Tile installation in Lakewood

Houses built in a hurry, and tiled to last

Lakewood is one of the best-known planned post-war suburbs in the country. Most of the city was built in a few years in the early 1950s, on a grid of small lots, with thousands of single-story houses in a limited number of floor plans. That means you can often tell what is behind your wall before we open it, because the neighbor on the next street probably has the same bathroom.

Those original bathrooms were frequently tiled in glazed ceramic wall tile, usually a four-and-a-quarter-inch square with a bullnose cap along the top of the wainscot. Colors ran to pink, mint, butter yellow, powder blue and black and white. Tile was part of how these houses were sold, and in many of them it is still there, doing its job.

Restore or replace: the Lakewood question

The most common call we get here is from someone who owns a house with its original bathroom and is deciding what to do. If the tile is bonded, the wall is dry and the grout is the main problem, regrouting and repairing can give a bathroom decades more life, and keep a look that people now pay to reproduce. If water has been getting behind the tile, the mortar bed under it can soften and the whole wall may need to come out.

We tap the tile, check the grout and probe the base of the wall. We tell you which category you are in. If you want a modern shower in a 1950s shell, we can do that too, and we can take the old tile out cleanly.

Slabs, floors and kitchens

Most Lakewood houses sit on a concrete slab. Slab floors can have cracks, dips and old adhesive, and they can pass moisture. Before we put new tile down in a kitchen, hall or family room, we check flatness, isolate cracks that look active and ask about moisture. Large-format porcelain is popular in remodels, and it needs a flat slab to look right.

Kitchens in these houses are small, so a backsplash is a high-impact, low-area job. Floors often run through the kitchen, hall and living room as one surface, which is a good case for a single large layout planned from the front door.

Additions, garage conversions and patios

Many Lakewood lots have been expanded with a back room, a converted garage or a covered patio. Those spaces often have a different slab, a different height and a joint where the old house meets the new one. We plan the tile layout across that joint with a movement joint where the slab changes, so the tile does not crack along it.

Tile that suits Lakewood houses

Small rooms and low ceilings suit a lighter hand. In a Lakewood bathroom a four-by-twelve or three-by-six wall tile keeps the proportions of the room, while very large tiles can feel out of scale if the layout is not planned well. Matte floor tile gives grip in a bathroom that gets wet every day. In a kitchen, a simple stacked or offset backsplash lets the cabinets and counters stay in front.

If you want to keep the feeling of the original house, we can set a modern tile in a classic pattern: a wainscot of square glazed tile with a contrasting cap and a liner, or a hexagon or penny-round floor. You can try a version of that on the wall builder on our home page.

How a Lakewood job usually runs

We start with a visit or photos, then a written scope. Demolition and prep come first, followed by waterproofing where it applies, then tile, then grout and caulk. Because the shop is a few minutes away, we can come back for a check at the end of each stage without wasting your time. We tell you what is happening each day and what to expect the next.

What we do in Lakewood

• Residential Tile Installation in Lakewood. Floors, kitchens, backsplashes and entries, with the substrate and waterproofing planned before any tile goes on.
• Commercial Tile Installation in Lakewood. Small restrooms, entries and retail floors, with the substrate and waterproofing planned before any tile goes on.
• Bathroom & Shower Tile in Lakewood. Showers, tub walls and bathroom floors, with the substrate and waterproofing planned before any tile goes on.
• Tile Removal & Floor Prep in Lakewood. Old tile out, flat and sound for new, with the substrate and waterproofing planned before any tile goes on.