Tile & Stone
The custom porcelain shower a couple has been saving toward since they bought the 1992 split-level. The pinhole leak at the shower-pan-to-wall seam that has been bothering the second-floor ceiling below it for two winters. The kitchen backsplash that was put up over drywall with mastic in 1998 and has been chipping at the corners since the second remodel. The hallway-bathroom floor where the original installer skipped the uncoupling layer and a tile cracks every Pacific Northwest seasonal change. Tile and stone is the trade for everything that gets set in thinset and grouted into place in a residential home — five service families, each with its own scope, price floor, and substrate prep, all of them self-performed by Handis from substrate inspection through final sealer. We install Schluter KERDI, Wedi, and equivalent sheet-membrane waterproofing on every shower and wet-zone install — cement board is not waterproofing and we will not treat it as one. The regulated work that touches a tile project — a new in-wall plumbing valve, a new electrical circuit for a heated mat, the generator on a steam shower — subs to a licensed Washington L&I plumber or electrician with the line item named on every quote. From $350 for a small grout-repair visit to $18,000 for a custom natural-stone walk-in shower with a curbless pan, full Schluter waterproofing, and a frameless glass enclosure.
Services
What Tile & Stone Covers
Tile and stone is the residential trade for every surface that gets set in thinset and grouted into place — five service families that cover the work between a small grout repair and a custom natural-stone walk-in shower. Handis self-performs every tile-trade step on every project: substrate inspection and tap-test for hollows, deflection check on the joist span for floors, full Schluter KERDI or Wedi sheet-membrane waterproofing on every shower and wet zone, uncoupling membrane on every wood-subfloor tile floor, thinset matched to the tile format, grout matched to the joint width, and a penetrating sealer at the end. The few regulated handoffs (a new in-wall valve, a new heated-mat circuit, a steam-shower generator) sub to a licensed Washington L&I plumber or electrician with the line item named on every quote. We are honest on the booking call about what finishes in a Handis-only visit and what needs a licensed trade in the loop.
Showers & Wet Areas
Custom tile showers in porcelain, large-format, natural stone, subway, and mosaic. Curbless walk-in showers. Schluter KERDI, Wedi, and equivalent sheet-membrane pan and waterproofing assemblies. Tile niches and benches. Tub-surround tile. Steam-shower-ready tile work (the steam generator subs to a licensed sub when present). Shower leak diagnosis and repair. The entire shower envelope, self-performed end to end — substrate prep, mortar or prefabricated pan, full waterproofing, every tile, every seam, every grout joint. From $500 for a small wet-zone repair to $18,000 for a custom natural-stone walk-in with a curbless pan.
Showers & Wet Areas — custom showers, curbless walk-ins, pans, niches, leak repair
Regrout, Repair & Restoration
Failed grout (eroded corners, blown-out joints, color drift after a decade), cracked or hollow tile in an otherwise intact field, broken bullnose at tub aprons and shower curbs, color-sealing on grout that cannot be cleaned back to uniform, and full single-room re-tile on installs that have aged past spot repair. Grout-saw the failed joints, remove the failed tile without breaking the neighbors, replace with matched material from owner attic stock or current-production supply, regrout, seal. From $350 for a small grout-only visit to $12,000 for a whole-shower regrout with multi-tile replacement on a 1990s install.
Regrout, Repair & Restoration — grout, cracked tile, bullnose, color-seal, re-tile
Backsplashes & Walls
Kitchen backsplashes (subway, herringbone, picket, mosaic, large-format slab), fireplace surrounds, accent walls, wainscot, mud-room walls, and full wet-wall tile in showers and tub alcoves. Set on cement-board over studs in wet locations and on properly prepped drywall in dry locations, with the right thinset for the tile format and the right grout for the joint width. From $1,200 for a small powder-room accent up to $6,500 for a large kitchen backsplash with a custom-cut pattern around outlets and under-cabinet lighting.
Backsplashes & Walls — kitchen backsplash, fireplace surround, accent walls, wainscot
Tile Floors (By Room)
Tile floor installation organized by the room the work goes in — kitchens, bathrooms, entries, mudrooms, laundries, and basements — because each room has its own substrate prep (deflection check on suspended joist spans, crack-isolation on slab, waterproof membrane on a basement slab over a sub-grade vapor barrier), its own format choice (12x12 porcelain in a powder room, 24x48 large-format in an open-concept kitchen, slip-resistant porcelain on a mudroom floor), and its own price floor. Schluter DITRA or DITRA-XL on every wood-subfloor install. From $2,500 for a small bathroom or entry up to $9,000 for a large-format master bath plus adjacent hallway.
Tile Floors (By Room) — kitchen, bathroom, entry, mudroom, laundry, basement
Outdoor & Specialty
Outdoor and specialty stone and tile — patio pavers, pool decking, exterior stone veneer on chimneys and entry columns, fireplace facing in slate and travertine, hearth re-builds, and the small specialty scopes that do not fit the other four families (a single decorative inset, a stair-tread tile run, a window-sill stone cap). Freeze-thaw rated materials for every outdoor install in the Pacific Northwest, mortar matched to the application, and sealing for the local rainfall pattern. From $1,500 for a small specialty inset up to $11,000 for a large outdoor patio in tumbled travertine.
Outdoor & Specialty — pavers, pool decking, stone veneer, fireplace facing
Tile & Stone Pricing
Final pricing depends on the family selected, the scope size, the tile or stone material, the substrate condition, and whether the project includes a regulated handoff (in-wall plumbing valve, heated-mat circuit, steam-shower generator). Each sub-hub page lists detailed pricing for that family. Licensed-sub fees pass through transparently with the line item named on every quote. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us the room, the scope, and the tile or stone material — we will quote the project with any licensed-sub portion named line by line.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Tile & Stone
Most of the failed tile work we are asked to fix started as a single-trade install where the tile setter saw only the surface in front of him — the shower with cement board treated as waterproofing, the kitchen backsplash set in mastic over un-prepped drywall, the bathroom floor that skipped the deflection check on a 14-foot joist span. Tile is the trade where the substrate decides the life of the install and the membrane decides whether the water stays where the tile is. Handis does the substrate work on every project, installs a real sheet membrane (Schluter KERDI, Wedi, or equivalent) on every shower and wet zone, sets the tile with the right thinset for the format, and grouts and seals with material matched to the joint width. The 30-year tile installs in Pacific Northwest homes are not the ones with the best-looking tile — they are the ones that got the substrate and the membrane right on the first install.
Schluter KERDI or Wedi sheet-membrane waterproofing on every shower
Every Handis shower and wet-zone install gets a real sheet-membrane waterproofing system behind the tile — Schluter KERDI bonded with unmodified thinset, Wedi panels seam-sealed with Wedi 320 sealant, or an equivalent. Membrane ties into the curb, the pan, the niche, the bench, and every penetration. Cement board is not waterproofing and we will not treat it as one — that is the single root cause of most fifteen-year shower failures we are called to repair.
Substrate inspection before any tile is ordered
Floors get a deflection check on the joist span (TCNA L/360 for porcelain and ceramic, L/720 for natural stone) and a flatness check with a 10-foot straightedge. Walls get a tap-test for hollow drywall and a plumb-and-square check before any layout chalk goes up. Showers get a pan slope verification (1/4 inch per foot to the drain, no exceptions). Issues get surfaced on the quote before the tile order goes in. The honest call now saves the repeat repair later.
Thinset and trowel matched to the tile format
Standard-format tile on a 1/4-inch by 1/4-inch notched trowel with Mapei Ultraflex 2 or Custom Versabond. Large-format (12x24 and up) on a 1/2-inch by 1/2-inch notched trowel with medium-bed LFT thinset (Mapei Ultraflex LFT, Ardex X77, Custom Versabond LFT) and back-buttering on every tile to hit the TCNA 95 percent coverage standard. Natural stone on Mapei Granirapid or Ardex X4 with the right white thinset to keep dark mineral lines from bleeding through translucent marble. The wrong thinset under a large-format tile is the most common reason an otherwise clean install develops hollow spots inside the first year.
Grout matched to joint width, sealed once cured
Sanded grout (Mapei Keracolor S, Custom Polyblend Sanded, Laticrete Permacolor Select) for joints 1/8 inch and wider. Unsanded grout for joints under 1/8 inch and for natural stone where the sand grains would scratch a polished or honed surface. Color-matched to the design. Two coats of a penetrating sealer (TileLab SurfaceGard, Aqua Mix Sealer's Choice Gold, or Miracle 511 Impregnator on natural stone) after the grout cures 24 to 72 hours. On heavy-use floors (entry, mudroom) and wet-zone walls we recommend a re-seal every two to three years.
Honest licensed-trade handoff, named on the quote
The few regulated parts of a tile project — a new in-wall plumbing valve or shower mixer on a custom shower build, a new 20-amp dedicated circuit on a heated tile floor, the generator and 240-volt circuit on a steam-shower-ready install — sub to a licensed Washington L&I plumber or electrician. Their line item appears on the quote with the trade named. Permits are pulled by the appropriate licensed party. Handis runs the project and self-performs every tile-trade step.
Estimate
Tell us the room (custom shower, bathroom floor, kitchen backsplash, fireplace surround, outdoor patio), the rough dimensions, the tile or stone spec if you have one (porcelain, large-format, natural stone, mosaic), the substrate (plywood, slab, cement board over studs), and any known issues (existing leak, cracked tile, soft spot, out-of-flat floor). We send a clear estimate with any licensed-trade portion named line by line.
What Our Customers Say
Recent tile and stone reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
Custom porcelain walk-in shower in our 1980s rambler. Handis demoed the old fiberglass insert, framed the new opening, set a Schluter KERDI sheet membrane on the floor and the walls (showed us the membrane assembly before they tiled), set 12x24 porcelain on the walls with brushed-nickel niche trim, and put a frameless glass enclosure on the front. Two years later, dead-tight grout, no leaks, looks the same as the day they finished.
Whole-shower regrout on a 1995 install where the corner grout had blown out and three tiles had gone hollow on the back wall. Handis tap-tested the whole wall first, found the hollows, grout-sawed every joint, replaced the three failed tiles with matched stock, regrouted everything in a custom-mixed color match, and sealed. The shower reads like a new install.
Kitchen backsplash in our Bellevue remodel. Subway tile in a stacked pattern, brass schluter edge profile at the open ends, mitered outside corners around the outlets. Handis cut every outlet box opening clean — no chipped edges, no oversized cuts. The pattern lines up across the cooktop wall in a single visual run. Best backsplash install we have ever seen.
Curbless walk-in shower in our master remodel. Curbless mortar pan with a linear drain, full Schluter waterproofing tied into the bathroom floor, large-format porcelain on the walls, frameless glass at the entry. The aging-in-place wheelchair-rollover access we wanted is in there too. Handis sequenced their work around the licensed plumber for the valve change cleanly. The whole project finished on the calendar they gave us.
Outdoor patio in tumbled travertine on our back deck. Freeze-thaw rated stone, polymeric sand in the joints, sealed for the Seattle rainfall. Handis explained on the booking call why the right stone matters for the freeze-thaw cycles here, and they sourced something we would not have found ourselves. Three winters in, no cracking, no joint failures. The patio holds up better than the deck around it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis tile and stone work — scope, waterproofing, substrate prep, licensed-trade handoff, scheduling, and pricing.