Wall & floor tiling
Tiler in Norwich and mid Norfolk
Bathrooms, en suites, cloakrooms, kitchen splashbacks and floors. Tiling walls and floors inside the house — not roofs.
Tiling is unforgiving: a wall that is out by a few millimetres shows up in every grout line across the room. Most of the work happens before the first tile goes on.
Rooms
Where the tiles usually go
Bathrooms & en suites
Full height or half height, showers and wet areas tanked before tiling, floors laid to fall where they need to. Silicone finished neatly where tile meets bath.
Kitchens
Splashbacks behind hobs and sinks, metro and brick bond patterns, cut neatly around sockets and switches so the plate covers the cut.
Cloakrooms & utility
Small rooms, where big format tiles and a sensible layout make the space feel twice the size. Hallway and porch floors too.
Materials
Whatever you have chosen
- Ceramic — metro, square edge, patterned
- Porcelain — including large format and marble effect
- Mosaic — sheets, borders and shower recesses
- Natural stone — sealed before and after grouting
- Vinyl and LVT tile floors
Tiles can be supplied or you can buy your own. Either way, order about ten per cent over for cuts and breakages — Matt will tell you the exact number when he measures up.
The bit nobody sees
What goes on behind the tile
This is where a tiling job is won or lost, and it is the part that is invisible the moment the last tile goes on.
Back to board
Old tiles off, backer board up, every joint and screw head sealed.
Underfloor heating
Laid out and tested before a single tile goes down on top of it.
Set out to a laser
Levelling clips hold big tiles flush while the adhesive goes off.
01
Strip and check
Old tiles and adhesive off, then the wall gets a straight edge held against it. Anything soft, damp or blown comes out now rather than later.
02
Board and tank
Backer board where it is needed, floors levelled, and showers and wet areas tanked so water has nowhere to get to.
03
Set out
The layout is planned so cuts land where they are least seen and full tiles land where the eye goes first. Ten minutes here saves a room that looks wrong for twenty years.
04
Grout and seal
Grouted in a colour you have chosen, polished off, and silicone run into the internal corners and along the bath. Then the room gets cleaned before Matt leaves.
Afterwards
Grout, silicone and looking after it
Grout colour changes a room more than people expect. The same white tile reads crisp against grey grout and soft against white, and it is worth settling with the tiles in front of you rather than off a chart.
Where a wall meets a bath, a shower tray or a worktop the joint moves, so it gets silicone rather than grout — grout in a moving joint cracks inside a year and then lets water in behind it.
Natural stone is sealed before grouting so the grout cannot stain the face of it, and sealed again once the grout is off. Porcelain and ceramic need none of that, which is worth knowing before you choose.
After that it largely looks after itself. Keep bleach off the silicone, give a stone floor a reseal every couple of years, and leave a freshly grouted shower a day before anybody uses it.
Where Matt works
Tiler in Norwich, Dereham, Reepham and the villages between
Most people ringing round for a tiler in Norwich want somebody near enough to come back if anything wants attention. Matt works out of Lenwade, which puts Norwich, Taverham, Drayton, Costessey, Reepham, Dereham and most of mid Norfolk inside a short drive, and close enough that a room can be looked at properly before it is priced.
Got the tiles already?
Plenty of people buy the tiles first and then go looking for a tiler in Norwich to fit them. Send a photo of the room and a note of what you have bought, and Matt will come and measure up. Quotes are free.