Tile in Tualatin, OR

Sometimes, but usually we would rather not. Old sheet vinyl over particleboard is the most common problem we find covered up rather than fixed. Taking it up lets us see the underlayment, and if it has ever had a dishwasher leak you want to know now, not through a new floor. On pre-1980 material we handle removal carefully, since some resilient flooring of that era can contain asbestos and should be tested rather than ripped up.

Yes, and in the lower-lying parts of Tualatin it matters. Moisture in a slab or coming up through a crawlspace will ruin a good floor regardless of what you paid for it. We test rather than guess, and if a vapour barrier or a different product is the right answer, we will say so before you buy.

Generally not, and it is better to say so up front. We do not take on repair work for hard surface flooring, tile or countertops on projects we did not install. With a shower the reason is specific: the waterproofing is buried behind the tile, we cannot inspect it, and patching the visible part of a system that may already have failed does you no favours. If we built it, that is a different conversation.

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding about showers. Grout is a filler between tiles and it lets water through. Sealing it helps with staining and slows things down, but the thing actually keeping water out of your wall is the membrane and pan behind the tile. That is why we spend the time there rather than on the part you can see.

Longer than people expect, because the sequence has waiting in it — the waterproofing has to cure before tile goes on, and the setting mortar has to cure before grouting. Rushing any of those stages is how failures start. We will give you a realistic schedule at the estimate, including the days when nothing appears to be happening.

On the walls, easily. On a shower floor it is more constrained, because the floor has to fall to the drain and a large rigid tile cannot follow a slope in two directions without help. Smaller formats or a mosaic conform to the fall naturally, which is why you see them on shower floors so often. We will show you what works with the pan we are building.