Waterproofed first. Tiled second.

Once tile stock, setting materials, substrate prep and crew time are all totted up, Monroe installs land from $14 up to $26 for each finished square foot — the labor share by itself opens at $11 a square foot. A typical tub-shower surround bills between $3,200 and $6,800; carry the whole bathroom — floor, shower and niche — and the ticket wraps up somewhere from $6,500 to $14,000. Shape beats sticker price here: a mosaic sheet or an oversized plank both soak up far more setting hours than plain 12×12 field tile.

For a standard alcove shower around Monroe, the working figure bills between $3,200 and $6,800 — demo, bonded waterproofing, a pre-sloped pan or base, the tile work, a niche and the grout all live inside it. Add a bench, a curbless threshold, steam or floor-to-ceiling stone and the figure climbs. The waterproofing piece is near one-tenth of the whole, and it's what heads off the failure that reads in five figures.

Every time. Behind our tile lives a bonded waterproofing build — not cement board wearing a coat of thinset. The base gets its pre-slope, a membrane rated to ANSI A118.10 — sheet or liquid — climbs the walls, each seam, corner and pipe penetration gets sealed, and the finished assembly holds water for a photographed 24-hour flood test before tile day. Grout only sheds water — the membrane is the one layer actually defending your framing.

A typical Monroe bathroom wants four to six working days. Day one is demolition behind dust protection; substrate work and membrane come next, the flood test standing its 24 hours; setting fills a day or two more; grout, silicone and trim close it out. First shower comes 24 hours after grouting, once the cure is done. A standalone floor is usually a one- or two-day affair.

Anywhere water lands or boots tread, porcelain is the pick — denser stuff, under 0.5% absorption, hard to chip. Ceramic stays a fair pick for the wall and the backsplash, at a smaller price. On a Monroe job the mudroom, entry and shower floor always get porcelain underfoot, with ceramic or glass handling the decorative duty up high.

Yes — come a Sky Valley winter morning, it's the upgrade clients call to thank us for. Under the tile goes an electric radiant mat that adds $11–$16 per square foot once installed, with the thermostat in the price. It rides on uncoupling membrane, its resistance logged before setting and once more after, and draws off its own dedicated circuit. One catch — the sums only add up while the floor sits torn open.

In nine cases out of ten the old tile comes out. Tear-out with disposal starts around $3.50 for each square foot, and it buys the one honest look at what your subfloor has been hiding — rot, movement, door-height trouble. Laying new tile across the old can hold up when the floor is flat, solid and well bonded, but the finished height creeps up and the problems stay buried until they cost real money. Demo finds them cheap; grout finds them late.

A kitchen backsplash of the usual 30 square feet runs $1,100 up to $2,200 installed around Monroe — outlet cuts, trimmed edges and counter-matched grout included in that. Herringbone work, mosaic sheeting, a framed panel above the range or slab-look porcelain climbing to the ceiling all pull toward the high end, because layout and cutting are where the hours hide.

Often enough, yes. Repair-and-regrout pricing opens at $8 for the square foot, and it's the right call where grout has stained or gone crumbly, where a knock split one tile or two, or where shower corners want their grout dug out in favor of silicone. Hollow-sounding tile, though, or tiles letting go across a spreading area, or a wall that moves under your palm — that's a substrate already gone, and a patch just rents you a season. You hear which one you've got before any number gets written.

All of Monroe and the surrounding valley — Downtown Monroe, the Fryelands, Lake Tye, Woods Creek, Chain Lake, Florence Acres, the Tualco Valley, High Rock, Three Lakes, Lord Hill and Echo Lake — along with Maltby, Sultan, Startup, Snohomish, Duvall and the rest of the Sky Valley and Snohomish County.

OC Flooring backs tile installation with a 2-year workmanship warranty — carpet gets less, because a botched tile job shows itself in year two, not week two. Where the shower uses a manufacturer's bonded waterproofing assembly end to end, that maker's coverage rides along with ours. Your file also keeps the membrane and flood-test photos, so proof of what's behind the wall exists whenever the house trades hands.