PhD What factors determine the cost of tile installation, and how do you keep costs down? Are you shopping for tile work? Perhaps you’re renovating your bathroom or kitchen, or perhaps you’re calculating the cost to build your dream home — either way, this post will help you get an idea of what your tile project could cost.
Read this information over before you start calling tile contractors, since it also contains five important questions you’d be smart to ask them.
Pricing tile work and comparing contractors can be a difficult task, for a lot of reasons. In this post we’ll cover the five most common factors that impact the price of a new tile installation:
- Materials — walk into any store that sells ceramic, stone, glass, and other tile and you’ll probably be overwhelmed with your countless choices. The tile you choose can and will impact the installation price.
- Complexity of design — there are ways to design your tilework to save money, and there are definitely times when the design will raise the price, so it’s important to discuss this from the beginning.
- Complexity of the jobsite — this also plays a major role in the final price of a project. We’ll discuss why, and how you can save some cost with a couple of tweaks.
- Square footage — your project’s square footage plays a direct role in the price of tile work. Large jobs cost more overall, but small jobs typically cost more per square foot, and it’s worth understanding why.
- Hidden issues — these can lead to an increase in the overall cost of your project, and because they’re hidden you’ll want to be prepared for them.
Materials
Not that long ago there wasn’t much variation in the choices of tile. You had predominantly 12” square tiles for floors, with the occasional 18” square tile starting to gain popularity, and subway tile or 12” square tiles going on shower walls. Today, walk into any tile showroom and you’ll be blown away by the endless amount of choices.
You have all sorts of unique designs and sizes to choose from, and your choices don’t end with size and shape — you also have to choose whether ceramic tile, porcelain, stone, glass, cement, or even metal tile is right for you. It’s a difficult job as someone shopping for new tile. We’re here to help! We love tile and know the advantages and disadvantages of virtually every option, and a quick conversation can narrow down the material that’s best for you and your needs.
For now, we’ll stay focused on the money, and specifically on saving you some.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly installation, we recommend purchasing a tile that’s not too big but not too small — something like a 12×24” tile will cut down installation cost. And with some pre-thought-out design work, we can make that rectangular tile stand out and look fantastic.
If you have your eye on a nice mosaic, glass, or similar artistic tile, we could talk about installing that on a feature wall and utilizing a 12”x24” tile for the other walls — this way we’re saving money on the majority of the job while adding some pizazz that you crave. Another option is to frame a mosaic in the center of the wall, cutting costs down even further since we’ll be handling a smaller quantity of the finicky mosaic tile.
Quick Tip: Ask your contractor if they have a preference in size or style of tile to work with that can save you some installation money.
Complexity of Design
Another major factor is the design of your desired tilework. Adding things like mosaic feature strips sounds great when you’re shopping in a tile showroom with a designer — but even one mosaic or glass tile feature strip in your shower will add time to the installation, and time equals money. If you’re looking to cut back on costs, consider leaving out the feature strips altogether. If you’re keen on having more than one style of tile on your wall, there are still ways to keep the installation cost moderate; we’d be happy to discuss how. One way to cut down on time is to add a larger feature strip on one wall only.
Another consideration is to forgo shampoo niches inside your shower in favor of a much quicker and easier installation of a prefabricated corner shelf. This can shave off about $400 per niche.
If you’re shopping for a new backsplash, one thing that adds lots of time to the tile installation is electrical outlets and light switches. Talk to your electrician about installing the outlets underneath your kitchen upper cabinets, and the switches can be moved as well. This results in a much cleaner-looking backsplash that lets your new tile really shine.
Quick Tip: Ask your potential tile installer if they can recommend a design that makes their job easier since you’d like to stay within your budget.
Complexity of Jobsite
Just about every experienced contractor you’ll meet won’t be able to commit to a price until they’ve walked your jobsite. That’s because the location and complexity of your jobsite plays just as important a role in the process as anything else. Is the job upstairs, in a basement, in a condominium complex, new construction, or a remodel with finishes to protect in every room except the construction site? These are some of the questions a tile contractor must get answered before committing to a price.
Quick Tip: Ask your potential contractor if there’s anything you can do in advance to make their job easier and lower the cost to you.
Square Footage
Due to the wide variety of tile sizes and choices, most contractors today cannot or will not give you a square footage estimate. There are simply too many variables, and one would be foolish to assume the type and size of tile you’ll end up purchasing.
In general terms, there’s often a sweet spot when it comes to the size of the job versus the square-foot price. Funny enough, very small jobs will often have the highest square-footage price — that’s because even though the days and hours worked on a small project might not add up to many, the time lost can be significant, and time is money. If we come to your house for 5 or 6 hours on a few occasions, we have to charge you as if we were there all day long, since we’d lose out on other larger jobs that could keep our crew busy for full days for a week or more straight.
Quick Tip: Ask your contractor if they could lower the price on a small job if you did several small projects at the same time, so they can maximize their time spent at your home.
Hidden Issues
Last but not least is hidden issues. If there’s demolition involved, there will likely be some hidden problems uncovered — this is especially true for older homes that have been remodeled multiple times. Often we find things inside walls that we cannot in good conscience ignore. Of course, we’ll always bring this to your attention as soon as we find it, and go over your options to keep costs to a minimum.
But if you’re remodeling your home, the fact that hidden issues can and do come up is something you need to be aware of.
Quick Tip: Ask your contractor what some common hidden costs are for your particular project, and ask them for worst-case scenarios, preferably real-life instances.
Yes, tile work can feel expensive, but in the long run the lifetime cost of tile is one of the most economical materials you could choose. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to discuss an upcoming tile project in your home or business.