Bathrooms only, in Denver, since 2011
Choosing a tile is the easy half. The layout decides the waste factor, the labour, the joint width and whether a plank tile will sit flat. Every diagram here is drawn from the geometry we actually set out with.
Scroll for all ten layouts
Stack bond reads as a drawn grid, so it flatters large-format porcelain and wall panels where the tile itself is the interest. Because every joint is continuous, any bow in the substrate or variation in tile size shows up immediately along a 3 metre line. We flatten walls to within 3 mm over 3 m before a stack-bond wall is set, and we order from a single caliber and shade lot.
Best for Large-format wall fields, shower back walls, contemporary rooms
Watch out Substrate flatness and tile caliber. Nothing hides here.
A 50 percent offset is the pattern most people picture when they say subway tile. It hides small size variation between tiles and reads quietly, which is why it has survived a century of bathrooms. On tiles longer than about 15 inches a half offset can produce visible lippage at the centre of each tile, because plank tiles usually crown in the middle. On those we drop to a third offset.
Best for Classic subway walls, tub surrounds, powder rooms
Watch out Lippage on tiles longer than about 15". Use a third offset instead.
The TCNA recommendation for tiles with one side longer than 15 inches is an offset no greater than 33 percent. Stepping by a third keeps the corner of one tile away from the crown of the tile below it, which is where lippage becomes visible and where a wet foot can feel it. It is the pattern we use for almost all large-format plank tile on shower walls.
Best for Plank and large-format tile, full-height shower walls
Watch out Plan the starting course so cuts at both ends are over half a tile wide.
Standing the same tile on end changes what the room does. Vertical joints draw the eye up, which is useful in a Denver bungalow bathroom with an 8 foot ceiling, and it visually narrows a wall that is wider than it is tall. It costs slightly more labour than a horizontal field because the cut course lands at the ceiling where it is most visible.
Best for Low ceilings, narrow walls, niche backs, powder rooms
Watch out The top cut course is at eye level. Set out from the ceiling down.
Herringbone needs a tile whose length is exactly twice its width, otherwise the pattern will not close and every third course drifts. Each tile is cut at the field edge, so waste climbs and setting takes roughly half again as long as a running bond. The pattern is worth it on a floor, where the interlock reads as texture rather than as a grid.
Best for Floors, feature walls, entry zones of a large ensuite
Watch out Only true 2:1 tile closes. Check the actual tile, not the nominal size.
Rotating the herringbone 45 degrees sends the pattern into the corners of the room, which makes a small floor read wider than it is. The trade is at the perimeter: every edge tile is a compound cut, waste rises to around 18 percent and the setting time rises with it. We dry-lay the first two courses on the floor before any thinset is mixed.
Best for Small floors that need to read larger, powder room floors
Watch out Perimeter cuts are all compound. Budget the extra box of tile.
Basketweave is the pattern that most reads as period Denver, and it is the one clients most often choose for a 1920s bungalow floor after they have seen it beside plain hex. Because the module is square, setting out is straightforward: find the centre of the room, chalk the module grid, and the cuts fall symmetrically at both walls. It works in marble, porcelain and cement tile.
Best for Period floors, bungalow and foursquare bathrooms, mud-set marble
Watch out Mixed shade lots show badly because the eye follows the module.
Penny round is mostly grout, which is exactly why it belongs on a shower floor: the joint area gives a coefficient of friction well above the 0.42 wet DCOF threshold, and the small format conforms to the slope to the drain without back-buttering every piece. Expect four to five times the grout volume of a 12" field tile, and specify a stain-resistant grout because there is a great deal of it.
Best for Shower floors, curbless pans, steam rooms, slope-to-drain areas
Watch out Grout volume is 4 to 5 times a field tile. Budget for it and seal it.
Chevron is often confused with herringbone. The difference is the cut: chevron tiles are mitred so the ends meet in an unbroken V, while herringbone tiles are rectangular and interlock. That mitre means chevron is normally bought as a purpose-made tile rather than cut on site, and it wants a tight joint so the point reads cleanly.
Best for Feature walls, vanity splashbacks, floors in a long narrow room
Watch out Buy the mitred tile. Cutting chevron from rectangles on site rarely closes.
The Versailles module mixes squares and rectangles in a fixed repeat, traditionally in tumbled limestone or travertine. Because the module repeats, it is far easier to set out than it looks: the whole floor is one square module tiled across the room. Most suppliers sell it as a pre-sorted pallet with the ratio of sizes already correct, and the pieces are usually 12mm or thicker stone.
Best for Large ensuite floors, travertine and limestone, heated slabs
Watch out Buy the pre-sorted pallet. Mixing suppliers breaks the size ratio.
Labour index is relative to a straight stack bond at 1.0. Waste factors assume a rectangular room and one shade lot. Both are working figures from our own jobs and are sample values on this demonstration site.
A level entry means the pan drops an inch and a half into the floor structure, which depends entirely on which way your joists run and how deep they are. We answer that on the survey with the floor open where we can, then choose the drain to suit the tile you want, because a linear drain lets the whole floor fall in one plane and a point drain does not.
A standard sixty by thirty alcove is almost exactly the right footprint for a generous single shower, and because the drain, the valve and the walls are already there the work stays inside a predictable programme. What does not change is the build: everything out to the framing, a bonded membrane, and the same twenty-four hour flood test as a fifty thousand dollar ensuite.
Cement board is a substrate, not a barrier. The layer that actually keeps water inside the room is a bonded membrane applied over it, banded at every corner, and gauged as it goes on. Here is the assembly we build in every wet zone, from the framing out.
2x6 studs at 16" o.c., blocking at every grab-bar and niche location
5-1/2" (140 mm)
We block for grab bars in every shower, whether or not one is being fitted now. Blocking costs nothing today and a torn-out wall later.
1/2" cement or foam backer board, ANSI A118.9, screws at 8" o.c.
1/2" (12.7 mm)
Never gypsum board in the wet zone, including behind a tub surround. Joints are taped with alkali-resistant mesh and filled with thinset, not drywall compound.
ANSI A118.10 liquid or sheet membrane, corners and changes of plane banded
20 to 25 mil liquid, or 0.008" sheet
This is the layer that actually keeps water in the room. Liquid membranes are checked with a wet-film gauge as they go on, because 12 mil of a 20 mil product is not waterproof.
ANSI A118.15 improved modified thinset, notch sized to the tile
3/32" to 1/4" after collapse
Wet-zone coverage must reach 95%. We pull a tile at least once per wall and photograph the back of it for the file.
Porcelain, ceramic or sealed natural stone, set to the agreed pattern
1/4" to 1/2" (6 to 12 mm)
The visible layer, and the last thing that keeps water out rather than the first.
Grout to the joint; 100% silicone at every change of plane
Joint width, typically 1.5 to 5 mm
Inside corners, the tile-to-pan joint and the tile-to-tub joint are silicone, never grout. Grout is rigid and will crack where two planes move against each other.
Subfloor deflection checked to L/360 for ceramic, L/720 for natural stone
Pre-slope formed at 1/4" per foot (2%) to the drain before any membrane
Bonded or clamped membrane, drain flange bedded and clamped with the weep holes clear
24 hour flood test to 1 inch over the flange, photographed at fill and at 24 hours
Uncoupling membrane or heat mat set into thinset over the tested assembly
Tile set, joints grouted, perimeter and drain joints sealed with silicone
Grout is between four and eight percent of a tiled surface and it decides how the whole thing reads. Six pairings we specify most, with the joint width, the grout chemistry, the sealer and the cleaner that goes with each.
Calcite marble, soft grey veining, Mohs 3
A joint lighter than the stone keeps the veining as the only pattern. Sanded grout scratches calcite, so unsanded or urethane at a tight joint.
Bright white field, warm gold veining, Mohs 3
Matching the grout to the warm vein rather than the white field stops the joints reading cold against the gold.
Warm cream, fossil flecks, Mohs 3 to 4
Limestone is porous and will pick up a dark joint at the edges, so the grout sits one shade under the stone rather than against it.
Dense volcanic stone, even charcoal, Mohs 6
A joint that disappears into the stone lets a dark floor read as one surface. Epoxy will not lighten as it cures.
Talc-rich, darkens with oil, Mohs 2 to 3
Soapstone darkens as it is oiled, so the joint is chosen against the oiled colour, not the dry slab in the showroom.
Through-body porcelain, water absorption under 0.5%
Porcelain does not etch or stain, so the pairing is purely visual. Where a client wants marble in a family bathroom, this is the honest answer.
No kitchens, no additions, no whole-home work. A narrower business than most remodelers run, which is exactly why we can quote a conversion to within a day or two.
Studs out, waterproofed, retiled and put back quiet.
Every project starts with a 1:20 setting-out drawing you approve before anything is ordered.
How we work
Double vanity, a real wet zone, and storage that swallows the clutter.
Curbless pans, linear drains and glass that clears the floor.
The tub nobody uses, turned into the shower everybody does.
Setting, setting out, heat mats and large format done properly.
Built to the millimetre of your wall, not bought to fit near it.
Zero threshold, blocked walls, a bench you would sit on anyway.
The smallest room in the house and the one guests remember.
Glass is cut to a tenth of an inch and tiled walls are never perfectly plumb, which is why every panel we fit is templated on the finished surface and arrives about a week later. These are the six configurations we specify, in plan.
Fixed panel plus a hinged door in one straight run along the tub or alcove face
The workhorse. Because there is no bottom track the floor tile runs under the glass uninterrupted, so the pattern is not broken at the threshold. We set a 3/16 inch gap under the door leaf for make-up air.
An L: one long fixed panel with a short return wing, no door at all
No door means no hinge to drip and nothing to swing into a small room. It also means the shower must be big enough that spray never reaches the gap: we size the wet zone at least 36 inches from the head to the opening.
Two fixed panels at 135 degrees with an angled door in the corner
The answer when a corner shower is the only way to fit a shower and a tub in the same room. The angled door needs clear floor in front of it, so check it against the vanity door swing before the layout is signed off.
Full-height panels to the ceiling with a hinged transom vent above the door
A steam room is a sealed box, which is why the transom exists: it is how you vent the room after a session without opening the door onto a cold bathroom. The ceiling is tiled and sloped so condensate runs to a wall rather than dripping on a head.
Two panels bypassing on a single header track over a tub or a wide alcove
For a tub alcove where a hinged door would swing into the vanity. Top-hung means no bottom track to clean, which is the single most common complaint we hear about older sliding doors.
A single wide leaf on offset pivots, no fixed panel
A pivot leaf can be wider than a hinged door because the weight is carried top and bottom rather than on the tiled wall. It suits a wet room where the opening is the whole face of the shower.
Plan, two elevations and a tile setting-out at 1:20 with every joint line on it. It tells you where the cut course lands, whether the joint above the vanity lines up with the joint beside the shower, and exactly how much tile to order. Clients tell us it is the most useful drawing of the whole project.
It is also why our waste factors are honest. A herringbone is fifteen percent and we say so on the quote rather than absorbing it and hoping.
The seven stages
Plan, two elevations and a tile setting-out drawing at 1:20, with every joint line shown. You approve it before we order a single box.
ANSI A118.10 liquid or sheet, banded at every corner and change of plane, with a wet-film reading logged as it goes on.
One inch of standing water over the drain flange for 24 hours, with a photograph at fill and at drain in your project file.
We calculate CFM by area and by fixture count, take the larger, then add for duct length and elbows.
Solid blocking rated to 250 lb behind the board at every likely bar position. Free now, a demolition later.
Mineral wool in the wall cavities and under the pan, and a fan chosen at 1.5 sones or below.
Denver housing stock is not one thing. A 1921 Denver Square, a 1988 split-level and a Cherry Creek condominium fail in completely different ways, and knowing which one you have before we survey saves a day.
Denver Squares and bungalows with original 1920s tile and undersized waste lines.
Larger ensuites, stone selections and glass specifications that need templating.
Victorians and narrow infill where the bathroom is often the tightest room in the plan.
Tudors and foursquares with generous rooms and original period tile worth matching.
1970s to 1990s builds with builder-grade fibreglass units ready to come out.
Foothill homes where water hardness and hillside plumbing both need allowing for.
Only bathrooms. No kitchens, no additions, no whole-home renovation. It is a narrower business than most remodelers run and it is deliberate: we see the same room, the same failure modes and the same materials every week, which is why we can quote a tub-to-shower conversion to within a day or two.
A tub-to-shower conversion is nine to thirteen working days. A full hall bathroom is twenty-two to thirty. A primary ensuite is thirty to forty-five. Those are days on site; the drawing and selection stages before that take another four to eight weeks, mostly waiting on material lead times.
Almost always, if there is a second bathroom. The room is contained at the door with a zippered barrier and the route in is protected. Water goes off for a few hours at rough-in and again at fixture fit, and we tell you which days those are at the start of the job.
Typically six to ten weeks for a start date, which usually lines up with the drawing and selection period anyway. Survey appointments are generally available within a week.
We plug the drain, fill the finished pan with an inch of water over the flange and leave it for twenty-four hours, photographing it at fill and at drain. If the waterproofing has a pinhole in it, this is when it shows, while the assembly is still open. It is the single cheapest insurance in the whole project and a surprising number of firms skip it.
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding we meet. Cement board is a stable substrate that does not fall apart when it gets wet, which is not the same thing. The waterproofing is a separate bonded membrane applied over it, to ANSI A118.10, with every corner and change of plane banded.
It depends on your joists. A level entry needs the pan recessed an inch and a half to two inches into the floor structure, which needs the joists to run the right way and be deep enough, usually with a sistered header. We answer this on the survey with the floor open where we can, never over the phone.
If yours is not here, the full list runs to eighteen questions grouped by subject, and the phone is answered by somebody who has been in a bathroom this week.
Almost everything that goes wrong in a bathroom went wrong before the tile was set. A membrane taken to the wrong thickness. A pan with no pre-slope. A niche sill laid flat. A fan ducted into a soffit. None of it is visible on the day the job is handed over, and all of it is visible four winters later when the ceiling below starts to mark.
So we build the parts nobody photographs as carefully as the parts everybody does. We flood test every shower for twenty-four hours before a single tile goes down, and we put the photographs in your file. We set out the tile on a drawing before we order it, so the cut course lands where you would have put it. And we only do bathrooms, which means we are not learning your room on your budget.
That is the whole position. If it sounds like the way you would want it done, we should talk.
or call (720) 555-0212, Mon to Thu 7:30 to 4:30
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