We are having our master remodeled. Contractor's tile guy came out to look at it a few weeks ago. Cost came back to contractor DOUBLE what he thought it would be. Our contractor is in the kitchen and bath business, not new to this at all - but these are crazy times. If you can find a skilled tile guy at all, you might be stuck paying whatever they charge, or wait until this is over and people go back to work and travel and everything else they spent their money on before they were stuck at home for months thinking about how awful their bathrooms look.

Get several quotes and read reviews. Tile pricing (and quality!) is all over the place.

What does that include? Building and waterproofing the walls? The pan?

A backsplash is a backsplash - but you need to know what you're getting with those showers.

"Master shower (standup, 4' square x 6' high, 2 1/2 walls to be tiled = 60 sq ft): $5185

Guest bath tub/shower wall tile (30"x62" tub, 5 feet high = 52 sq ft): $2265"

Way to cheap. What is he doing for waterproofing? If he is not doing waterproofing then he is not the guy for you. You want ONE GUY, from the studs out (substrate waterproofing and tile), this way if there is an issue it is on him. Most pros will not even entertain the work if they are not sourcing and providing the materials as well.

"includes cost of tile (we haven't chosen the tile yet):"

How could he give you prices that *includes* the tile if you haven't picked out tile yet? Tile prices vary enormously, from a few dollars a square foot to.... many, many times that.

""includes cost of tile (we haven't chosen the tile yet):""

Missed that and another reason to absolutely walk away.

Thank you for the comments.

My understanding is that the tiling quote is separate from the other shower work which is being done by the contractor himself (building the wall, waterproofing, backer board, pan, etc).

Then again, it can be hard for me as a consumer to separate out what costs are what.

Do the backsplashes and choose $200/ft² tile. Then that part's a deal.

The showers, no. You want the same person to tile that also does the waterproofing, puts in the pan, prepares the walls, etc.

The scope of work for the whole project should be reflected in the written proposal and then the contract. You shouldn't have to guess and parse it out yourself to figure out what he is proposing to do and for what price. My contract had lines and the charges listed out such as: demo/disposal, framing, waterproofing (and the materials that the tile pro was going to use were specifically listed), tiling, grouting, installing fixtures, wall prep and painting, etc, etc, etc. Then the total charge is shown on the bottom line. It should be clear if he will just list things out like that in the proposal, and ultimately in the contract. Also the contract should say that a flood test will be done and that all work will comply with local codes, industry standards, etc. I'm sure I'm not using the exact right language, but you get the idea.

It was my understanding that the tile professional takes responsibility for everything from the studs out, to include waterproofing, but maybe that's different in your area.

I recently finished a remodel which included master and guest bath with lots of tile work.

In my experience, the person who actually installed the tiles did NOT frame the shower or do the waterproofing. That part was done by a other tradespeople who were hired by the GC and he was responsible for the quality of all of the work. Since GC worked with the same people for numerous jobs they were all familiar with each other so the person who actually installed the tile would be comfortable with whatever prep work was done for him. I imagine this is how good GC's operate with their trusted skilled tradespeople. As others have posted, skilled tile workers are in huge demand and so some of the finish work had to be fit in with other jobs the tile worker was doing - e.g. my hood in the kitchen was delayed and so the backsplash behind the cooktop and hood couldn't be done with the rest of the tile work as had been originally scheduled.

The line items on my agreement with the GC included everything EXCEPT the actual tiles. Those were supplied and paid for by me - but I selected and ordered them through my designer so there weren't going to be issues regarding the quality of the tiles. Also, beyond the actual price of the tiles, the size and style of what you select is going to impact the actual price of the installation as some styles require more skill and labor costs will be higher. And as others have written, tile prices range in price from inexpensive to the stratosphere. Mine were $45 per square foot for 3" x 6" subway tiles and I had accent marble mosaic which was $145 per square foot :-). When my job was sent out to be bid, it included plans and diagrams for everything including the design plan and specifications for all the tile work so that would have been used by GC (in consultation) with his skilled people to determine what the bid was.

A tiled shower is probably one of the aspects of home remodeling which gets screwed up the most which is why you are getting a lot of warnings from people. You should definitely get recommendations regarding your GC. I visited two places he was working on to get a sense of the quality of his work. And my contract included provisions that theoretically protected me as much as possible - and when I say theoretically, it's because any homeowner is screwed if it comes down to suing on a contract because the job has gone that bad.

In terms of shower building, I am FAR from an expert but I spent some time and got excellent advice from people on this forum regarding waterproofing showers and so I was able to ask fairly intelligent questions. I also took pictures of the shower being built at various stages. And luckily I live in a place that has very serious inspectors and so the shower was inspected three times - including the 24 hour flood test so I was reasonably certain that between relying on the quality of the GC and his trusted workers and the inspectors, I had a first class shower.