Tilers in Stoke-on-Trent
Wall and floor tiling for bathrooms, wet rooms, kitchens and hallways — with the tanking, boarding and levelling underneath done by the same team that fixes the tile.
Walls, floors and splashbacks
Most of our tiling happens as part of a bigger job, so the wall or floor has usually just been stripped back. That is the moment to deal with whatever is behind it, rather than fixing new tile to an old problem.
Full-height tiling in shower areas, part-height or feature walls elsewhere, and a floor to match. Every shower area is tanked before a tile goes near it.
Bathroom Fitters Stoke-on-Trent
Porcelain and ceramic in bathrooms, kitchens and hallways, laid on a base that has been made flat and stable before the adhesive goes down.
Flooring Fitters Stoke-on-Trent
Tiled after the worktops are in, so the first row starts from the finished surface rather than from a guess at where it will be.
Kitchen Fitters Stoke-on-TrentEverything behind the tile
A tiled wall that cracks, sounds hollow or lets water through has almost never failed because of the tile. It failed because of what the tile was stuck to: plaster that was never meant to get wet, boards that flex underfoot, a floor that dips at one end. The tile just makes it visible.
So the quote covers the preparation as well as the finish, item by item:
- Taking off old tiles and checking the wall or floor underneath
- Moisture-resistant boarding where the existing plaster will not hold up
- Tanking membrane behind every shower area and across wet room floors
- Levelling compound on solid floors, a ply overlay on timber ones
- Underfloor heating under floor tiles, if you want it
- Mitred external corners instead of plastic trim, where the tile allows
- Grouting, silicone and a clean finish at every edge
Nothing in that list is an extra that turns up halfway through. If the wall needs boarding, you see it on the quote before you agree to anything.
Wet areas come first
In a shower enclosure or a wet room, the tile is the last layer rather than the waterproofing. Grout lets water through slowly, and over a few years that is enough to soften plaster or rot a timber floor from above.
The membrane goes onto the walls and floor first, with the falls set to the drain, and it is listed as its own item when you get the quote. Our bathroom fitting page explains how a wet room goes together.
Tiling in Stoke-on-Trent houses
Downstairs in the older terraces of Burslem, Tunstall, Longton and Fenton, the ground floor is usually boarded timber over an airbrick-ventilated void. They move slightly every time someone walks across them. Tile and grout cannot move at all, which is why tiles laid straight onto old boards so often crack along the joints within the first year. We screw the boards down and ply over them before a floor tile goes anywhere near them.
Upstairs, the bathroom in many of those houses was added later into the back addition, so walls are rarely square and the ceiling often slopes. That shows in tiling more than anywhere: a straight course of metro tile running against a wall that is out of true. Setting out around the room as it really is, rather than as the plan says, is most of the skill.
Solid brick walls with no cavity run cold, and a cold bathroom wall collects condensation. On a tiled wall that means mould in the grout lines along the ceiling and behind the bath. A properly sized extractor goes into every bathroom we fit, and it does more to keep grout clean than anything applied to it afterwards.
Concrete floors from the interwar years through to the 1970s were not always laid over a working damp barrier. Adhesive will not hold to a slab drawing moisture up through it, so those floors get a damp test before we quote.
On the newer estates at Trentham, Barlaston and Blurton the slabs are sound but seldom as flat as they look. With large-format porcelain that matters, because a dip of a few millimetres shows as a raised lip where two tiles meet. Levelling first costs less than living with it.
Book a Free SurveyWhat does tiling cost?
Tiling is quoted per job after the survey rather than from a rate card, because the tile is only part of the price. The preparation, the size and format of the tile, how many cuts the room needs and whether the walls are being tanked all move it more than the square metres do.
Where tiling is part of a bathroom it is already inside the bathroom price, along with the tanking. Floor preparation and underfloor heating are priced per square metre.
Get a Free Quote →Tiling questions
Can you tile over my existing tiles?
Not in a shower area. A lot of older showers round here were tiled straight onto plaster with no tanking behind them, and tiling over the top seals that problem in rather than solving it. Those walls come back to the bare surface. Elsewhere it depends on whether the old tiles are sound and firmly bonded, and on how much building out the edges, sockets and door frames will take. We look at it on the survey and tell you which applies.
Is tanking really needed behind a shower?
Yes. Tile is close to waterproof, grout is not, and silicone eventually fails. Behind all three, the membrane is what actually stops water reaching the plaster and the timber. Every shower area we tile is tanked first, and the quote lists it separately, so when you compare prices you can check whether the other quote includes it.
Why do tiled floors crack?
Almost always because of movement underneath. Tile and grout are rigid, so a timber floor that flexes, a slab that is still drying out or a floor that was never flat will all find their way to the surface as cracked grout or a split tile. Fix the base first, by screwing down and overlaying timber or by testing and levelling concrete, and a tiled floor will outlast the room around it.
Porcelain or ceramic?
For floors and wet areas, porcelain. It is denser, takes up almost no water and stands up to wear, which is why it suits a hallway or a shower floor. Ceramic is lighter, easier to cut and perfectly good on walls, including most splashbacks and bathroom walls outside the shower. Both go onto the same prepared base; the difference is where each one is used.
Can you put underfloor heating under the tiles?
Yes, and tile is one of the best finishes over it because it passes heat through quickly. Electric matting goes down on the prepared floor, our electricians connect and certify it, and it is tiled over in the same job. There is more on how it works on our underfloor heating page.
Planning some tiling?
Free survey, fixed written quote, preparation and tanking included. Across Stoke-on-Trent and the rest of Staffordshire.
Tiling across North Staffordshire
We tile throughout Stoke-on-Trent, the towns around it and the villages in between.
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