Tile Flooring

Tile is only as good as what is under it. It is rigid and it does not flex, so any movement or unevenness in the floor below ends up as a cracked tile or a broken grout line. Before we set anything we check the floor for flatness and for movement. Concrete gets ground or leveled where it needs it, and a wood subfloor gets stiffened and covered with the right underlayment before any tile goes near it.

Large-format tile has made flatness more important than it used to be. A long porcelain plank will not follow a dip in the floor the way a small tile can, and the result is lippage: one edge sitting higher than the next, which you see in raking light and feel underfoot. We flatten the floor to the tolerance the tile requires, back-butter large tiles and use a leveling system so the edges finish in the same plane.

Every tile needs to be fully bedded in mortar. A tile set on a few ridges or spots of mortar has hollow areas under it, and a hollow corner cracks the first time somebody drops something heavy or a loaded cart rolls across it. We use the trowel the tile calls for and pull a freshly set tile now and then to check the back for coverage. If the mortar is not transferring, we change the method before going any further.

Over a wood subfloor, or over concrete with existing cracks, we install an uncoupling membrane between the floor and the tile. It lets the building move a little without passing that movement into the tile. The membrane adds a day and some material. Re-tiling a floor costs the whole job again. We also leave soft joints at the perimeter and through large tile fields, filled with flexible caulk instead of grout, so the floor has somewhere to take expansion.

Layout is planned before the first tile is set. We center the pattern on the room or on the entry it runs from, so cuts at the walls are balanced and doorways do not end in a sliver. Grout joints stay consistent, transitions to carpet or vinyl get a proper profile, and the floor is cleaned of grout haze before we hand it over. In a commercial lobby or corridor we plan the sequence so people can still get through the building while the work is underway, and in a home entry or hallway we plan it so you can still get in the door.