Finished walk-in shower renovation in a Vancouver home

Walk-In Shower Renovation in Vancouver: What to Know Before You Start

The walk-in shower has become the default request in almost every bathroom renovation we quote, and for good reason. It reads as more spacious than a tub-shower combo, it is easier to clean, and it works for a household at every stage of life without looking institutional. It is also one of the easier renovations to get subtly wrong.

A walk-in shower renovation in Vancouver involves more decisions than the finished photos suggest — drain placement, glass configuration, curb height, and waterproofing all interact with each other in ways that are hard to undo once tile is set. This guide walks through what actually needs deciding before demolition starts.

Curbless or Curbed: The First Decision That Shapes Everything Else

A curbless — or zero-threshold — shower removes the small dam most people are used to stepping over. It reads as more open and works better for anyone with mobility concerns, now or down the road, which is why it has become the more requested option among Vancouver homeowners planning a renovation they intend to stay in long-term.

The trade-off is structural. A curbless shower needs the floor to slope toward the drain across the entire wet area, not just inside a contained pan, and that slope has to start further back if there is no curb to contain the water. On a main floor over a concrete slab this is usually straightforward. On an upper floor over a wood-framed subfloor, it can mean recessing the joists or building up the surrounding floor to create the slope without a step, which adds cost and sometimes isn’t possible without opening the ceiling below.

A curbed shower remains the simpler build in most cases, particularly on upper floors, and a low curb — around 2 inches rather than the traditional 4 — captures much of the open feeling without the structural complexity.

Sloped shower floor installation showing drainage detail

Drain Type: Point Drain Versus Linear Drain

Point drains sit in the center or a corner of the shower floor, and the floor slopes toward that single point from all directions. They are the more affordable option and work fine for smaller or squarer shower footprints.

Linear drains run along one edge of the shower, usually against a wall, and the floor only needs to slope in one direction rather than from every corner toward a center point. This makes them a natural fit for curbless showers and for longer, narrower shower footprints where a single point drain would create an awkward multi-directional slope. They also tend to read as more contemporary, which is part of why they show up in most current renderings.

Homeowners across the Lower Mainland comparing quotes should confirm which drain type is priced in — a linear drain and the tile cuts it requires typically add several hundred dollars over a standard point drain, and that difference is not always broken out clearly in a lump-sum estimate.

Linear shower drain installation detail

Glass Configuration and What It Actually Costs

Frameless glass has become close to standard for walk-in showers, and for good reason — it disappears visually in a way framed enclosures never do. But “frameless” covers a range of configurations with very different price points.

A single fixed panel is the most affordable frameless option and works well when the shower opening is naturally protected from spray by the room layout. A panel plus a door costs more but is often necessary for larger openings. Fully enclosed frameless systems with multiple panels and a door cost the most and make sense mainly for showers positioned where spray control matters in every direction.

Glass thickness matters more than most homeowners realize going in. 3/8-inch glass is the common standard; 1/2-inch glass costs more but feels noticeably more substantial and requires less hardware to stay rigid, which is part of why higher-end installations tend to specify it.

Waterproofing Behind the Walls

None of the visible decisions matter much if the waterproofing behind them fails. Every walk-in shower needs a continuous waterproof membrane across the floor and up the walls to a minimum height, with particular attention at seams, the drain connection, and any niche cut into a wet wall.

This is where corners get cut on lower-end quotes, because it is invisible once tile goes up and the failure often doesn’t show for a year or more — by which point the fix means demolishing the shower. Schluter’s KERDI membrane system is what we specify on nearly every walk-in shower we build, because it is a fully bonded, sheet-applied system rather than a liquid-applied coating that depends heavily on application technique.

Homeowners in Burnaby, where older housing stock is common, should ask specifically whether the quote includes removing the shower down to the studs or whether it is tiling over an existing pan — the latter is sometimes offered as a shortcut and it defeats the purpose of a proper waterproofing rebuild.

The same question is worth asking regardless of city. Older bathrooms in Delta carry the same risk of a shortcut re-tile hiding a compromised membrane underneath, and the only way to know for certain is to ask what the scope of demolition actually includes.

Waterproofing membrane applied to a shower wall before tiling

Minimum Sizing and Realistic Layouts

A walk-in shower needs real space to feel like the upgrade it is meant to be. Most codes and comfortable design practice put the functional minimum around 36 by 36 inches, though 42 by 42 inches or larger reads noticeably more spacious and gives more flexibility for fixture placement.

In smaller bathrooms, particularly in older Richmond condos and townhomes, converting a tub-shower combo to a walk-in sometimes means the new shower is not dramatically larger than the old tub footprint — the gain is functional and visual rather than in raw square footage. A contractor should be honest about this trade-off during the planning stage rather than after tile is ordered.

What a Walk-In Shower Renovation Typically Costs

A straightforward walk-in shower conversion — replacing an existing tub-shower with a curbed walk-in, standard point drain, and a single glass panel — generally runs $12,000 to $20,000 depending on tile selection and finish level.

Curbless conversions, linear drains, and larger glass configurations push that range higher, often into the $20,000 to $35,000 range once structural floor work is involved. Natural stone tile, in-floor heating, and custom niches all add on top of that baseline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a curbless shower worth the extra cost?

For homeowners planning to stay in their home long-term, most find it worth it for both the accessibility benefit and the resale appeal — curbless showers consistently rank high on buyer wish lists across the region. For a shorter-term hold, a well-executed low-curb shower delivers much of the same visual benefit at a lower cost.

Can any bathroom be converted to a curbless shower?

Most can, but upper-floor bathrooms over wood framing sometimes require structural modification to create the necessary slope without a step, which can meaningfully increase cost. A site assessment before finalizing the design is the only reliable way to know.

How long does a walk-in shower renovation take?

A standard conversion typically takes one to two weeks from demolition to final walkthrough, including cure time for the waterproofing membrane and tile. Curbless conversions requiring structural floor changes can extend that timeline by several days.

Do walk-in showers need a door, or can they be fully open?

Fully open — doorless — configurations work well when the shower is recessed into an alcove or otherwise protected from spray, and they are popular in Coquitlam renovations where homeowners want the cleanest possible look. In more open layouts, a door or larger fixed panel is usually necessary to keep water contained.

Finished bathroom with walk-in shower by RT Stone & Tile

Planning a Bathroom Renovation?

A walk-in shower renovation rewards the decisions made before construction starts far more than any choice made once tile is going up. Drain type, glass configuration, and waterproofing approach all deserve real consideration rather than a default selection.

RT Stone & Tile builds walk-in showers across Vancouver and the surrounding region, and we are happy to walk through which configuration actually fits your space and budget. Contact us or call us at 604.781.2510 to get started.

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Interior design mood board with material samples for a Vancouver renovation

Design Services in Vancouver: What They Include and When You Need Them

Most homeowners planning a renovation know they need a contractor. Fewer realize they might need a designer first — and by the time they figure that out, they have often already bought tile that does not suit the layout, or committed to a floor plan that fights the natural light.

Design services in Vancouver cover more ground than most people expect, and knowing what falls under that umbrella before a project starts can save both money and a round of redone decisions. This guide breaks down what design services actually include, when they are worth the cost, and how the process typically unfolds.

What “Design Services” Actually Covers

The phrase gets used loosely, so it helps to separate it into what a design phase typically delivers before construction begins.

  • Space planning — working out layout, traffic flow, and whether walls need to move
  • Material and finish selection — tile, countertop, cabinetry, and fixture choices that work together as a system rather than one-off picks
  • Renderings or mood boards — a visual reference so a homeowner knows roughly what they are getting before demolition starts
  • Coordination with trades — making sure the electrical plan, plumbing rough-in, and finish selections actually agree with each other

A good design phase catches conflicts on paper instead of on site. Moving a light switch after drywall is up costs far more than moving it during planning, and the same logic applies to nearly every decision a renovation involves.

Floor plan drawing during the design phase of a renovation

Design-Build Versus Design-Then-Build

Homeowners across the Lower Mainland generally choose between two structures, and the difference matters more than most people expect going in.

A design-build arrangement keeps design and construction under one roof. The same company that draws the plan also builds it, which tends to mean fewer handoff gaps and a single point of accountability if something does not match the drawings. It can also move faster, since the construction team is involved early enough to flag anything unbuildable before it is finalized on paper.

Design-then-build separates the two: an independent designer creates the plan, and a contractor is brought in afterward to execute it. This can widen the pool of contractors bidding on the job, since the scope is already defined. The trade-off is that responsibility splits between two parties, and any gap between what was drawn and what is practical to build becomes a negotiation rather than an internal conversation.

Neither approach is universally better. A straightforward single-room refresh often does not need the overhead of a separate design phase at all, while a full-home renovation with structural changes usually benefits from one.

When Design Services Are Worth the Investment

Not every project needs a formal design phase, and paying for one when it is not needed is its own kind of waste.

Projects That Benefit Most

Full kitchen or bathroom renovations involving layout changes are where design services earn their cost most reliably. So do whole-home renovations, additions, and any project where several rooms need to feel cohesive rather than independently decorated. If plumbing or electrical is moving, a plan on paper is dramatically cheaper than a plan discovered mid-demolition.

Multi-phase projects benefit in a different way. Homeowners in Coquitlam who are tackling a kitchen this year and bathrooms the next still gain from a single design pass up front, even though construction happens in stages. Locking in a shared material palette and layout logic early keeps phase two from feeling like an unrelated project bolted onto phase one.

Projects That Often Don’t Need It

A straightforward material swap — new tile on an existing floor plan, a vanity replacement, a backsplash refresh — rarely needs a dedicated design phase. Homeowners in Burnaby replacing a single finish usually do better working directly with an experienced kitchen renovation or bathroom renovation team than paying separately for design services scoped for a much larger project.

Comparing tile and countertop material samples together

What the Design Process Typically Looks Like

A first meeting usually covers budget range, must-haves, and how the space is actually used day to day — information that shapes every decision that follows. From there, a designer produces a rough layout and gets feedback before refining it into something closer to final.

Material selection tends to happen in stages rather than all at once. Big-ticket items like flooring and countertops usually get chosen first, since they set the tone the rest of the palette has to work with. Hardware, lighting, and smaller finishes follow once the larger decisions are locked.

Homeowners in Delta and elsewhere often assume renderings are mandatory at this stage. They are useful but not universal — a well-organized material board and a clear floor plan accomplish the same goal for many projects without the added cost of full 3D renderings.

Reviewing a 3D rendering alongside material swatches for a renovation project

Budgeting for Design Services

Design fees are typically structured one of two ways: a flat fee scoped to the project, or a percentage of the overall construction budget, commonly landing somewhere in the 8 to 15 percent range for full-service design work. Simpler material-selection-only packages cost considerably less.

The number that matters most is not the design fee itself but what it prevents. A properly planned kitchen avoids the change orders that come from realizing mid-build that the fridge does not fit where it was assumed to go, or that two chosen finishes clash once they are side by side rather than on separate sample boards.

Homeowners across Richmond comparing quotes should ask directly whether design services are included in a renovation estimate or billed separately — the two get bundled inconsistently between companies, and comparing a bundled quote to an unbundled one produces a misleading number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an interior designer or is a contractor’s design service enough?

For most residential renovations, a contractor’s in-house design service is sufficient, especially under a design-build model. A dedicated interior designer becomes more valuable for large, style-driven projects or when a homeowner wants an outside creative perspective independent of the construction team.

How long does the design phase typically take?

A single-room design plan usually takes two to four weeks from first meeting to finalized selections. Whole-home projects can take six to eight weeks or more, particularly if structural changes require engineering input before the plan is finalized.

Can I skip design services and just pick materials myself?

Yes, and many homeowners do for smaller projects. The risk grows with project size — on a multi-room renovation, self-directed material selection without a coordinated plan is where mismatched finishes and layout regrets most often originate.

What’s the difference between a mood board and a full rendering?

A mood board is a curated collection of material samples, colours, and reference images that communicates a direction. A rendering is a more literal 3D visualization of the finished space. Mood boards are faster and cheaper to produce; renderings are more useful when a homeowner needs to see an exact layout before committing.

Finished living space showing a cohesive material palette from design through construction

Planning a Vancouver Renovation?

Design services exist to catch expensive problems while they are still cheap to fix — on paper, before anything is demolished. Whether that means a full design-build process or a focused material-selection session depends entirely on the scope of the project.

RT Stone & Tile works with homeowners across Vancouver and the surrounding region to figure out exactly how much design support a given project actually needs. Contact us or call us at 604.781.2510 to talk through your renovation.

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Unmarked contractor van parked outside a Coquitlam home during a renovation delivery

Hiring a Tile Contractor in Coquitlam: A Local Guide

Two homes a ten-minute drive apart in Coquitlam can need completely different approaches to the same tile job. A 1940s character house in Maillardville, a 2019 build on a Burke Mountain slope, and a tower unit in Burquitlam share a postal region and almost nothing else structurally.

That is the practical case for hiring a tile contractor in Coquitlam who actually works here regularly. This guide covers what changes by property type, how the local permit process affects your schedule, and where local experience saves real money — rather than how to vet credentials in general, which applies anywhere.

What Makes Coquitlam Tile Projects Different

Coquitlam’s housing stock spans roughly eighty years of building practice, and the substrate under your floor is a product of whenever your house went up.

Older homes in the Maillardville area often sit on plank subfloors or early plywood, sometimes with a layer or two of previous flooring still in place. These floors frequently need levelling and stiffening before tile can go down, and that assessment has to happen before anyone quotes a number.

Newer construction on the northeast slopes is the opposite problem. The framing is modern and sound, but sloped-lot builds often mean long spans, engineered joists, and multi-level layouts where tile transitions between materials at every landing. Getting those transitions flat and durable is where the labour goes.

Tower and townhome units are a third case again. The structure is concrete rather than wood, which removes the deflection worry but introduces acoustic requirements and a slab that moves on its own schedule. Each of the three calls for a different prep approach, and the flooring services quote should reflect which one you actually have rather than a generic square-foot rate.

Comparing tile and grout colour options against a wall

Permits, Inspections, and Your Actual Timeline

Most straightforward tile replacement does not require a permit. Replacing a floor covering on an existing sound subfloor is maintenance, not construction.

What does trigger a permit is anything structural or mechanical: moving a wall, relocating plumbing for a new shower position, altering drainage, or adding electrical for in-floor heat. Once your project crosses that line, the City of Coquitlam’s review and inspection schedule becomes part of your timeline, not a footnote to it.

The practical impact is sequencing. An inspection that has to happen before tile goes over in-floor heat can add days if it is booked late. A contractor who works in the city regularly books those inspections at the right moment instead of discovering the requirement halfway through demolition.

A heated bathroom floor is the clearest example. The electrical rough-in is inspected before anything covers it, so the crew has to stop after the mat is laid and wait. Booked in advance, that pause disappears into the normal cure schedule and costs nothing. Booked after the fact, it becomes several idle days with a bathroom out of service — the same work, the same price, a materially worse week for the household.

Renovation permit paperwork and site plan on a work truck tailgate

Matching the Contractor to Your Property Type

Character Homes and Older Housing Stock

For homes built before the 1970s, the questions worth asking are about substrate remediation: how they assess deflection, whether they have dealt with plank subfloors, and how they handle out-of-square rooms. Older houses settle, and a contractor who lays out to the walls rather than to the room’s sightlines will produce a floor that looks visibly crooked even though every tile is level.

Hillside and Newer Builds

On sloped lots, ask about transitions and movement. Long uninterrupted runs of tile across a modern open plan need movement joints, and multi-level layouts need a plan for how tile meets hardwood, carpet, or an exterior threshold at each change.

Condos and Townhomes

Buildings bring strata rules, acoustic underlay requirements, elevator bookings, and restricted work hours. A crew that regularly does bathroom renovations in local towers already has that paperwork rhythm; one that mostly works in detached houses will be learning it on your schedule. This is equally true across Burnaby and neighbouring municipalities, where building-specific rules vary more than most homeowners expect.

What Local Experience Actually Buys You

Beyond the technical fit, working with a contractor who is genuinely active in the area changes three practical things.

  • Realistic scheduling — they know current inspection turnaround rather than guessing
  • Supplier access — established accounts mean shorter lead times on tile and setting materials, and a faster route to matching material if a box arrives damaged
  • Accurate quoting — repeated exposure to the same housing types means fewer mid-project surprises about what is under the floor
  • Accountability — a contractor with local referral business has more at stake than one passing through

None of this replaces checking credentials and insurance, which matters regardless of where you are. It is the layer on top of that, and it is the part a homeowner in Delta or anywhere else cannot easily evaluate from a website alone.

Contractor cutting tile with a wet saw during an installation

Cost Expectations for Coquitlam Tile Work

Installed pricing generally lands between $12 and $28 per square foot, in line with rates across Vancouver and the wider region. The spread comes mostly from prep and pattern rather than the tile itself, and the types of tile under consideration set the floor for that range rather than the ceiling.

Older-home projects tend to run higher because of substrate work — levelling compound, subfloor reinforcement, and removing previous layers all add cost before the first tile is set. Newer builds usually need less remediation but often involve larger continuous areas and more transitions.

Budget a 10 to 15 percent contingency on any project in a home over thirty years old. Opening up a floor reveals what is actually underneath, and older houses are where that most often differs from the assumption. Homeowners across the Lower Mainland consistently find that the contingency, not the quote, is what keeps a project calm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a permit to retile a bathroom floor?

Usually not, if you are replacing a floor covering over a sound existing subfloor. A permit is generally required once plumbing is relocated, walls are altered, or electrical is added for heated floors. Confirm with the city before demolition rather than after.

How far ahead should I book a tile contractor?

Six to ten weeks is typical for established crews, and longer heading into spring and early fall when demand peaks. Add lead time if your tile is a special order, since imported material can take considerably longer than what is in local stock.

Is a contractor from outside the area a bad choice?

Not automatically. A skilled installer is a skilled installer. The trade-off is that they may be less current on local inspection scheduling and building-specific strata requirements, which tends to show up as timeline slippage rather than poor workmanship.

Should I choose a specialist or a general renovation company?

If tile is the main scope, a specialist usually gives a better result for the money. If tile is one part of a larger project involving several trades, a renovation company that coordinates the whole sequence is often worth the premium. The distinction holds anywhere in the region, including Richmond and the surrounding municipalities.

Finished kitchen tile backsplash installed by RT Stone & Tile

Planning a Tile Project in Coquitlam?

The right tile contractor for your project depends heavily on what kind of building you own. Character homes reward substrate expertise, hillside builds reward careful transition planning, and condos reward a crew that already knows the strata routine.

RT Stone & Tile works across Coquitlam and the surrounding region on all three, and we are happy to walk your space and talk through what your particular subfloor needs. Contact us or call us at 604.781.2510 to get started.

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Finished tiled entryway in a Richmond home during wet weather

Tile Installation in Richmond: What a Proper Job Involves

Most tile failures are not caused by choosing the wrong tile. They are caused by problems underneath it. Cracked grout lines after two winters, hollow sounds underfoot, or a shower base that never fully dries can often be traced back to preparation work that was rushed before the first tile was set.

Anyone planning a tile installation in Richmond should understand what a proper job involves. This guide explains each stage of the process, what can go wrong, and why Richmond’s local conditions make certain installation details especially important.

Why Tile Installation in Richmond Has Its Own Challenges

Richmond sits on low, flat land with a high water table, and much of its housing stock is built on slab-on-grade or over crawl spaces close to the ground. That combination means ground-level floors deal with more moisture from below than a comparable home built on a hillside would.

Add the wet weather that typically lasts from October through March and you get two moisture fronts at once — one rising from the slab and the other being tracked in through entryways. Tile handles both well when it is installed over the right substrate and membrane. Installed directly onto an unprepared slab, it becomes a lid over trapped moisture, and the grout is usually the first thing to show it.

Condos and townhomes bring a second variable. Many buildings sit above parkade structures, where the concrete deck can experience seasonal movement that affects the finished tile surface. Without the right layer between slab and tile, that movement transfers directly into the tile.

The Steps a Proper Tile Installation Should Include

A quote that lists “supply and install tile” and nothing else is hiding most of the actual work. Here is what should be happening between demolition and grout, whether the job is part of our flooring services or a full room renovation.

Subfloor Assessment and Levelling

Before anything is ordered, the substrate gets checked for flatness, structural movement, and moisture. Industry tolerance for large-format tile is roughly 1/8″ of variation over 10 feet — tighter than most existing floors, which is why self-levelling compound so often turns up on a properly written quote.

Skipping this is the single most common cause of lippage, the uneven tile edges you can feel with a bare foot. On a wood subfloor, deflection matters too: a floor that flexes underfoot will crack a rigid tile surface no matter how good the adhesive is.

Contractor levelling a subfloor before installing tile

Waterproofing and Uncoupling Membranes

These two get confused often, and they do different jobs. A waterproofing membrane keeps water from passing through to the structure — essential in showers, tub surrounds, and any wet room. An uncoupling membrane lets the substrate and the tile move independently, so a shifting slab does not telegraph a crack straight up through the finished floor.

Systems like Schluter’s DITRA and KERDI are the ones we specify most often, because on a ground-oriented floor in this climate you frequently want both functions at once. Homeowners across the Lower Mainland sometimes see these membranes as an upsell. They are closer to insurance — the cost of adding one is a fraction of what it costs to tear out a failed floor and start again.

Uncoupling membrane installed over a residential subfloor

Layout, Setting, and Movement Joints

Layout is planned before adhesive is mixed, so cuts land in sensible places and the pattern stays aligned with the room’s most visible sightline rather than with a wall that may not be perfectly straight.

During setting, coverage matters more than speed. Large-format tile generally needs close to full mortar contact, which usually means back-buttering each piece. Movement joints — soft joints of flexible sealant rather than rigid grout — belong at perimeters and at intervals across larger floors. Leave them out and the floor has nowhere to expand, which is how you get tenting, where tiles lift off the substrate entirely.

Where Installations Commonly Go Wrong

Most of the failures we are called to repair can be traced back to a small number of shortcuts.

  • Tiling directly over an old floor without checking whether the layers underneath are sound
  • Skipping the membrane on a ground-level slab or shower wall
  • Spot-bonding — using five dabs of mortar per tile instead of achieving full coverage — which leaves hollow voids that can crack under load
  • Omitting movement joints, especially on floors that run continuously between rooms
  • Grouting too early, before the mortar has cured, which can compromise the installation and discolour the grout

Homeowners who have lived through one of these repairs tend to ask far more detailed questions the second time around — and rightly so. The repair almost always costs more than doing it correctly would have.

Strata Approvals and Scheduling for Richmond Condos

For condo and townhome projects, the paperwork can take longer than the tiling. Most strata corporations require written approval before work starts, along with proof of contractor liability insurance and, increasingly, an acoustic underlay that meets the building’s minimum impact-sound rating requirements, particularly for units above the ground floor. The same applies to bathroom renovations in these buildings.

Build that approval window into the schedule rather than treating it as a formality. Noise-restricted work hours also compress a crew’s productive day, which stretches a job that would take four days in a detached house into a week or more.

Installing the same square footage of tile in a Delta rancher and in a fourth-floor condo can involve two very different projects once access, elevator bookings, and material staging are taken into account — worth remembering when comparing a quote for one against a quote for the other.

Homeowner reviewing a tile layout with an installer

Cost and Timeline Expectations

Tile installation across Vancouver and the surrounding region generally costs between $12 and $28 per square foot, depending on tile format, pattern complexity, and how much prep the substrate needs. Large-format and herringbone layouts sit at the higher end because both take longer to set and generate more cuts. The type of tile you choose accounts for a significant part of that price range, and the types of tile available vary widely in cost.

Prep is the line item that moves most. A flat, sound slab may need almost nothing; a floor requiring levelling compound, membrane, and old-adhesive removal can add several dollars per square foot before a single tile is placed. This is exactly why two quotes for the “same” job can differ by thousands — and why the breakdown matters more than the total.

In terms of timeline, a standard bathroom floor and surround typically takes three to five working days, including curing time. A full main floor typically takes one to two weeks. Curing time is not padding; grouting or allowing foot traffic too early can compromise the installation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should I stay off a newly tiled floor?

Plan on 24 hours before light foot traffic and 72 hours before replacing heavy furniture or appliances. Mortar and grout gain strength over days, not hours, and early loading is a common cause of hairline cracks that only show up weeks later.

Can tile be installed over an existing tile floor?

Sometimes, if the existing floor is fully bonded, flat, and the added height will not create problems at doorways or appliances. It is worth an honest assessment first — homeowners often find that removal costs less overall than the repair bill when a compromised base fails under the new layer.

Do I need a membrane on a ground-floor slab?

In most cases here, yes. Slab-on-grade floors in low-lying areas transmit both moisture and seasonal movement. An uncoupling membrane can help manage substrate movement, while an appropriate moisture-control or waterproofing system may also be required. Your installer should be able to explain which membrane system they recommend and why it is appropriate for your substrate.

What should a detailed tile quote actually include?

It should separate demolition and disposal, substrate prep, membrane, setting materials, tile, grout and sealant, and labour. A single lump sum makes it impossible to tell whether prep was included or quietly left out, which is the most common reason a low quote grows once work begins.

Finished tiled bathroom installed by RT Stone & Tile

Getting the Foundation Right the First Time

Good tile work is mostly invisible. The levelling, the membrane, the movement joints, the curing time — none of it shows in a finished photo, and all of it determines whether the floor still looks right in ten years.

RT Stone & Tile installs tile across Vancouver and the surrounding region, and we are happy to review the substrate and membrane plan for your space before moving on to tile selection. Contact us or call us at 604.781.2510 to get started.

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