. Then we set, grout, seal and clean up behind us. The same people who quote the job are the people who do the job. Call (512) 297-7493. Email is info@merlanstile.com. Scheduling happens on the phone after we see the shower. There is no published price on shower wall tile. Every job is quoted after we see the substrate and the layout.
The work covers Killeen and the towns around it. That is Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, Nolanville, Belton, Temple, Salado, Georgetown, Round Rock, Waco and Austin. We use zellige, marble, porcelain, ceramic, terrazzo and mosaic, with brass and satin edge profiles when they fit the design. Flooring and roofing are other trades we do, but this page is the shower walls. If something goes wrong with the original installation inside the first year, the written limited labor warranty covers the labor to put it right. Materials stay under the maker's warranty.