Tile Installation in Port Orchard, WA:
Showers, Tub Surrounds and Backsplashes
What Our Customers Say
★★★★★
"Great people. Great work. Reasonably priced and timely. We had them do a bathroom tile project and a house siding and wall water damage repair project and they did great on both of them. We'll definitely go back to them for future projects."
DnL_Blacksmith, Google Review
★★★★★
"Working with Straight Up Remodeling was a great experience. They did a beautiful job in a timely manner and were very communicative. We would definitely work with them again!"
Cynthia Griffey, Google Review
We live in a wet climate. That matters more than people think.
Bathrooms here run humid for months at a stretch. A lot of the housing stock around Port Orchard and Bremerton went up decades ago, when bath fans were small or skipped entirely. Add a long shower on a January morning and the moisture has nowhere to go.
Ever wonder why the grout in a five-year-old shower looks worse than the tile above it?
Grout is porous. It holds water, then it holds whatever is in the water. Our groundwater runs hard in parts of the county, so mineral scale builds on top of the staining.
None of that is the real problem though. The real problem is the pan and the wall behind the tile. Older showers were often built over a thin plastic liner and a mortar bed, with drywall or green board on the walls. Green board is water resistant. It is not waterproof. Once water finds a seam, it wicks into the framing and sits there.
We open a lot of these up. The tile comes off in sheets, and the studs underneath are dark and soft.
How We Build a Tile Shower
Here is the order we work in, and why each step matters.
We assess the space first. That means measuring, checking the framing for rot, and looking at your ventilation. If the fan is undersized we say so. Tiling over a moisture problem just hides it for a few years.
We frame and prep.
Walls get made flat and plumb. This sounds boring. It is the difference between grout lines that run straight and grout lines that wander, and you will notice the wandering ones every single day.
We waterproof.
This is the step worth paying for. We build the shower to hold water on its own, before a single tile goes up, using a bonded membrane system over the walls and a properly sloped pan. If you filled it like a bathtub, it would hold.
We set the tile.
Full mortar coverage on the back of every piece, especially on the floor and the curb. Hollow spots crack later.
We grout and seal.
Then we walk it with you.
We clean up daily.
We put down plastic sheeting and run HEPA filtration so you can stay in the house while we work. Most people do.
Tub Surrounds: Tile or Onyx?
We install both, so we have no reason to push one over the other. But we do have an opinion.
If you want the look of tile, and you are willing to keep grout clean, tile is the better looking option. Nothing else quite matches it.
If you are remodeling a bathroom you want to stop thinking about, we would point you at Onyx. It goes in as large solid panels with almost no seams and no grout lines to scrub. For a busy family bathroom, or for a homeowner planning to age in place, that is usually the smarter call. We are factory trained to install it.
The honest version: grout is a maintenance commitment. Some people enjoy the look enough to accept it. Others get tired of it in year three. We would rather ask you that question before we order material than after.
A backsplash is the cheapest square footage in a kitchen remodel, and it does the most visual work.
It is also the job we get called to redo most often, usually after someone attempted it over a weekend. The common mistakes are predictable. Starting from the wrong reference line, so the tile runs out of level by the time it reaches the window. Cutting outlet openings too wide. Running the tile to the underside of the upper cabinets and leaving an ugly gap where the counter meets the wall.
We lay out the whole run before we set anything. If a cut is going to land badly, we shift the layout so the cuts land somewhere you will not look.
If you are updating the counters at the same time, do the counters first. We can handle both, and our
countertop installation and replacement work runs on the same schedule as the tile.
Tile Floors Are a Different Job
Worth being clear about this. This page is about wet areas: showers, surrounds and splashes.
Tile flooring across a kitchen, entry or living space is its own thing, with different prep, different underlayment and different movement joints. We do that work too, and it is covered on our
flooring contractor in Port Orchard page along with
hardwood floor installation.
What Drives the Cost
We give free, no-obligation estimates with the costs laid out up front, so the numbers below are about what moves them, not a price list.
- Tile size and material. Large format porcelain sets faster than small mosaic. A mosaic shower floor is more labor, always.
- Layout. Straight stack is quickest. Herringbone, chevron and anything on a 45 adds cutting time and waste.
- Niches, benches and curbs.
Each one is a waterproofing detail, and details are where the hours go.
- What we find on demo. Rot in the framing has to be fixed. We would rather tell you that on day two than tile over it.
- Ventilation work. If the fan needs upsizing or re-ducting, that gets added.
We can supply everything, or set tile you sourced yourself. Some people find a tile they love on a trip and bring it home. That is fine with us. And we can connect you with trusted local lenders who offer financing options.
A tile shower is not a one-day job, and anyone who tells you it is has not accounted for cure times.
Demo and prep usually run a couple of days. Waterproofing needs to cure before tile goes on. Setting takes a few days depending on the pattern. Then the mortar cures again before grout, and the grout cures before sealing. That sequencing is fixed by the materials, not by our schedule.
Most full kitchen or bathroom remodels here run two to five weeks, and a tile shower sits inside that window. We give you a schedule with milestones before we start, and we tell you which days we will be in the house.
So what happens when someone rushes those cure times?
The grout cracks along the corners within a season, usually right where the wall meets the pan. We have been called in to fix that more than once, and the fix is never just regrouting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you tile over my existing shower tile?
No. We will not do it, and here is the honest reason why: you cannot inspect waterproofing you have buried, and you cannot repair framing you never looked at. Tiling over old tile also pushes the wall out past the pan and the trim, which creates a new set of problems at every edge. It buys a few years. Then it costs you the wall.
Do I need to move out during a bathroom remodel?
Almost never. We seal the work area with plastic sheeting, run HEPA filters and clean up at the end of each day. If it is your only bathroom we will talk through the sequencing with you first.
How do I keep grout from turning dark?
Seal it, ventilate the room, and run the fan for twenty minutes after a shower rather than shutting it off at the door. If you are done thinking about grout entirely, ask us about Onyx.
Do you work outside Port Orchard?
Yes. We are based in Port Orchard and regularly work in Bremerton, Silverdale, Gig Harbor, Poulsbo, Belfair and across Kitsap and Mason County. Our home remodeling near Bremerton page covers that side of the water.
Is your work guaranteed?
Yes. We stand behind our craftsmanship and we back it with a satisfaction guarantee. We are also a local, family-owned and operated, locally owned company, which means the person who quotes your job is the person you will see on it.
Ready to Start?
Send us photos of the space, or have us out to measure. Either way the estimate is free and the price we give you is the price.
