Anyone can stick tile to a wall. The difference between a tile job that looks sharp for twenty years and one that fails in three is almost entirely in what happens before the tile goes on — substrate flatness, waterproofing, slope, mortar selection and layout planning.
Before general contracting, owner Veniamin Plotnikov spent years in natural stone and countertop fabrication. That's an unusual background for a general contractor, and it shows up in the work: slab layout planned around veining, seams placed where they disappear, and tile patterns set out on paper before the first cut.
Every material behaves differently. Choosing right matters as much as installing right.
The workhorse. Durable, water-resistant and available in large formats that mean fewer grout lines. Good porcelain installed well outlasts almost anything else in a bathroom.
Marble, travertine, quartzite, slate and granite. Beautiful and unforgiving — stone requires sealing, careful layout and an installer who understands how the material moves and stains.
Panels over 15 inches on a side. Fewer seams and a cleaner look, but the substrate must be flat within tight tolerances or you get lippage at every edge.
Niches, borders, feature walls and shower floors. Small tile means many grout lines, so layout and consistent spacing are what separate good work from busy work.
Electric radiant mat under tile. Best installed as part of a full floor rebuild, and genuinely worth it in a Pacific Northwest bathroom.
The part nobody sees and the part that matters most. Proper membrane, correct slope to drain, sealed corners and penetrations. This is where cheap tile jobs fail.
Tile and grout are not waterproof. Grout is porous, and water passes through it. What keeps a shower from rotting the wall behind it is the membrane underneath — and in a huge number of older Puget Sound homes, that membrane either failed or was never there.
This is why we tear back to studs on bathroom rebuilds rather than tiling over what's there. When we open a 1970s tub surround, we frequently find soft framing and a rotted subfloor. Tiling over that hides the problem for a couple of years and makes the eventual repair far more expensive.
If a contractor quotes you a bathroom without discussing what's behind the tile, that's worth a second opinion.
Everything under the tile. A flat, sound substrate, a proper waterproofing membrane in wet areas, correct slope to the drain, and the right mortar for the material. Tile is the visible part of a system, and the system is what fails.
Yes — and it's where our background is. Before general contracting, our owner spent years in natural stone and countertop fabrication. Slab selection, book-matching, seam placement and veining direction are things we plan in advance.
Typically one to two weeks depending on size, tile format and whether the substrate needs rebuilding. Waterproofing and mortar both need cure time, and rushing either is how showers leak.
Sometimes. Older discontinued tile is often impossible to match exactly, but we can usually source something close or design a transition that looks intentional rather than patched. We'll show you options before committing.
Because the substrate has to be flatter. Large panels telegraph every high and low spot as lippage, so the prep work — leveling and floating — is significantly more involved than with small tile.
Free estimate, honest material advice, and work that holds up.