Bathroom Tiling Installation

What bathroom tile work do you handle?

Floors, walls, wainscot, tub surrounds, shower surrounds and heated floor systems. That covers everything from a single floor replacement to a full bathroom retile as part of a larger remodel. I don't do plumbing, electrical or cabinetry — if your project needs a fixture moved or a circuit run for a heated floor, that's a licensed trade and I'll tell you up front so it can be scheduled ahead of my work rather than in the middle of it. What I will do is coordinate around them, because tile is almost always the last trade in and the one that shows every mistake the earlier ones made.

Is a heated tile floor worth it in a Minnesota bathroom?

For most people here, yes — more than in almost any other room. Tile is cold underfoot by nature, and in a Minnesota winter a tiled bathroom floor is genuinely unpleasant in the morning without heat. An electric radiant system installs directly under the tile, adds relatively little to the overall project cost when it's done during a retile you were already doing, and runs cheaply because bathrooms are small. The important part is that it has to go in during the tile installation — retrofitting heat under an existing floor means tearing that floor out. So if you're on the fence, decide before the project starts rather than after. The system gets tested before tile goes down, because a break in the heating element is unfixable once it's buried.

How long does it take to tile a bathroom floor?

Two to three days for a typical bathroom, assuming the subfloor is sound. Day one is demolition and prep, which is also when any leveling gets done. Day two is tile setting. Day three is grouting, sealing and silicone. If the subfloor needs replacing or the room needs significant leveling, add a day. If you're adding a heated floor, add a day for the system install and testing. The room is generally usable again the day after grouting. I'd rather quote you three days and finish in three than quote two and explain why it took four.

Can you tile over an existing bathroom floor?

Sometimes, but it's usually the wrong call. Tiling over existing tile is possible when the old tile is fully bonded, the surface is flat, and the added height won't cause problems at the door threshold or around the toilet flange. In practice at least one of those conditions usually fails, and the toilet flange is the common one — raising the floor without adjusting the flange leads to a poor seal and a leak you won't see until there's damage. Removing the old floor also lets me see the subfloor, which is where problems hide in older homes. I'll assess it honestly and tell you if a tile-over is genuinely fine for your bathroom. Sometimes it is.