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Bathroom Tile Installation · Dearborn

Bathroom Tile Installation in Dearborn, MI

We tile bathroom floors, walls, tubs, and showers across Dearborn. We also build the waterproof layers underneath, so the room stays dry for years.

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Empty subway-tiled room with frosted window and tile floor
Green scalloped tile accent wall behind a vessel sink
Curbless shower with grey tile and linear drain
What we do

How we run a bathroom tile job in Dearborn

Most Dearborn bathrooms we work in were framed a long time ago. The brick bungalows off Warren Avenue and the postwar colonials on the west side usually hand us the same room. It measures about five feet by eight feet, has one small window, a heavy tub sitting on old joists, and plaster that has taken sixty years of steam. We start by pulling the old surface back to framing or slab. Nothing gets tiled over. Once the room is open we can see what we are really dealing with, and we tell you the same day. Soft subfloor, a weeping valve, joists that bounce, a drain sitting too high. Those get fixed first, because tile only stays flat and tight when the layer under it is flat and tight.

After the room is sound we build it back in layers. The floor gets a stiff base, screwed down so it will not flex, then a leveling pass if the old house has settled toward the middle. Wet walls get backer board and a waterproof coat that carries over the seams, the corners, and the curb. In a shower we flood test the pan before a single tile is set. That test costs us a day. It is the cheapest day of the whole job. Then tile goes on with the right mortar for the material, the joints are held to one width, and grout goes in after the mortar has truly cured instead of the next morning.

  • We take the room down to framing or slab, so new tile never sits on a soft or hollow layer.
  • Every shower pan gets a flood test before tile, and we hold the water long enough for a slow leak to show itself.
  • Floors get leveled first, which is why our grout lines stay straight in old Dearborn houses that have settled.
  • We plan the layout around the wall you see when the door opens, so cut pieces land where nobody looks.
  • The same crew that opens the room finishes it, so nothing gets lost between one trade and the next.
Tile is the part you look at. What we build behind it is the part that decides how long you get to enjoy it.

Two things wreck bathroom tile around here, and both are avoidable. The first is water that gets behind the tile instead of running off it. Tile and grout are not waterproof on their own. The barrier lives behind them, and if it stops at the wrong height or skips a corner, the wall rots quietly for years before one tile ever moves. The second is movement. A bathroom on the second floor flexes every time someone walks in, and rigid tile cracks along that line. We stiffen the deck and add a membrane so the tile and the wood can move a little apart from each other. Winter counts too. A basement bathroom on a cold slab stays cold under bare feet, so we run a heat mat under the tile while the floor is open.

If your Dearborn bathroom is due, call us and tell us what the room is doing now. Cracked grout, a soft spot by the tub, a shower that smells damp, or a floor you have hated since the day you moved in. We will come out, measure, and give you a straight plan for the work. Then we do the work ourselves.

Materials

Tile and setting materials we use in Dearborn bathrooms

Most Dearborn bathrooms we finish get porcelain. It is dense, it shrugs off water, and it takes the abuse a family bathroom hands out every morning. On walls we will run glazed ceramic when the budget matters, because a wall above the tub never sees a shoe or a dropped bottle. Natural stone still shows up in our work, usually marble in a west Dearborn colonial where the owner wants that look and accepts the upkeep. Large format tile has taken over the floors, and for good reason. Fewer grout lines means less to scrub, and a small room reads a little wider. We bring samples to the house and lay them on your floor, in your light, before anything gets ordered.

What goes behind the tile matters more than the tile. Wet walls get backer board, never plain drywall, and then a waterproof coat over the seams and the corners. Shower floors get a sloped bed and a pan we flood test. Floors get a membrane that lets the wood move without cracking the tile above it, which matters in old houses with long joist spans. Mortar gets picked for the material, since a dense white porcelain and a piece of glass do not want the same mix. On walls we lean toward the newer cement grout blends. On a shower floor, or anywhere water sits, we will talk you into epoxy grout.

  • Porcelain on floors, in showers, and anywhere water sits.
  • Backer board and a waterproof coat behind every wet wall.
  • A flood test on the shower pan before the first tile goes on.
  • A heat mat under the tile while the floor is open, so January stops hurting.
Hex floor tile with marble herringbone tub surround
White subway tile wainscoting around a pedestal sink
What about the alternatives?

How the common bathroom tile choices hold up here

You have four or five real options and a couple that get sold hard online. Here is how each one behaves in a Dearborn bathroom, with humid summers, dry heated winters, and water hard enough to leave a film on everything it touches.

Porcelain tile

Dense, hard, and it barely takes on water. It handles a wet room, a heat mat under it, and years of traffic without changing color. It costs a bit more to cut and set. Worth it every time.

Recommended

Glazed ceramic wall tile

A fair value on walls that stay above the splash zone, and it is lighter and simpler to cut than porcelain. We keep it off shower floors and away from heavy traffic, where the softer body chips at the edges.

Acceptable

Natural stone such as marble or travertine

Beautiful in a bathroom and honest about the upkeep. It stains, it etches from anything acidic, and it wants sealing on a schedule. If you like it enough to keep up with it, we will set it and show you how to care for it.

Acceptable

Glass mosaic accents

Great as a band or a niche liner, hard to love across a whole wall. Glass shows every flaw behind it, so the bed has to be dead flat and the mortar has to be made for glass. We use it in small doses.

Acceptable

Peel and stick tile

It looks fine in the store and it fails in a bathroom. Steam and standing water creep under the edges, corners curl, and the whole thing has to come back up before real tile can go down.

Skip

New tile set over old tile or over sheet vinyl

The shortcut that ends up costing the most. New tile only lasts as long as the layer under it, the floor jumps in height at the doorway, and the door often has to be cut just to swing.

Skip
How it goes

From quote to walk-on, fast.

01

Your inquiry

Call or send the short form with what is going on at your place. A sentence or two is plenty for the first step.

02

We talk it through

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

03

A clear plan

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

04

The work gets done

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

Before you book

Straight answers before you hire a tile crew

People ask us the same handful of things before they let anyone open a bathroom. Here are the honest answers, including the ones that cost us work now and then.

Do I have to gut the whole bathroom?
Not always. If the floor is sound and you only want the floor changed, we can do that alone and leave the rest. A shower is a different story. Old showers hide their damage behind the tile, and once one wall is open we usually find the rest of it. We show you what we find and let you decide before we go further.
How long will the bathroom be out of service?
A floor only job runs a few days. A full bathroom with a tiled shower takes longer, and most of the extra time is waiting. The pan has to hold water, the mortar has to cure, and the waterproof coat has to dry before tile touches it. We would rather add a day than rush a layer. When a house has a second bathroom we plan the order of work around it.
Can you just tile over the old tile?
We do not. It looks like a shortcut and it costs more later. Tiling over old tile lifts the floor above the door, buries whatever is failing underneath, and leaves fresh mortar sitting on a glazed face it can barely hold. In a shower it is worse, because the old barrier stays trapped in the wall along with the damage it already did.
How fast can bathroom tile work start in Dearborn?
Usually within a couple of weeks, and sooner when a job ahead of yours wraps early. Call and tell us the size of the room and what you want changed. We come out, look at the subfloor and the plumbing, and put a real start date on it. If you have an active leak we move you up, because water under a tub does damage every day it sits there.
My bathroom is tiny. Does that change anything?
That room is most of what we do. A space that measures five feet by eight feet leaves no room for a sloppy layout. We set the cuts so full tiles land where your eye goes first, and the trimmed pieces hide behind the door or under the vanity. A small room also reads bigger with a larger tile and fewer grout lines, and we will lay it out on the floor before we set anything.
Can you match tile if we only redo part of the room?
We will try, and we will be honest about the odds. Tile lines change often, and a pattern from ten years back is usually gone for good. Sometimes the better fix is to change one area on purpose, like a new floor under clean existing wall tile, so the room looks planned instead of patched. We bring samples to your house and hold them up in your own light first.
Aftercare

Keeping new bathroom tile looking new

New tile does not ask for much, and the little it asks takes about a minute a day. The enemy in a Dearborn bathroom is not wear. It is water that never leaves the room. Steam hangs in a small space with one small window, and hard water dries into a film on the glass, the tile, and the grout. Handle those two and the room stays sharp for years. Grout ages first, so keep it sealed and keep acid cleaners far away from it. If a tile ever sounds hollow underfoot or a joint opens up, tell us early. Small repairs stay small when somebody catches them in the first month.

  • Run the fan during every shower and leave it going twenty minutes after, so the steam gets pulled out of a small room instead of settling into the grout.
  • Keep a squeegee in there. Ten seconds on the walls stops the hard water film our local water leaves behind on tile and glass.
  • Clean with warm water or a mild soap. Acid cleaners chew up cement grout and etch marble on contact.
  • Reseal natural stone once a year. Seal floor grout again whenever water stops beading up on it.
  • Keep fresh silicone where the wall meets the floor and where tile meets the tub, because that joint is built to move a little and rigid grout will crack across it.
  • Call us about one loose tile. One tile is a small repair, while a whole failed wall turns into a rebuild.
Empty subway-tiled room with frosted window and tile floor
Dearborn bathrooms before and after
FAQ

Bathroom tile questions we get in Dearborn

Ready when you are

Let's make your next steps easier

Tell us what is going on at your Dearborn home and we will walk you through the options. One call or one short form is all it takes.

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