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Bathroom Tile Installation · Grand Rapids

Bathroom Tile Installation in Grand Rapids, MI

We tile bathroom floors, walls and wet areas across Grand Rapids and Kent County. Call and talk to the crew that does the work.

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White subway tile wainscot behind a pedestal sink
Corner of a bathroom in white beveled subway tile
Green fish-scale accent wall behind a vessel sink
What we do

What bathroom tile work looks like when we do it

A bathroom is the smallest room in the house and the hardest one to tile well. Water goes everywhere. Floors flex, drains sit low, and the old walls in Grand Rapids homes are rarely square. We start every job by checking what sits under the surface, because that is what decides how long the finished tile lasts. On a 1920s house in Heritage Hill we often find soft subfloor near the toilet flange and a wall that leans a full inch over six feet. In a newer place out toward Cascade or Byron Center the framing is straight but the floor bounces between joists. Both problems get fixed before a single tile goes down.

Our crew handles the whole bathroom, not just the pretty part. We pull the old tile, haul the debris out, and look at the subfloor in daylight. Then we set the slope, waterproof the wet areas, and lay out the pattern so the cuts land where your eye does not go. Nothing gets guessed. Grout lines get planned around the drain and the door instead of left to chance, and the layout goes on paper before anyone opens a box of tile. We keep one crew on your bathroom from demo to the final wipe down, so nobody has to explain the job twice. You get a text the night before we arrive.

  • We look at the subfloor and the walls before we quote. Surprises get priced up front, not halfway through the job.
  • The wet areas get a real waterproof layer behind the tile. No thinset and a hope that it holds.
  • Floor slope is set toward the drain with a level. Water leaves the room instead of sitting in a corner.
  • Layout is planned on paper first. Full tiles land at the door and the odd cuts hide behind the vanity.
  • One crew stays on your bathroom from start to finish. We clean the space every evening before we leave.
Tile fails from the back, not the front. Get what sits behind it right and the finish takes care of itself.

Grand Rapids bathrooms take a beating that people in warmer places never think about. From December through March we track road salt and wet grit in from the driveway, and it lands on the bathroom floor with the boots. Salt is hard on cheap grout and it dulls a soft glazed finish fast. Summer brings the other problem. Humid air off Lake Michigan sits in a small room with a weak fan, and steam works its way into every seam it can find. We plan for both. Denser tile near the door, sealed or epoxy grout in the wet zone, and a check that your fan really moves air instead of just making noise.

If you are ready to talk about your bathroom, call us and tell us what room you are working with. We will walk the space, measure it, and hand you a plan you can actually read. No pressure and no runaround. We work across Grand Rapids and the towns around it, from the West Side and Eastown out to Grandville, Walker, Kentwood and Rockford.

Materials

Tile and setting materials we use in a bathroom

There is no single best tile for a bathroom, so we pick by room and by how the family lives. Porcelain is the workhorse. It absorbs almost no water, it shrugs off winter grit, and it comes in shapes from small hex to big rectangles. Glazed ceramic costs less and works fine on walls, though it chips easier underfoot. Natural stone looks great in a Heritage Hill remodel, but marble and limestone drink water and stain, so they need sealing and gentle cleaners. Glass and small mosaic sheets earn their place as an accent band or a niche, not a whole floor. For the floor itself we look at how much grip the tile has when wet, because a glossy bathroom floor is a bad trade for anyone with kids or aging knees. We tell you what each option asks of you later, then let you choose.

What goes behind the tile matters more than the tile. In a shower or a tub surround we build a waterproof layer over the backer board, then test the pan before any tile goes on. On floors we often set an uncoupling membrane so a moving subfloor does not crack your grout in year two, which is common in older Grand Rapids houses with plank subfloors. Thinset gets mixed to the ratio on the bag and combed in one direction so the tile beds fully with no hollow spots. For grout we use a sanded blend on wider joints and an epoxy blend where water and salt sit, since epoxy does not soak up stains the way cement grout does. Silicone goes in the corners and where the wall meets the tub, because those joints move and grout there always cracks. We do not name brands to sound impressive. We use what holds up.

  • Porcelain floor tile takes on almost no water and holds up to winter grit.
  • An uncoupling membrane lets an older subfloor move without cracking your grout.
  • Epoxy grout keeps its color in the wet zone and shrugs off salt and cleaners.
  • Silicone at every corner and change of plane, because grout there always splits.
Black hexagon mosaic tile floor by a vanity
Close-up of clean white hexagon tile and grout
What about the alternatives?

Bathroom floor and wall options, compared

Most people come to us with a photo and a budget, not a material list. Here is how the common choices actually behave in a Grand Rapids bathroom once winter grit and shower steam get involved, so you can pick with your eyes open instead of guessing.

Porcelain tile in a matte finish

Our default for bathroom floors. It takes on almost no water, it grips well when wet, and road salt tracked in during February does not dull the surface the way it dulls a soft glaze. Works on walls too.

Recommended

Glazed ceramic on the walls

A solid pick above the tub or on a wainscot. Easy to clean and easy on the budget. We keep it off the floor in a busy bathroom because a dropped shampoo bottle chips the glaze.

Acceptable

Natural stone such as marble or slate

Beautiful in an older home and worth it if you love the look. Plan on sealing it and using only mild cleaners, since marble and limestone stain from things as ordinary as toothpaste. We would skip it in a rental.

Acceptable

Glass or mosaic accent tile

Great as a niche liner or a band at eye level. There are a lot of grout joints per square foot in mosaic sheets, which means more cleaning for you, so we do not run it across a whole floor.

Acceptable

Sheet vinyl or peel and stick planks

Cheap and quick, and it looks it. Seams lift near the tub and the pattern wears through in the traffic path. We would rather tile the room once and leave it alone.

Skip

Tile set straight onto old drywall in a wet area

This is how leaks start. Drywall behind tile in a shower turns soft, and then a whole section of tile comes off the wall in sheets while you are standing in there. We tear it out and build the wall right.

Skip
How it goes

From quote to walk-on, fast.

STEP 01

Your Inquiry

Call or send the short form with what is going on at your place. A sentence or two is plenty to get started.

STEP 02

We Talk It Through

We go over the situation, ask the questions that matter, and tell you plainly what we would do next.

STEP 03

A Clear Plan

You get a written rundown of the work, the order it happens in, and what to expect on the day.

STEP 04

The Work Gets Done

The crew shows up when we said, does the job, and walks you through the result before leaving.

Before you book

Straight answers before you commit

These are the questions we field most weeks. You should hear the honest version now, not in the middle of a torn up bathroom.

A standard hall bathroom usually runs about a week from demo to grout, and a bigger room with a custom shower can take longer. Waterproofing and mortar need real cure time, and rushing that is how a floor fails. We give you a plan day by day before we start, and we tell you the first night you can shower again. If you only have one bathroom, we sequence the work so the toilet goes back in as early as it can.
Sometimes on a wall, rarely on a floor, and never in a shower we did not build. Old tile hides whatever went wrong underneath, and adding height changes how the door swings and where the trim sits. We pull a small area first and look. If the substrate is sound and the height works, we will say so. If it is soft or the waterproofing is gone, we remove it, because covering a problem only delays the bill.
Usually the floor moves, the joint was too wide for the mix, or the corner should have had silicone in it instead of grout. Cement grout also soaks up soap and salt, so it darkens where water sits the longest. We look at the whole picture instead of scraping out the same line again. That may mean an uncoupling layer under a new floor, or epoxy grout in the wet zone, or fixing a fan that leaves the room damp for hours.
We usually get out to look at the room within a few days of your call, and we can often start within a couple weeks depending on the season. Late spring and early summer fill up fast here. Winter is quieter, so a January project often moves sooner than people expect. If you have water damage or a shower you cannot use, tell us on the phone and we will try to move you up the list.
No. We need the room size, a rough idea of the tile size and where it goes, and what you want the shower to do. From there we can price the labor and the setting materials, then give you a range on the tile itself. Picking the exact color and finish can wait. What we do need early is the shower valve and the drain, since those get set before the walls close up.
Clear the room and the path to it, keep pets off the wet mortar, and pick a spot where we can stage tile and tools. Water and power in the house is enough. We cover the floors we walk across and we sweep every evening before we go. Beyond that, answer your phone once or twice so we can confirm a layout choice at the moment it matters.
Aftercare

Keeping bathroom tile looking right

Tile is easy to live with if you do three small things. Wipe the wet zone down after a long shower, run the fan for twenty minutes after that, and clean with something mild instead of a harsh acid. That is most of it. Grand Rapids winters add one more chore, since salt and sand ride in on boots and act like sandpaper under your feet. A mat at the door and a quick sweep handle that. Cement grout in a busy bathroom wants a fresh seal every couple of years, and stone wants it more often than that. Silicone in the corners is a wear item rather than a permanent part of the job, so plan on replacing it when it stiffens or pulls away.

  • Run the fan during every shower and for twenty minutes after, so the steam leaves the room.
  • Clean with a mild pH neutral cleaner. Keep vinegar and acid off stone and cement grout.
  • Keep a mat inside the door in winter and sweep the grit off before it grinds the finish.
  • Reseal cement grout every couple of years, and stone floors a little more often than that.
  • Replace the silicone at the tub and in the corners once it stiffens, splits or pulls away.
  • Call us early if a grout line stays dark or a tile sounds hollow, since small fixes stay small.
Combing gray thinset mortar before setting tile
Before and after in Grand Rapids bathrooms
FAQ

Questions we hear about bathroom tile

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