Custom tile work in Kannapolis, NC
Nine tenths of a tile job is decided before the first tile goes on the wall.
Call 704-305-2851Large format tile shows you the wall
A 12x24, a 24x48 or a plank tile does not bend. Whatever the wall behind it is doing, a big tile will tell on it — a hump under two tiles turns into a shadow line running down the joint. Large format gets set on a substrate flattened first, with mortar combed one way and the back of the tile buttered so there is no hollow behind it, and with the courses offset no more than a third. Never half. A long tile crowns slightly in the middle, and a fifty percent offset puts the high point of one tile hard against the low corner of the next. That is lippage, and once the thinset grabs, it stays.
The pattern costs more than the tile
A straight stack and a running bond go down fast. Herringbone, basketweave, a diagonal or a picture-frame border can double the number of cuts in the same square footage, and every cut is a piece handled twice. When somebody is surprised by a tile price it is usually the pattern they picked, not the tile they picked.
The cuts are the whole job
Anybody can set a full tile. The work is in the pieces that are not full: the run into an outside corner, the hole around a fixture, the sliver at the ceiling, the piece that has to die into a door casing. An outside corner is either mitered so two tile faces meet at the edge, finished with a metal trim profile, or run in bullnose — three different looks, decided before the first tile goes up, not when the wall reaches the corner.
Grout is a decision, not a leftover
Grout width follows the tile: a rectified porcelain with a true edge can run a narrow joint, a handmade or a warped tile needs a wider one to absorb the variation. The color is the bigger decision. A grout close to the tile lets the wall read as one surface. A grout that contrasts turns the layout into a grid and puts every line on display — which can be exactly right, as long as it was chosen on purpose.
What actually needs sealing
Cement grout and natural stone want a sealer, and they want it again down the road. Porcelain and glazed ceramic do not — the tile face is already impervious, and anybody selling you a sealer for it is selling you a bottle. Epoxy grout does not need sealing either, but it is harder to work and costs more to install.
The substrate decides whether the tile stays up. Backer board on the left, drywall on the right — only one of them belongs behind tile.
Most contractors won't put numbers on a website, so here they are. These are what tile work of this kind generally runs in Rowan, Cabarrus and nearby counties, worked out from current material prices and from what tile setters report charging for labor. Ranges, not single numbers, because a real job is never one number.
These are typical costs in this area, not our prices. Darrell gives you a number after he sees the room. Use these to sanity check any quote you are given.
Material prices read 10 September 2026 at the Lowe's on Dale Earnhardt Blvd in Kannapolis. Tile, thinset, board and membrane prices move. If you are reading this a long way from that date, treat these as a shape rather than a number.
How much to tile a bathroom
A bathroom is two jobs priced differently: the flat floor, which goes quickly, and the shower, which is waterproofing work with tile on top of it. Most of the money in a bathroom is in the shower.
A tub surround, retiled
- Area
- 68 sq ft — three walls to the ceiling
- Style
- Ceramic subway
The tub stays. Three walls come back to the studs, get board and a membrane, then tile.
A 5x8 bathroom floor
- Area
- 27.5 sq ft — the room is 40, the tub takes the rest
- Style
- 12x24 porcelain, straight lay
The simplest tile job in a house, and the one whose price surprises people most. See the first note below.
A walk-in shower, built from scratch
- Area
- 3x5 — 71 sq ft of wall, 15 sq ft of floor
- Style
- Large format walls, hex mosaic floor
Poured base, slope, waterproofing, curb, niche and tile. This is the job the rest of this site is about.
A bigger 4x6 shower
- Area
- 112 sq ft of wall
- Style
- Marble-look porcelain, carried to the ceiling
More wall, a longer pan, and tile all the way up instead of stopping at the shower head.
How much to tile a kitchen
A kitchen is smaller than people expect. A backsplash is less wall than a single shower — but the cuts per square foot are high, because of the outlets, the cabinet ends and the counter line.
A backsplash
- Area
- About 26 sq ft, including behind the range
- Style
- Ceramic subway
Counter to the underside of the upper cabinets, all the way around.
A kitchen floor
- Area
- About 125 sq ft
- Style
- 24x48 large format
Tiled around the cabinets and appliances that stay, with the transitions into the next rooms.
Three things worth knowing before you get a quote
A small floor is priced by the day, not by the foot
That 5x8 bathroom floor is 27.5 square feet once the tub is out of the 40. At the per-foot rates people quote online it works out to something like $275 to $495 — which is less than most tile setters charge to show up at all. So a small floor is not really a measurement, it is a day: tear-out, layout, setting, then coming back to grout. Understanding that one thing explains most of the numbers on this page.
A backsplash is almost all labor, so buy the tile you actually want
The tile on that backsplash is under $40. The job is $1,300 to $3,100. Going from a budget subway to a designer subway takes the tile from about $36 to about $259 — on a job that size it barely moves the total. The expensive part is cutting around the outlets, the cabinet ends and the counter line, and that is the same work whichever tile you pick. So pick the one you want to look at every morning.
About $418 of a shower is spent before a single tile goes on
The waterproofing, the pan and the drain come to roughly $418 in materials on a standard shower, and none of it is visible when the job is finished. It is the cost homeowners never see coming, and it is most of the reason a tiled shower costs what it does next to a plastic insert. See what that money actually buys, behind the tile.
What moves the price
What pushes a job to the top of its range
- Mosaic or small tile — roughly double the labor of an ordinary size.
- Herringbone, a diagonal, or any set pattern — roughly double again.
- Very large format, which needs more hands to place.
- Walls rather than floors: one and a half to three times the floor rate.
- A poured shower base and a waterproofing system.
- Niches and benches, each priced on its own.
- An occupied room upstairs.
- No dumpster access.
- A floor that has to be leveled first.
What keeps it at the bottom
- Big open rectangles.
- Ordinary tile sizes in a straight lay.
- A flat, sound subfloor.
- An empty house.
- Easy access for materials and debris.
- Handling the demolition yourself.
What is and is not included
What a number like this normally covers
- Setting materials: thinset, grout, backer board or foam board, and the waterproofing system.
- Layout, cutting, setting, grouting and cleaning down.
- Pouring and sloping a base, where the job has one.
What it does not cover
- The tile itself. That is bought separately and the price is entirely your choice.
- Demolition and hauling the old material away.
- Moving where the drain sits — that is a change to the structure of the job, not a tile decision.
- Glass shower doors and screens.
- A rotted subfloor or rotted framing found once the wall is open.
- Fixtures, vanities, doors and paint.
One more thing
Big national advertisers often quote more than a local installer for the same room, so get more than one quote. A homeowner who has read this page can judge a quote, which is the whole reason it is here.
This is what tile work typically costs in this market, not a quote from Darrell — for the day-by-day sequence of a shower job, see how the week runs day by day on a shower job.
Questions people ask about tile work
Can you tile over my existing tile?
Sometimes. It depends on whether the old tile is bonded solid, whether the floor can take the extra height at the doors and the appliances, and whether whatever is behind it is dry. It is a question to answer with eyes on the room, not over the phone.
Do I buy the tile or do you?
The tile is your pick. Call before you order it: the size changes what has to happen to the wall behind it, and the pattern changes how much of it you need.
How much extra tile should I order?
More than the square footage. Cuts, breakage and the odd bad piece eat into a box, and a spare box in the attic is what saves you in ten years when something cracks and the run has been discontinued.
What about the tile I already bought?
Bring it up on the phone. Most of the time it is fine. Occasionally a tile is warped enough, or thin enough, that the layout or the grout joint has to change to suit it — better to know that before the day it goes up.
Talk to Darrell about your tile
Bring the room, bring the tile you're thinking about, and we'll tell you what it takes.
See also: bathroom remodeling in Kannapolis, NC, kitchen backsplashes and tile floors and how a tile shower is built.