We're losing craftsmanship in a 'Market for Lemons' and a prescription for change.

I have no problem connecting with an informed homeowner. None.

One of the first things I want to know is, “Have you researched my company?”

I ask this because when a homeowner is in the market for remodeling, especially tile remodeling, job number one is to get INFORMED about what you want, what you’re buying and who you’re working with.

In economic terms I’m wanting to reduce ‘information asymmetry.”

Information asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. I strive to level the playing field on this website so that everyone is on the same page.

If you call our company and we are just a number in your pocket, we may not be able to connect. If you want us to do work and you don’t care about HOW your project is built, it will be hard for you to see value in our product.

We have so much success with the folks WE DO work with. Everything goes swimmingly, love all around.

I’ve thought for years about why it’s so difficult to sell a quality product and service in this market.

But finally, I have (A PART) of an explanation, which I’m going to elaborate on today.

The quality of tile work and a craftsman’s ability to make a living has suffered.

For ever one tiler getting into the business, five are leaving.

A term originated by Nobel prize winning economist George Akerlof , “The market for Lemons” describes the source of our adversity very well.

The “market for lemons” according to Wikipedia:

“Examines how the quality of goods traded in a market can degrade in the presence of information asymmetry between buyers and sellers, leaving only "lemons" behind. In American slang, a lemon is a car that is found to be defective only after it has been bought.

 Low prices drive away sellers of high-quality goods, leaving only lemons behind.”

Click here to read Akerlof’s paper.

This paper was written in the 1970’s and the used car market has improved and some solutions have been devised, but it still rings true in many ways in relation to tile installation or residential home remodeling, generally.

When you buy a used car ultimately you have no idea what is going on under the hood. A car can look great, but it could be a ticking time bomb. Used car dealers go through all sorts of contortions to build confidence in their buyers, that they’re buying a reliable car. A buyer is ultimately unable to tell which car is quality and which one is not.

Tile installation is the same way.

When you’re buying a shower, you have no idea what is going on under the tile. Tile may look great, but how your shower or bathroom was put together is the most important part and frankly, most homeowners have no idea about the inner workings of their bathroom remodel.

Unfortunately, used cars and tile work have received awful reputations for quality because of this information asymmetry.

Buyers simply don’t know what they’re buying.

They can’t tell the difference between a lemon and a peach.

This leads to prices getting driven down. Everyone assumes they’re buying lemons. Lemons become the norm.

I often look at tile work that people are perfectly happy with, and I think of all the improvements we could make to it. “Why didn’t they do this like this…Oh, that’s not right….” But because of an over all degradation of the trade, consumers don’t know the difference between great tile work and average.

So, what happens to the guys like us, that are selling ‘peaches’? Guys that over build things and build with quality and precision??

1. We get driven out of the business because we can’t make a living at it.

2. The quality guys adjust how they do things and build things lower quality in order to meet the market’s price point.

Gresham’s law describes tile very well. “The bad drives out the good.” The ‘race to the bottom’ makes it impossible for craftsmen to prosper.

Some say the solution to this problem is government intervention. More laws. The insurance business is an example where the information asymmetry goes in the buyer’s direction. Insurance companies don’t know what is going on with people; their health, their lifestyle, etc. So, there are laws to account for the buyers’ dishonesty.

Electricians and plumbers are licensed, that helps them regulate their market. They are required to have up to date training, but it’s not a magic bullet. This will never happen in tile.

My solution is an informed consumer.

The consumer needs to demand they be able to ‘look under the hood.’

When you’re buying tile ask to see the CARFAX.

The internet is solving the information asymmetry.

A good tile re modeler is going to have content online for people to verify what they’re getting. My website, my blog, has three years of documentation to verify that we are indeed, selling peaches. Credentials and reviews also help push the point home.

My problem is how do you make people curious? How do you convince people that all tile work is not the same? How can I convince people to pay more to get something that will last?

I recommend that folks spend a lot of time online before they buy a bathroom. Your number one tool during a bathroom remodel is your computer and an internet connection.

In tile, like in the used car business, there are ‘peaches’ and there are ‘lemons’.

Find the company that is selling peaches.

Those peaches will be priced much higher than the lemons. The only way you’ll know that you’re getting a peach is by depending on the construction companies’ content marketing and reputation.

Builders have an incredible incentive to cheapen their products and incredible amounts of opportunity to reduce quality by cutting corners in areas that you don’t see.

Just like the CARFAX report has revolutionized used cars, content marketing is revolutionizing remodeling.

Using the internet to find and vet contractors has A LONG way to go, though.

In my time speaking with 100’s of prospects, I find that around 10% will say they “researched” before they called. That number needs to be higher!

Jason thinks if people continue to get ripped off, things will change. I’m a bit more pessimistic on the subject after years of making content, but I suppose every person that decides to use us based on this concept is a person that will remember that this way worked and possibly do it AGAIN or tell a FRIEND!

Hopefully it will proliferate!🤞

Hey all! This is some big brained stuff for me so if anyone makes it this far down, tell me if this all makes sense in the comments! Am I off the mark? Do I not understand “market for lemons” TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

Thanks, BEN

Get connected with the winning team.

Kennesaw, GA bathroom remodel: A stunning difference.

I open this post bathroom remodel blog post from our latest project in Kennesaw, GA with a comment on how neat it is to look over my blog. What other company can show you their last 3 years of work in this fashion? Allow me to answer that for you, not many!

Karthik and Lindsey received our number from their neighbor Bob, for whom we did a lot of tile work. Bob told them “They’re not cheap but they do a really nice job!” That’s a great description of us! Like I always say, it’s not what you pay, it’s what you get!

They had a pretty clear vision of what they wanted and we just went ahead and put it together for them. We employed our fool proof system for success and they received a show stopper!

What a great example of what makes us different. It’s a conscientiousness while we work. We’ve been there and done that! How many guys have I seen dive into this tear out carelessly with a sawzall. Can you imagine if you hire a guy like that and they hit these pipes buried in the wall? Not us. We plan for the worst and have the foresight to prevent you from having a major head ache during your bathroom remodel.

Even your garage floor gets protected while we’re working. “It’s just a garage.” Yes, that is true…But it’s not OURS so it gets treated with the level of respect that you pay winners to have. That’s my new thing, we’re winners. I look around at the men out there. We are winners. You want to hire winners.

Funny story, while packing this shower pan, the dry pack we were using to form it started hardening in ten minutes rather than the traditional eight hours! What a nightmare. Jason was about half way done with the pan when it started hardening, so we just took it all out and started again the next day. This had a compounding effect on our schedule. We lost about two days because of this, all told. We still finished on time but with a reminder of why we love foam pans! This situation is an illustration of Jason’s perfectionist nature. When you look at your bill and see it’s a little more than the next, realize it’s because things like this that are out of our control happen quite regularly. It seems to be more and more prevalent in the tile business because just like everything else…the materials we use are getting cheaper and cheaper; worse and worse quality…We roll with the punches and keep moving forward with perfection in mind.

I like to mention the innumerable ugly drains I see in pictures amongst my peers. Schluter has the sharpest drains and I’m doubtful people really notice until they go to a friends house and see the hideous ones that unscrupulous installers put in!

We’re water proofing on the OUTSIDE of the shower too!

Full coverage under large format tile is so important. It’s more than just plopping tile done and saying, “good enough.” It takes a flat substrate, it takes putting your back into it, and it takes loving care…A professionals touch. We proudly take photos of our full coverage as verification for you after the job is done. I’m still waiting to see that from our competition.

The supplier didn’t have small format tile for the shower floor available. We do small tile (at or under 4”) on the shower floor to improve footing. Jason went ahead and cut 20 square feet, and sanded all the edges. This stuff is actually better quality than anything you could buy at a tile store, but I suppose I have an attachment to these….because we MADE IT. That’s MADE IN THE USA for ya! Quite literally.

You think we’ll trust unknown granite installers to install our hard surface curbs and counter tops? I think not! They are famous for putting these things down with silicone and our question to them is what happens when water gets in between the layers? How are these supported without full thin set coverage? I’ll tell you what they say because I’ve asked them…”It doesn’t matter the glass is on top of there.” That mindset is why we don’t let granite people around our showers. They have no concept of how one is supposed to operate and the importance of using proper installation techniques. We don’t even try to tell them how to “feel”. We do us and keep them as far away from your house as possible. We live by the saying, “If you want it done right, do it yourself”.

I wanted to mention that I don’t necessarily hold anything against granite guys. They are expected to do a certain number of installs a day. So, not much time can be put into yours. You’re always better off having the tile guy handle your hard surface installs. He’s there and he cares and he probably doesn’t have 5 other stops to make that day.

Systems, yes, the implementation of systems is how we have success. One step at a time. Finish this step before you move on to the next. Each step takes as long as it takes.

This is a water proof shower. The most important part of any shower build. We talk a lot about water proofing and if you’re having tile work done this should be a major concern of whoever is constructing your bathroom.

Straight stacked tile is the way to go…Read the article here! This is a floating bench that will get a metal support bar and a water proof 12”x28” Kerdi in set box. This tile was awfully sizey but nothing Jason couldn’t handle. They were as much as a 1/16” different between each piece, which makes it extremely difficult to keep consistent grout lines.

The finished product pre glass doors. This small bathroom took us two weeks to complete. Two guys, two weeks, inside your home. We are the guys you can depend on and trust. Most ‘builders’ will send strangers to your house. We are not strangers. Yes, you may trust your builder, but ask to meet the people doing the work. They are the ones that have the fate of your project and your hard earned money in their hands. What’s going on underneath is usually much more important than what you can see!

You can tell I take pride in this, just by the way I write. That’s the beauty of hiring owner operators. We put our name on this stuff, we have addresses in the community and the future of our family rides on these remodels. That’s why we take these so seriously.

At the end of the two weeks of tile installation Chattahoochee Glass Doors comes and does a template. One week later the doors arrive. Like clock work. Every. Single. Time.

The glass tile in the back of this soap niche was a very interesting look. It had the look of blue jean fabric. This box was placed perfectly in the lay out, full pieces of 12”x24” tile all the way around. This box is edged by color match Schluter profiles. They are special order from the factory, so chances are no one else will have them. Very sharp and a great way to protect the edge of the tile from damage.

That’s me! I was very happy when my Crossfit coach saw this picture and told me my arms were looking big! I said, “Thanks to your help!” Unfortunately, as my wife’s pregnant belly grows, mine seems to be doing the same thing! My only fitness goal has been staying in an extra large shirt! Small goals for now!

There was a small back splash on the vanity that had to meet up and be flush with the outside 12”x24” tile. When this happens we’re dealing with different thicknesses so we mount the thinner glass on Kerdi fabric so we can build the smaller tile out to the level of the thicker tile on the outside. Time consuming technique but a very effective one for ‘detail oriented’ tile guys. That’s us!

We also did a pattern tile laundry floor. I really love pattern tile. I can’t wait to build a shower with it!

The finished product! This thing looks great and it’s built to last.

So, you’re here. You’re looking for re modelers. You’ve found your guys. You’ve found a company that will have your best interest in mind, that will build something that will last and function as it should; that will go above and beyond, that are experts in their field and are at the TOP of their field; we’ll call you back and show up when we say we will and do the things we say we will…We have all the qualities that people say they want in a remodeling company...and we would like to connect with you. We want to be your unicorn. If you’ve read this far you ‘get it’! These people ‘got it’ and we are so blessed and appreciative to have been their unicorn!

Finally, the Five Star Google review. I can speak all the golden language and I can sure spin a yarn! But, as the grande finale, allow me to let me our happy client to do the talking for me. I’m particularly proud of the shout out to my web site and blog! It’s why I do this, it’s for my people!

Neesha (I hope I didn’t miss the spelling) Great, sweet dog! We are dog people. If you have dogs, not to worry, we are well versed in the ways of animals!

Check out my two recent guest posts!

I had a lot of fun putting together a couple pieces of content for the NTCA (National Tile Contractors Association) and the DIY Tile Guy.

My NTCA (National Tile Contractors Association) blog post is titled, “10 tips for a tile apprentice to get to the top”. On this one I thought I’d write out some hard fought lessons I’ve learned through out my journey as a tile guy. I’m hopeful these pointers will be useful to a young person starting out in the tile business.

Click Here to read my National Tile Contractors Association Article.

I made this video and blog post for the DIY Tile Guy. I have liked his website for a very long time. I’m thrilled to have contributed and it was really exciting to have the opportunity to put this together.. My tip will be invaluable to a Do-it-yourselfer.

His blog contains a load of great information and will be helpful and informative to a homeowner and DIY person alike. If you care about how your project is built, his site is a great resource to figure out how things are supposed to be done!

Check out his excellent blog at DIYTILEGUY.com

Click here to visit my guest blog post!

Have a look at my tile tip video!

Four reasons we recommend a straight stacked tile pattern.

Making a decision about the lay out of your tile can be a very difficult one. Almost as difficult as actually choosing the tile!

Designers and homeowners are usually aesthetically minded, but as installers we think of tile lay out in a completely different way, which I’m writing about in today’s blog post.

In a perfect situation, the designer/homeowner collaborates with the tile guy and takes their perspective seriously. They’ll mix their worldviews to produce something that looks, functions AND lasts. This doesn’t always happen because lay out is often mistakenly seen as not making a difference to the over all finish. The fact is, lay out is quite important in relation to the finished product.

So important, that manufacturers will label their products to inform the installer on how to put it in. Labels like this one generally shouldn’t be ignored:

Be sure to check manufacturer recommendation before installing your new tile. PRO TIP: I can tell if the tile I have is from a legitimate, upstanding manufacturer based on whether or not they have installation recommendations on the boxes of tile.

Below are the two most common tile patterns, and many of the other patterns are variations of “brick set” or “offset” lay outs.

The question:

Why do we consistently recommend a straight pattern over an offset pattern?

Here are my four reasons:

1. Less potential for small pieces

   As a tile installer there is nothing more unsightly than small pieces of tile. As CTI certified installers, our training advises us to never have any piece smaller than a half, but when we are doing large projects with patterns that are supposed to ‘mirror’ or ‘wrap’ sometimes it’s impossible.

   “But Ben, just shift the pattern.” Easy for you to say! Like I haven’t thought of that! :P

   When shifting a pattern to try to reduce the instance of small pieces, the small piece will manifest itself somewhere else! Frustrating!

   In a perfect world, the space you will be tiling is designed and built to accommodate the tile size and pattern. I’m talking about some EXTREME planning. It never happens like that.

   When we’re putting in a ‘straight set’ pattern, we really have more flexibility in minimizing any small pieces on the project. Below is a perfect example of what I am talking about:

Nothing bugs an installer more than small pieces. But with a bathroom like this, with tile wrapped around the entire space (wainscoting) if you shift the pattern to make bigger pieces in one area, the problem of a small piece manifests itself somewhere else! Problem solves itself with a straight set pattern!

Compare the picture above to this ‘straight set’ bathroom below. Same size tile. Same bathroom lay out with wainscoting. There wasn’t a small cut in this entire bathroom. Full pieces in the corners. Full pieces around the inset box.

2. Less wasted tile.

Most tile jobs require about 20% waste. Unless we’re doing an offset pattern, we’ll get significantly more so we don’t fall short. The first bathroom with the horizontal offset pattern above, we had practically no leftover tile at the end of the job. We had to strategically use every tile. As a homeowner you may think that is great, but for a tile installer it is a nerve racking experience, and not having enough tile has the possibility of throwing the schedule of a job way off.

The straight set tile job from the photos above had plenty of extra with no danger of falling short. Why?

When an installer is doing an offset pattern sometimes a large portion of cut tile cannot be used anywhere else. That increases the waste considerably.

3. 'Straight set’ is a more contemporary look.

When I look at installer photos from across the pond I see the Europeans doing more ‘straight set’. What I notice when installing tile, there is definitely a generation gap between the people who want an ‘offset pattern’ and those that want a ‘straight pattern’. A ‘straight pattern’ will automatically make your space seem more modern, whereas an ‘offset pattern’ will make your space more traditional. Looking to be young and hip? Go straight set.

And most importantly:

4. ‘Straight set” is more likely to produce a flatter finish.

All porcelain tile is slightly warped. No size has a more pronounced warp than a 12”x24” porcelain tile. They are the main offender. Look around at any commercial space and you’ll see brick set 12x24” that look horrendous. That’s the reason most manufacturers don’t recommend brick set with that size tile. When you brick set a tile of that size, the middle is warped up and the edges are warped down, so where three tile come together there will be lips. An example below, you can see the lips clearly:

There are ways to alleviate some of these issues, but straight setting is the most straight forward.

Some of the lippage problem can be taken care of with leveling systems, like Lev-Tech or MLT but they are not a fix all. Leveling systems add another level of technicality to any install. Cost aware people should think ‘straight set’!

The built in warpage of tile is the number one issue with the material. The higher quality tile has less warp, but every tile has some.

These two floors could not be done in an ‘offset pattern’ Even a 1/3rd offset was proving to be problematic.

Let me rephrase that, these floors could have been done with an offset pattern, but they would have had unsightly lips. “Just be a better tile installer!” Ultimately, we are only as good as the material provided.

We spoke to the customer and straight stacked the floor and they both came out perfectly flat, because instead of the warps working against each other, we configured them in a lay out so that the warped tile worked with each other.

A flat, lip free install took precedence over an arbitrary aesthetic preference, as it should.

The moral of the story is that you increase your probability for success by conferencing with your installer prior to installation and seeing what the best option for lay out will be. I’m a big fan of mock-ups. Have a mock up done for comparison and make a decision from the perspective of ‘this tile is forever’. Be open to change, based on the limitations of the material.

Expert Glass tile back splash installation in Milton / Woodstock, GA...worth the money!

Glass back splash installation in Milton / Woodstock GA.

Man, we had a lot of fun on this recent glass tile back splash install in Milton / Woodstock, GA. We see a challenge and laugh in it’s face!

Check out the video break down below! My favorite thing is to know (unlike the other guys) you can look CLOSELY at our work and check the details! We are detail oriented tile guys, it’s not just a slogan. See for yourself. Zoom in!

BEFORE

AFTER

The fun and the Artistry is in the creation:

The guys after a true team building project!

Vetted tile installers. We are producers. We get you what you want.

Alpharetta, GA bathroom shower repair and remodel.

Alpharetta, GA shower repair and remodel.

I started my relationship with these clients in Alpharetta, GA by putting them together a glass back splash. They had found me through the CTEF website. It was a challenging splash as most glass back splashes are. I remember setting up in the driveway, because the house didn’t have a garage, and the week I was there was one of the coldest of the year. Twenty degree temps during the day, mixed with water from the wet saw….made for a miserable install!

About mid way through the job, the homeowner obviously decided I was the installer for him. I should have known he had been bamboozled by someone else, because someone traditionally isn’t going to go on the CTEF site without first being swindled by a careless builder. He brought me to his master bath and from the moment I walked in, I had the eerie feeling of mold and decay. I could smell it faintly. It was an otherwise aesthetically pleasing shower, but with a natural stone shower floor, that I identified as holding water….and a crack in a grout joint on the shower bench. I also noticed all the corners and plane changes were grouted in, which doesn’t accommodate movement in the structure . That’s a major indicator that whoever built it didn’t care, even a little bit.

Immediately, I knew it was a failed shower. I told him so, but also advised him to talk to someone who ‘repaired’ such showers to get another perspective.

What happens in this situation is that the water hits the building material underneath the tile, that wasn’t properly water proofed. The building material expands as it gets wet and drys out, forcing the tile to move, cracking the grout. This shower was only FIVE YEARS OLD. Goes to show you how important water proofing is.

They ended up hiring us to rebuild the bathroom.

Have a look at the photos below. I know I lose jobs to the ‘repair guy’ because of the cost of full replacement. The photos below show you how awfully built this shower was. If a repair person comes in and ‘repairs’ the pan, this house would still have had an atrociously built shower, with a new pan.

We rebuilt the entire bathroom, for the lowest cost, when you acknowledge that they’ll never have to touch it again and that it’s built correctly (waterproof) with modern products and effective techniques. Tile is the least expensive building material over the life of the product, but only when it’s installed properly. That’s where we come in!

There could not be a clearer example of the difference in how we install tile and how “the builder guy” installs. In the professional tile community, the picture above is the worst of the worst. All of the voids where there is no thin set, is a place for water (and bacteria) to hide. Those tiles jumped off the wall with a tap of the hammer.

When you walked into this bathroom all you had to do was use your nose to sniff and you could tell you were in the presence of a failed shower.

NTCA (National Tile Council of North America) states that an installer should get 95% thin set coverage (on the back of the tile) inside of a wet area. When using big tile (or any tile for that matter) you only get 95% coverage by flattening the walls that the tile is going on. The way we do it is by fixing the framing. The picture below is what 95% coverage looks like.

Want to test your installers competence? Ask him what the standard for thin set coverage is inside of a shower? If he doesn’t know or gets that question wrong, don’t hire him.

You may be thinking, “A shower built like this is an anomaly, my builder is a pro.”

We see these type of showers all the time, these are regular occurrences.

Your builder may be a “pro” but what about the guys he sends to your house to do the work? Are they tile specialists? Vet them too!

Below is a picture of a vetted installer. Certified Tile installer #1465.

The box bench in the photo is built out of cinder blocks. The ‘builder’ glued on fiber rock to the front to build it out to where he needed it for a better tile lay out. It was a bio-hazard zone!

Not only that, Imagine the additional weight on the frame of this house because of this bench. Cement is heavy. That’s a problem when houses are built to minimum standards.

Foam alleviates the added weight from the house’s structure which automatically makes your house stronger.

That bench was at least 300 unnecessary pounds.

Yuck.

Below, what you’ll notice is that we completely rebuilt this wall. The previous framing was missing about five studs. it was nailed precariously, plumbing wasn’t secured.

The house we were working in wasn’t some cheap place either, this was a really nice place, owned by very pleasant people..who didn’t deserve the treatment the previous contractor gave them.

That electrical box you see, was a junction buried in the wall that we uncovered during the demolition.. Burying junctions is something electricians lose their licenses over. We made sure it was accessible on the other side of the wall.

We ‘wet shimmed’ these walls to make them plum and flat. We glued these colored spacers on the wall to allow us to be able to screw our Kerdi board the same day. It’s a new technique we were experimenting with. It worked great but took forever! We perfected this technique by using 1/4” plywood plumbed up and flattened, stapled to the inside of the stud. THAT worked perfect!

We use old skills daily and also modify and improve upon existing ones. Jason sometimes comes up with stuff I’m sure is original to him.

All of our showers get a ‘flood test’ as an insurance policy. Fill the pan with water and wait 24 hrs. We’ve never had one fail, but it’s easier to go backwards before tile rather than after. Is your installer giving your shower a ‘flood test’?

“What size is your biggest soap bottle?” Jason asked.

“Oh, here it is, my husband hates how he can’t pump it when it’s in the soap niche.”

These small conversations with our clients ensure they get what they want. These small conversations help us find out their needs.

Tim can now pump his soap because we built him a custom sized soap niche.

It’s part of hiring PEOPLE rather than a BUILDER.

PEOPLE are responsive to your needs, you know them, you interact with them.

A BUILDER sends mystery men to your house, that are generally there to get the job done as quickly as possible and are usually instructed NOT to talk to the homeowner.

One of the final steps is installing toilet paper holders and towel rods..

We put in a corner bench without a front built out of 2” structural foam. It increases the space inside the shower and they are less of an obstruction. The solid box benches are a disaster! They are also the main spot the showers leak. We never penetrate the water proofing to put in one of our benches.

When someone gets defrauded on a shower the custom glass panels cannot be re-used. They are custom built for the shower. Luckily we were able to re-use one panel in this bathroom, saving these folks a bit of money, but generally the glass cannot be salvaged. To the trash they go!

This bathroom main floor had a large crack across the tile. Why did this happen and how did we solve the problem?

The previous builder did not put enough blocking in the floor after he cut out a section. When we took the tile off Jason put his foot through the floor by simply walking on it.

The previous builder was also under the false assumption that cement board adds structural strength. It doesn’t.

We ended up adding another layer of plywood as well as extra wood in the framing to support the weight of tile. To have tile, your house needs to be solidly built. Over engineered.

Before you hire for your next remodeling project, be on the look out for these logos. They signify your tile installer understands the mechanics of tile installation.

Two low cost items that are sure to improve your daily 'duties'

My main priority on this blog is to help my readers. I’m a professional tile installer, but before that, I am a person, with regular human functions. Today we’re going to elaborate on those fundamental human functions, so if you have a more refined disposition, if you don’t want to read about using the restroom, this isn’t the post for you. This is a bathroom web page, and what happens in the bathroom? What do I have to lose!?

Now that we’re on the same page, today I am here to tell you about two low cost bathroom improvements that I’m sure, when you adopt, they will change your daily duties. The first is an ingenious invention called the Hello Tushy.

I’ve been using the Tushy for about two years now, so I’m not a band wagon jumper or recent adopter…this thing is a main stay in my daily routine. The Tushy is an aftermarket bidet, that attaches to your existing toilet with just a couple tools. The installation is simple and more importantly it washes your bum with water.

I’m not sure why bidets never caught on in the United States, but I assume it’s because they went against societal norms, A tradition of using paper and smearing the stuff everywhere back there, I don’t really understand it. The best option for me has always been to go to the toilet and then take a shower directly after, now that I have a Tushy, I cut out the middle man, I don’t have to take off my clothes or waste all that water to get completely clean.

The sales pitch that really sells it is this, When you get chocolate on yourself, what do you wipe it off with? Do you wipe it off with a dry paper towel? Or do you get a wet wipe or a wet paper towel and wipe it off?

Tushy comes in at around $70. $70 to walk around clean like a king(or queen). Sitting here now I’m starting to think about all the dirty bums out there, that just smeared the stuff with toilet paper. What a beautiful feeling of luxury, after your daily visit. Additionally, you’ll save money on toilet paper, a great thing for environmentally conscious people.

So, let’s think outside the box (or cave) and give Hellotushy.com a try! You won’t be disappointed.

Okay, back to the cave…

The next low cost bathroom improvement is one you’ve probably seen. If you’re a television watcher you’ve seen their unicorn ad. The Squatty Potty has improved my movements by optimizing my posture for the job at hand.

I’m an outdoorsmen as well as a lifter, so that low squat position is a thing of beauty. Whenever I’m doing heavy squats I have an urge to let a stinky one fly…I’m always in public, so I hold it back, but it proves my point. That low squat is best for the release!

What the squatty potty does is, it sets you up in the position to have the best flow. Our bodies are simply not designed to go in the seated position. We may think of ourselves as modern, hip beings…but our biology is still set in the cave. This company has devised a way to honor both sides of humanity, modern with a nod to our stone age make up.

This simple, plastic stool sets up around your toilet ( you can easily move it) and as your setting up, you lift your feet six inches and rest them on raised platform. It’s that easy. It’s comfortable and cost effective at $25.

These two aftermarket pieces have my toilet looking like upgraded Honda Civic, but they have proven to make my life much better. I also love the questions I get from guests when they go to use my bathroom. I never skip the opportunity to modestly demonstrate how they work. “Yeah, just stand right here and turn that nob!”

We haven’t made it to Mars, but we have figured out how to maximize comfort at bathroom time…This is a big win for humanity, always striving for comfort!

If you’ve made it this far, check out the accompanying videos and marvel at the wonders of the 21st century. Also, be sure to click the links below to be brought to the product web sites for more.

HelloTushy.com

SquattyPotty.com

Tile remodeling 2019: 5 reasons why GREAT things come to those who wait.

The last couple weeks have been very interesting with an extreme upsurge in incoming calls for a range of different tile remodeling projects. Everyone gets a timely call back and the first question, the one that eliminates most prospects, “When would you like this project done?” Invariably, the answer is yesterday!

One call had me thinking and inspired this article. It was from a fellow small business owner who wanted a floor done. She informed me that “All the tile is here and ready.” This is usually a red flag for me. A big part of our success and our countless high-quality finished projects, is that all our customers follow our process. That includes allowing us to handle the acquisition of tile. Believe it or not, tile acquisition is not as simple as just picking it up and bringing it to your house. There’s determining the quality of the tile, is the dye lot consistent, do you have enough extra material, did you measure the space accurately? Our experience has led us to be wary of getting involved in a situation with customer provided material. By wary, I mean, maybe one job a year, that invariably has complications.

So, my antennae were up immediately. This person informed me that “Nobody wants to work, nobody will show up to see the job.” I understand the sentiment, I hear that all the time. So, here comes the big question: “When do you want this done?” The answer was sooner than our traditional 90 day waiting period. That’s fine! We want to do all the tile work in our local area, but the reality is that we are two people, and it’s not physically possible. I said I would send her over a rough estimate, anyway, if she decided she wanted to wait for quality oriented, experienced, trades men. I did that and the response I received back was a bit insulting.

It basically said she didn’t want to wait (fine and expected) and that they usually do background checks on the people that work in their house anyway and “good luck it seems like you need it.”

Of course, I thanked the person and moved on, but that response irked me a bit. Anyone who cares deeply like I do and internalizes events in their life, is going to wonder. It’s a weakness of mine, Jason constantly tells me not to let things like this bother me.

 My response was dismissive at the time and I don’t know what this person was thinking or what the intent was behind what they said, but it pushed me to reflect.

For starters, I’ll confidently say,  Jason and I likely have the cleanest records and lifestyle--- in all of construction.

Additionally, I want to break down why it pays to wait for the right tile guy.

1.       You are more likely to get a craftsman, an artisan.

With a traditional business, when you hear the word “back log” that comes with some negative connotations. “What you guys don’t work fast?” The short answer is no. If you were to hire the top portrait artist in Atlanta to paint you, do you think there would be a wait? Yes, tile is an art form, as well as a functional finish and we are at the top of our trade in our local area. “Well, you should just hire more people, you know, take on an extra guy, train him for 30 days and send him out in the field!” That outlook is boldly naïve because of the skill involved in residential remodeling and what our customers expect from us. Our customers don’t expect a random stranger in their house or a person who hasn’t been properly vetted, over the long term. Many builders will line up a guy on short notice they found online, that is not the type of company we are running. Hiring a tile installer is not like hiring a delivery driver. A delivery driver job, all you need is a license and a background check and you’re in!  No experience necessary! No, an artisan craft like tile takes years to train someone up, and there is a huge amount of liability involved.

 Sometimes we get stuck in the fast food mindset. We want what we want, when we want it, NOW. I want to be the first to start conditioning Americans to the fact, that as a country, we are in the hottest market in years, good people are working, and if the person you hired for next month is not working, you probably don’t want him in your house. We must change how we do things, labor isn’t sitting around waiting for a phone call, get used to having to plan long term.

 Tile is not a commodity, much like the custom portrait I mentioned earlier. It is a luxury. If you are having a custom boat made, you should expect to wait for that. Custom tile is no different.

 We know most of the high-end tile installers in our area. Kris Nardone, Alex Bergland, Cain Curtis – All of these guys have a similar wait time as we do. You certainly can hire a bigger company who will send a multitude of anonymous white vans, with unidentifiable men inside to complete your job. You’ll have no idea of their experience and standards, no clue who they are, or where they come from. We sell the opposite of that. We are an owner operated outfit, the guy who’s doing your work owns the company and his name is on your project.

 2.       You are more likely to get a person with an established reputation.

Having a reputation for quality work is something we protect and cultivate. The idea is to find someone who’s proud of what they do, proud enough to create content and have an extensive presence in the community and online. These people are sought out because they take the risk out of remodeling. You can verify what you’re getting.

 Businesses large and small will follow a ‘growth model’ like our economy in general.  Business will constantly expand, being able to gobble up more work and make more money. Taking on more people without an established reputation and bringing them into their company that has one. Until those guys, like the guy who sleeps on your neighbor’s couch, starts to destroy that reputation with shoddy work. The possibility of that happening is especially pronounced in the tile business because of the proficiency involved in the work and the high stakes nature of bathroom remodeling.

 We do not participate in the ‘growth model’ Not to say we won’t grow, but at this point it’s simply not worth it for us. We are ultimately satisfied with having one crew and doing high caliber work. Long term, we’re looking to keep it small, it’s much easier to control outcomes that way!

 3.       You are less likely to be ‘shuffled’.

You’ve probably heard of, or you may have experienced, being ‘shuffled’. It’s when a company shows up and starts a job and moves on to another job, before yours is done. We don’t do that. We do one job at a time, every home gets our full attention. It’s first come, first served. If we have 5 jobs and you schedule with me today, you become the 6th job. Being shuffled is possibly the worst thing that can happen during a remodel. Sometimes it’ll happen because the company you hired doesn’t have enough money in your job, and they move to another job to get additional cash flow. More often it will happen because you inform the company that you desire your job be done sooner, and in order to make you happy and book the job, they’ll start your job while doing the other jobs on their schedule. We don’t do that, and a real craftsman is not going to do that. 100% of their passion, focus and energy will go into the project they are on. That’s how it should work. Multiple jobs going at once burns a tile guy out, frazzling his brain. A fatigued tile guy is a careless tile guy and with a permanent finish such as tile, carelessness is catastrophic!

 4.       You have the necessary time to plan for success.

I know most of the people who pass on using us for their work because of the waiting period, end up waiting anyway. They just end up waiting for someone else who sells the wait more effectively or offers a better price that justifies the wait.  I could be more incremental with letting people know about the delay. The truth of the matter is, it takes a lot of time to put all the moving pieces of any bathroom remodel together. The problem I’m seeing, time and time again, homeowners are tearing out their bathrooms without a plan of who is going to put it all back together. DON’T do that!!! It’s a recipe for disaster because you’ve put yourself in a position where you need a person now and it’s an emergency, especially if you have a big family and one bathroom.

 Part of the planning involved: Selecting your material. This is something you will live with a long time, so thinking it over for a month may not be a bad idea. Getting mentally prepared for a remodel: there’s a lot of upheaval involved in your day to day, I know for me, change takes a certain state of mind!

  Two quotes for you:

           “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” 

           “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” 

The company you are using for your remodel will also need to plan. In my experience when I take on a short notice job, I don’t have the necessary amount of time to plot and prepare to do a great job. A bathroom remodel is much more than gluing tile to a wall. Don’t just look for someone who’s going to do what you want and show up tomorrow, collaborate with the people you are using and follow their established system for success. You’ll be glad you did.

 5.       You will appreciate your new tile remodel that much more.

When you are patiently waiting for the right remodeler, keep things positive by contemplating how incredible your new space will be. The comfort and luxury of that new shower, the grandeur of the new back splash, the improvement of the new floor compared to your old.

 We somehow tend to value things we wait for much more than things that come to us immediately. We had a recent customer who waited about 12 years to have their bathroom done. It was a failed shower and they just never got around to fixing it. They had other bathrooms, no real rush. We came in and redid the space, we came back about 6 months later to look at something else, and that bathroom looked exactly like the day we left. We have never seen people take care of their bathroom like that. That indicated to me they really value their new space.

 Not every person that wants something done in their home is someone we will work for. With the amount of people who want us to do work for them, I’ve come to realize that. We have a very clear vision of who we are and what we do and the people who do value craftsmanship come to love us. I suppose the phone call that was the impetus to this article was just a misunderstanding. I know I put off the impression of being a bigger business than what we really are and that’s the point. I suppose the best question would have been, “Whose job on my schedule do you want me to cancel so we can come and do yours?”

 The lesson I learned from the interaction was that I will continue to be honest and transparent and confident in who we are, in regard to our sales. It has worked up to now and if the only people who get upset are the folks we never actually do work for, things are going okay. When the folks we work for are unhappy, we have a problem!

 If you’re after reputable, dependable, ethical, conscientious, owner operators to work in your home get on their schedule early. I hope this blog post is a reminder that having to wait for a couple months is not uncommon in the world of artisan tile and it should be seen as a great a thing. You just so happened to run into a company that is desired in the market and I guarantee there is a reason for that!

Check out my recent interview on the Tile Money podcast.

What an exciting interview with Luke from Tile Money. We touch on a bunch of things including blogging, generating Google leads, controlling the sales process, customer qualifying over the phone, marketing on a budget and much, much more.

Enjoy.

A local fireman in Woodstock, GA gets a magazine worthy master bathroom.

Master bathroom shower renovation in Woodstock, GA.

This January bathroom remodel in Woodstock, GA was for a local fire fighter and his family. It was a fun one from the start. I remember fielding this initial call while my wife was at the dermatologist and I was hanging out with my 15 month old daughter (at the time) in a Starbucks. It’s the perfect example of what we small business guys go through daily. Trying to keep the baby quiet, while attempting to help a potential customer and put off a good first impression, talking to them about how these bathrooms “are just not possible for $10k.” Sometimes the most uncomfortable sales calls are the ones we book. I’m not sure why, I like to lean towards the fact that it shows a certain vulnerability and authenticity. I remember sending David a copy of one of our bids that was similar to the bathroom he wanted and saying, “Start adding up the lines, all the stuff adds up quick!” Can’t really get more transparent than that! I was just trying to show the amount of resources that go into these things!

These people were great because they had been readers of my blog and found it really useful, so they had a basic knowledge of who we were and how we worked. In hindsight, they followed our process to a T. They shopped at Tile House, bought high end plumbing fixtures from Ferguson’s, and allowed us to run our tried and true system. That’s the way to do it, don’t reinvent the wheel, trust the experts and let’s collaborate. I put a lot of time into building trust through this site and portraying the reality of Jason’s authority in this field. It helps us to relieve the inevitable anxiety of a bathroom remodel. Who would you rather hire? A company with the content to back up everything they are saying or some anonymous mystery man in a white van?

Below we have our before and after display. The before had a very small shower that was not operating as it should. It was an old ‘mud job’ and they are extremely good at hiding water damage. Lucky for us, David wanted to save some money, so he did the tear out himself. I’m sure it was a brutal one! I gained a bunch of admiration for his fortitude when I walked in and saw it complete! The trick here was increasing the size of the shower and being able to fit the new free standing tub at the same time. Jason’s expertise was on full display here. Those free standing tubs can be very pricey but if you’re looking for a good return on investment when you sell your house, you almost need one!

Woodstock, GA master bathroom remodel / renovation.

We installed a 4”x12” white subway tile with white Kerdi profiles. If you’ve ever read my blog before, you know I’m in love with Kerdi profiles, look at these picture, you can tell why! This was a very high quality Interceramic subway tile with very little ‘cupping’ so the brick set pattern turned out impeccably. We installed a very high quality Prizm grout by Custom which dries hard and dense, with built in sealer, which is key if you want to keep it clean. If you’re having a bathroom done, make sure the tile installer pulls the trigger on a better grout, nothing worse than a cheap grout that under performs!

The floor tile was excellent as well. It was an 8”x36” Panaria wood plank tile. The variation in color shades is incredible and the glaze was very thick! An extremely high quality tile. What do I always say, “We are only as good as the tile we are provided with.” We were provided with a high end tile so they received a very high end floor.

I wanted to mention that this large cabinet and top was bought at Costco at a considerable savings when compared to buying a custom one. They are pretty good quality too!

I like to point out that when you are hiring a tile guy, you’re not just hiring someone to stick tile to a wall. In the photos above and below you can clearly see the level of destruction this leaking shower had brought upon this house. Jason’s greatest talent isn’t layout or his overall knowledge of tile, it’s the fact that he gets these spaces back to structural integrity. When you have a gaping hole in your floor, or walls without studs, the ‘tile guy’ hat needs to come off, and the framer/engineering hat needs to go on. Jason’s 20 year training and trade school knowledge ensures our customers get put back together solid. Now, if you hire simply a ‘tile installer’ to do this work, how well do you think all this will go back together?

During this job I had a musing on my Twitter account (@atileguysjourney) about how you know you did a good job when you spent more time prepping an area than you do on the actual tile install. Man, that couldn’t have been more true on this one! As you can see from the 5 star Google review from Jennifer, the planning and prepping at this job was immense! In fact, very few jobs we do involve just showing up and tiling. We traditionally inform our potential clients that the only mystery about these jobs is how much prep needs to go into the floor to get it flat enough to allow large format tile, and how much time and material has to go into rebuilding the floors and walls. Ask your installer if he’s willing to go backwards in order to produce a lasting finish product.

Here we have our “flood test'“ in progress and Jason is working in tight quarters installing tile. Those green clips are the Lev-Tech leveling system that help us get a lip free floor. Using clips doesn’t mean we’re amateur tile installers, they are just tools like our wet saw is a tool. On this particular application it allowed us to actually bend some of the warp out of the tile. Try doing that without clips!

On this one we used Schluter Systems moisture management system that comes with an extensive factory warranty, not that it will ever be needed. The real advantage of this system is the weight relief on the home’s structure, because it is foam. Think about the weight involved in using cement. If you use a modern building system your house automatically gets stronger because you are lightening the load.

When we use tile with the amount of shade variation this tile had, we open all the boxes and pick from all of them as we are setting, to ensure a proper blending of the tile. We had limited space at this house, so it was a trick! We really appreciated the Millers’ patience while we were here. We do our best to limit the inconvenience, but I’m not going to lie, a bathroom remodel is quite a sacrifice for a while.

This floor had a considerable amount of variation in the substrate, meaning we would never be able to install huge tile like this. The biggest factor when installing big tile is having a nice, flat floor. So, we self leveled this floor with about 8 bags of Ardex Liquid Backerboard. Liquid Backerboard is a great product because you don’t have to use metal lathe. Check out my YouTube channel to see how we self level!

The reason we self level is so we can get thin set coverage like you see in the picture above. That’s what it’s supposed to look like. Collapsed thin set ridges, tile fully supported. You’d be surprised how few installers get coverage like this. We know because we tear out a bunch of mediocre work, but the point is, setting tile is a lot more than just spreading thin set and plopping it down. You have to WORK to get this kind of coverage and really know what you’re doing.

We all know about cracked grout in the corners of a shower. We’ve all seen it. There’s a simple fix and EVERY tile installer should know about it because it’s clearly written in the TCNA handbook (Tile Council of North America) and using silicone sealant in all plane changes is ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard. All houses move and if you use grout in your corners they will inevitably crack because grout is hard, it doesn’t allow for movement. When you use 100% silicone, it acts as a soft joint and allows for small amounts of movement, so 10 years from now that corner will look the same as it did when we left.

This silicone sealant is also color matched to the grout. I feel as if most guys skip this step because the silicone is hard to get, most places carry some “siliconized” latex junk, it also takes an extra degree of patience, as well as an extra trip. We don’t do it the day we grout because everything has to be dry for the silicone to stick properly. Yeah, doing things right costs more time, which is money. “Right” is not subjective. Right means, by the book.

We bought white curbs and made hard surface shelves for inside the extra large inset box. We locked these shelves into the tile for added strength. We were able to get the box nice and centered as well. Jason does really well with lay outs. Go ahead and zoom in!

“Is that corner bench strong?” We get that question all the time! Yes, it’s not just for looks…feel free to get on it and jump around! We build it out of 2” structural Kerdi foam and add a metal bar to add support. Penny rounds are very popular right now and they’re great for footing in a wet area.

Ultimately, the reason we do this is for happy clients. Would you say this is a magazine worthy bathroom? I particularly like the “built to last part”. She knows this because throughout the whole process they were involved in everything we did and we were sure to explain every aspect of this remodel. Once you see how we do things, live in person, you’ll really understand the difference between ‘value’ and ‘cost’.

Another master bathroom remodel blending looks, longevity and functionality in the books.

I love this photo because of the pink flowers and the lawn that is spot on! David had a great lawn, apparently maintained by his cousin, who deserves our praise!

A timely rebuttal to the 'time frame objection'

If you’ve been in this business long enough, you’ve experienced a ‘time frame objection’. The client who’s surprised that their project will take a month to complete, or my favorite, the ‘builder’ who says, (without context) “I could have had this done in a week!” Last week, we spent an exorbitant amount of time repairing floors and walls and simply getting a space ready for tile. It’s easy to understand how an uninformed eye can think you’re playing games.

On average, a bathroom remodel will take upwards of one month to complete. That means demolition of the old space, fixing old framing and getting it ready to support the load of tile, plumbing,  prepping the area with high quality material to ensure a lasting install, flood testing, installing tile, grouting and siliconing. At that point a plumber does the finish stuff, the glass guy comes in and templates, there is probably some granite to install, painting, drywall, and usually the glass install to wrap everything up. That doesn’t include the time involved in picking out what you want and getting it to the job, along with seemingly endless pre-construction planning!

Needless to say, there are a lot of moving parts. We empathize with our customers in regard to having their bathroom out of commission. It can be a real drag! When I run into a “time frame objection” first, I like to express that I fully understand the hassle, then I’ll re-frame the negative by using this example to turn on a person’s rational brain:

Anything that takes a long time to develop is more advanced than something that takes a short time to develop.

Yes, another ‘builder’ could have all that work done in a week, but what corners is he cutting, what steps is he skipping, to get it done?

Let’s take the example of a human compared to a dog. My wife is pregnant, so this is particularly relevant to me. A dog’s gestation period is anywhere between 58-68 days. My wife’s is 108 days. (Generally) That is a considerable difference in bake time! What will be more advanced, a human baby or a puppy?

The Sunday comic ‘Dilbert’ created by Scott Adams can be put together in a week. A story, characters drawn, everything. It’s certainly art. Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel, the majesty, the beauty of that painting, It took four years to paint. Also art, what is more advanced?

So, this helps me illustrate how we’re all dealing in building bathrooms, but one bathroom is better and more advanced than another based upon the time frame it takes to build it and the difference between a craftsman mindset and a volume/production mindset. When a couple days pass and it seems like nothing is getting done, we’re not twiddling our thumbs, we’re accounting for a level of detail far beyond what the other guy is going to do.

The fastest bathroom remodel would be a plastic surround. So, if you’re thinking about speed to finish, that is a great option. In and out in a couple days. Tile takes deliberate planning and careful execution to pull off. More than half the work is going to be behind the tile and no one will see it.

When you’re having your bathroom done think of these examples. Will you get a dog or a beautiful new baby boy or girl. Will you get the ‘Dilbert’ cartoon or the Sistine chapel? Something to contemplate when you’re going down the homestretch into a brand new high end bathroom!

Being a tile guy: A long journey, what it means to me.

The title of ‘tile guy’ seems like just a job to many; boots, safety glasses, that ‘glue stuff that sticks the tile down’, but it’s much more than that to me. A couple weeks after National Tile day, here I am reflecting. I’ve had many ups and downs in my life, like many millennials, my prime working years coincided with the great recession. During that time, I was questioning my very existence and thinking to myself, “Is this my destiny?” Like the Okies of the past I didn’t stay put and phoned in a favor with my sister living in Atlanta. “A yankee in Dixie,” I thought, “how will this all work out?”

I had a lot of prove to myself, I had limited welcome in my sister’s home, until a timely Craigslist ad changed everything. Answering that ad would transform my life from a rudderless boy, to a driven man. That ad is how I hooked up with Jason, a 20-year tile man, an encyclopedia of the trade, and an unlikely partner. I was trained in coachability in my youth, due to my background in theatre, boxing, football, etc. and I knew how to mimic every move of this seasoned installer. The more important factor: I was ready, ready and willing to form a career from every morsel of knowledge I could scoop up. I didn’t have a chance to learn bad habits, he was a stickler for the book, and his influence was a steadying factor in my often-hectic life. I had always worked in construction, but this was one of the first guys that had ever treated me with dignity, and he was one of the few that accepted the fact that if I were successful, he would also be successful. I had come from a place where work was scarce, trade knowledge was closely guarded, and this relationship was different. Jason also gave me an extremely long leash. Where many men would allow their egos to overcome them (like the day he was calm when I just showed up with a new company logo) Jason went with the flow, my vision became his vision, his vision mine.

Part of the transformation for me was an over all journey of self-discovery. I remember spending a lot of time alone, whether it was in my room as an uber bachelor, or on multi day hikes with a back pack and sore feet, I would think and think and think. How could I make myself better? Podcasts would inspire my love of reading, I’d watch and talk to other business owners, what were they doing that worked? What could I do that would make me better? One of those things was becoming one of those Crossfit savages you hear about, I said to myself, “If I’m going to be the best I need to be fit!” So where do you go to get fit? You know where I’m going with this! That was a game changer for me, when most construction workers eat horrible food, drink countless beers at night, and take every opportunity to smoke a cigarette, I respected my body like a sanctuary, making exercise a priority, all with the thought of many trips up and down stairs to make the perfect cut on the wet saw and extending my career, being able to work in comfort and confidence.

 Above all else, podcasts, You Tube, and reading motivated me to embrace capitalism like never before. Many choose to live in a world that does not exist. I choose to live in the world that is, rather than in the world that I thought I wanted. With our modern education we’re taught ideologies that are antithetical to survival. We’re taught to change classes at a bell, to train us to work in a factory job that does not exist. We’re taught to reject God, who gave my ancestors the will to push through all types of adversity.  Bands like System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine engineered me to think we lived in an unjust world and that “dropping out of the system” was the only answer. As I aged, I learned to reject these messages. When I accepted that the United States is a business and that I must be better than someone else to eat and thrive, things completely changed for me. I embraced many of the traditional values that I was raised with, that I had rejected through my twenties. Leading a clean life, shaving daily, a tucked in shirt, proper etiquette, all these characteristics are important when you’re trying to build relationships with people you don’t know. Success in business is rated on a bell curve, of course the guy with the tattoos that swears like a sailor can be extremely successful in business, but the vast majority follow the tried and true method of trust development practiced by our ancestors.

At that point I embraced the reality that I was competing against millions of other people that wanted my job.  Yes, even having a profession was a daily struggle to be better than the next. I thought to myself, what can I do to provide the best service to my customers. How do I separate myself from the pack? At this time I started thinking about my time as value. That hour I waste on social media every day, I’m going to spend it on building a website that will help people learn and aid them in finding us. My rudimentary skills, in writing, in marketing, in sales, I’m going to leverage these things to showcase Jason’s unique talent and help us move forward in this cut throat business. If I could put one thing out there for people hoping to advance in the positive, that thought would be, think about how much time you waste on stupidity, and use that time for something better. Mindfully set aside one hour a day for things that won’t show immediate returns, do something that will help you in the future.

That’s one of my strengths. I’ve become an extremely persistent person, a little bit every day on my marketing strategy, a little bit every day to enhance my skills, a little bit every day to become a better sales person. I like to use Scott Adams’ idea of the ‘talent stack’. My main skill is in being a tile installer, but I have many secondary skills that aren’t as refined, in marketing, sales, video editing, phone sales, etc. Another term I like is, being a “renaissance man” Self-development, self-discovery, self-advancement, Don’t Pidgeon hole yourself. Modernity has it’s visible downfalls, but technology can also help you become a better person, as it did me.

From humble beginnings as “Jason’s helper” to where I am now, I just keep developing. There’s a lot for me to learn, I’m not anywhere near where I hope to be. Occasionally though, I look back and comment on how far I’ve come. So, what does being a tile guy mean to me? Ultimately, it has given me a chance to have an identity. American men are desperately grasping for an identity. We see degradation and demoralization all around us. Record male suicide, depression and anxiety. Unbelievable amounts of addiction and anti-social, destructive behaviors. I don’t worry about any of that, my identity is strong. I get to build something with my hands, solve problems, help people and build a business. All while nourishing a *family* from the profits of honest work in the tile industry. This identity has led me to places and led me to become a person I never dreamed possible, it’s more than just a job, it’s who I am. Pride gives people a reason to live, that pride must be on a solid foundation though. What you do for a living is as solid as it gets.

If you’re a potential customer reading this post, realize that this is more than just sticking tile to a wall or floor for us. We’ve dedicated our lives, to the betterment of your life, by improving your home. When you patronize us with your business, you are supporting two families, two men who were never meant for the traditional 9 to 5. Servicing you and your house is a task we take very seriously and that takes up most of our thought. Yes, waking up with night sweats after a dream of a shower failure, that happens to us! I also want to thank you for being part of my journey. Every project we do, every client we work for, has a place in our hearts. All of them take a piece of us we will never get back. Many have a job, we have a mission!

What does a box of great tile look like?

One of my recent blog post entitled “The source of my Floor and Decor animus” I wrote a scathing critique of Floor and Decor material from the perspective of a professional tile installer. I wrote about how the store is a nightmare for installers because there is little to no standardization of material, and you never know what to expect…Bad for us (pros) WORSE for homeowners.

Today I thought I’d write about what great tile from a legitimate supplier (Tile House of Marietta) looks like. The only reference I really needed was complete pictures of the outside of a box of tile we’ve been installing over the past week to easily prove my point:

Our first picture is of the manufacturer of the tile. A company called Cermaica Panaria. This is a pretty good company. I am certainly not saying perfect because we have had issues with this tile brand before, which is to be expected based on the amount of this tile we have installed. But, what do you notice about this label? Let’s see, the ADDRESS of the manufacturer, The telephone and fax number of the company, a legitimate website and contact e-mail. All to portray the feeling and also the reality of accountability. Most suppliers will handle contacting the company if there are issues with the tile, but if you absolutely had to personally get in touch with this manufacturer as an installer, you could do it. You could call up the manufacturer and air your grievances. Many tiles you buy from over seas, you have no hope if you have problems with it.

I love, love, love this label. This label tells you that you are a buying a “nominal” tile, meaning “in name only.” I had a discussion with a fellow last week in regards to manufacturers being insincere about tile square footage. “Well, everyone KNOWS things are nominal, you think when you buy a gallon of ice cream you’re actually buying a gallon!?” My rebuttal was, will you pay your installer when you’re short on tile for their time to go back to the store to get more? How are we supposed to know how much tile we have to buy if it’s not clearly (and honestly) noted on the box?

This company has labeled the box of tile to say “This tile is nominal, we’re selling you a grout joint, get over it!” Fair enough, I just want to know! Half of our problem is that consumers lethargically accept this kind of treatment from manufacturers. In fact, like the gentlemen I spoke to earlier in the week, people will actually defend the unethical practices of manufacturers. God forbid an installer wants to be paid for their hassle though!

Usually, the 3/16” that isn’t part of the actual measurement of the tile won’t matter, but if you are dealing with a floor of multiple thousand square feet, that’s when you have a problem and need to know how much you need so you can account for that.

Tile is a game of inches, to say the least.

This picture clearly states the size of the tile in inches and centimeters. It tells you what type of tile you’re buying, and it has two different certifications to portray legitimacy. The next label I love, Made in the USA. Designed in Italy. What does this mean to me? It signifies a long history of involvement with tile (Italy) and it also signifies advanced manufacturing capabilities and the necessary human capital to make high end tile (Made in the USA!)

This photo tells me this tile has gone through a strict ANSI (America National Standards Institute) classification process. This tell us this tile meets minimum United States standards and meets all sorts of manufacturing requirements. This tile meets national tile manufacturing tolerances. Really important, so that you know you’re installing something that at least meets base quality standards. If you don’t see this label, you’re on your own!

Notice, A clearly marked ‘dye lot’ so you know you’re getting a consistent batch of tile, 1.11 square meters, so you know how much space each box covers! All of these labels are on ONE box of tile and not surprisingly, the tile that came from this box was GREAT TILE! That’s what we’re going for!

Now, Let’s look at the Floor and Decor material for comparison:

That’s IT! There was no other label on this box to inform the purchaser of what they’re buying. Basically, the company has told you, “It’s tile, Good luck! Give us your money please!” Speaking of money, it’s not that much less money than if you had shopped at a legitimate supplier. In the grand scheme of a whole bathroom, a person could save $200 on a $25,000 purchase of a new bathroom.

“O, but Ben, you just support adding layer upon layer of bureaucracy to my tile purchase!” No, what I support is consistent, standardized material so as an installer, I can give my customers a lifetime guarantee. The quality of your tile install depends on the quality of the material you buy. That is the bottom line. You can hire the greatest installer in existence, if you have mediocre material there is very little they can do! Yes, there are techniques we can utilize to make things better, but great material begets great tile remodels.

Self Leveling a bathroom with Ardex Liquid Backer board: How and why.

When building with large tile, often times you’ll have to self level…Many companies will “build up” the tile with thin set…Some refuse to self level and you’ll end up living with huge lips. Many times people don’t want to pay for the added expense of self leveler. I advise you to do what needs to be done to get the substrate ready for large format tile. Tile doesn’t bend! What will happen over time if you don’t start with a flat floor to set tile on?

• cracked grout.

• broken tile

• large lips

• wavy floor

When you’re getting a bid for a master bathroom, what’s underneath your existing flooring is always an unknown expense. What do we have to do to get the floor ready for tile? We always warn our customers of the self leveling potential. Don’t let the name fool you though, self leveling is no joke!

Here’s our technique for self leveling a floor:

Your local Floor and decor: not the best option.

Just your everyday 12x12” pebble mosaic. Or is it?

Within my blog posts there’s developed a certain discontent toward Floor and Decor, the local box store that homeowners love. I attempt to direct our clients away from this particular supplier because of my general overwhelmingly negative experiences with the products they bring to the market.

Here is another example of why I say the things I do to discourage you from spending money there.

The photos below are a basic pebble mosaic advertised as a 12x12” sheet. That would be 1 square foot. Now to start, we did not source this material. This was bought by an unassuming client and we picked up this job short notice. The client was tiling an 81 square foot decorative wall which was a perfect square, nothing to cut around, no corners or obstructions.

When we arrived we saw that they had 94 square feet of mosaic, and being under the assumption that each sheet was 1 square foot, we thought we had plenty, but wait! As we neared the end of the project we began to fret, “we’re not going to have enough!” How could this be, they got plenty extra.

Well, to no ones surprise…Floor and Decor strikes again.

We measured the sheets and they were actually 11.25” —- so instead of each sheet being 1 square foot, they were actually .87 square feet….Do the math. .87 x 94 = 81.78 square feet. Yes, we ended up having BARELY enough to finish the wall…but this doesn’t negate the fact that Floor and Decor misled their customers….if the box says the sheet is 12x12” —- you should be buying 1 square foot, not .87 sqft and if it is .87, shouldn’t someone mention that or shouldn’t it be written on the box somewhere?

Yes, when you’re dealing with tile you sometimes can expect to deal in “nominal” measurements, nominal meaning “in name only”. I get that. with a 12”x24” tile the actual tile will be 11 7/8” x 23 7/8” …the company is selling you the grout joint…I can understand that….but to me, there is a huge difference between an 1/8” short and 3/4” inch short, especially if you are figuring for a large area. Note how manufacturers do business, a discussion for another time.

I’d like for you to be aware of this when you’re buying tile, especially from a box store. This is another reason why you need to buy plenty of extra tile when you are doing a tile job. “Oh, my goodness, there’s two extra boxes!!!” I hear it all the time, Better safe than sorry! Expect to always have extra.

This is the reason I say Floor and Decor is a nightmare for tile guys, for people who know what they’re looking at and have high expectations from suppliers. Tile guys who’s lively hood depends on getting quality material. Being short tile on a project ruins our day. A homeowner going to Floor and Decor, it’s no big deal, to them, all tile is the same….but when you get down to the details, the esoteric stuff, the stuff non tile installers don’t care about…the place is not where it’s at and they’ll let you down. If you don’t mind spending unnecessary amounts of time in a tile store, shop Floor and Decor. Remember, your time is worth money…there will be an opportunity cost.

I’m completely willing to have my mind changed on this place. They sell Mapei products, I love Mapei products. Flexcolor grout, for example, is a great product…but when they don’t carry the full line of 100% silicone Mapesil caulking, the color match stuff… it’s a real drag on production…and a major reason why people don’t follow national standards, because it’s so difficult to. The harder it is to supply material, the less likely installers are going to take the time to get what they need to do a job right. My customer chooses a Flexcolor grout color that’s not in the store, we have to order it online, that takes a week. Of course they have the full line of Keracaulk caulking that’s absolute junk! (and not rated for inside a wet area!) I bring this stuff to the attention of the staff, I’ve been told they’re going to bring in what we need, but I’m going to wait and see! We all know how corporate bureaucracy works!

Catering to the homeowner is one thing, the reality is that the homeowner isn’t putting this stuff in and frankly, if they are, they deserve quality material, they should have the opportunity to buy quality material. Don’t advertise that they’re getting something they are not. If the box says 12x12” sell them 12x12” and if it’s not ,have customer service reps who know enough to say something.

.87 sqft is not 1 square foot.

The price of each sheet was $14.

$14.00 x 94 square feet = $1,316

$14.00X 81.78 square feet= $1, 144.92

I’d say Floor and Decor owes our client $171.08

Yes, this is sold by the “piece” but it’s labeled on the box as 12x12” as you can see. How can you figure how much material you need for a job if you are not aware that you are buying .87 square feet and not 1 square foot?

Notice: “Made in Indonesia”.

Best of Houzz 2019.

Hamilton Tile of Woodstock, GA.

Awarded Best Of Houzz 2019

Awarded by Community of Over 40 Million Monthly Users, Annual BOH Badge Highlights Home Remodeling & Design Professionals with Top Ratings and Most Popular Home Designs

Woodstock, GA USA, January 25, 2019 – Hamilton Tile of Woodstock, GA has won “Best Of Customer Service” on Houzz®, the leading platform for home renovation and design. The high end, detail oriented tile crew at Hamilton Tile was chosen by the more than 40 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 2.1 million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.

The Best Of Houzz badge is awarded annually, in three categories: Design, Customer Service and Photography. Design awards honor professionals whose work was the most popular among the Houzz community. Customer Service honors are based on several factors, including a pro's overall rating on Houzz and client reviews submitted in 2018. Architecture and interior design photographers whose images were most popular are recognized with the Photography award.

A “Best Of Houzz 2019” badge will appear on winners’ profiles as a sign of their commitment to excellence. These badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated home professionals in every metro area on Houzz.

“We are very excited to have been voted best of Houzz 2019. Our happy clients are the best indicator that our purpose as re modelers is being fulfilled.” - Ben (Hamilton Tile)

"Best of Houzz is a true badge of honor as it is awarded by our community of homeowners, those who are hiring design, remodeling and other home improvement professionals for their projects,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of Industry Marketing for Houzz. “We are excited to celebrate the 2019 winners chosen by our community as their favorites for home design and customer experience, and to highlight those winners on the Houzz website and app."

Follow Hamilton Tile on Houzz

About Hamilton Tile

We are tile guys with a passion and a purpose. A passion for building with material that truly stands the test of time and a purpose to provide our customers with a finished product that we both can take pride in. We know there are many builders you can chose to do your project but with us you get experienced specialized craftsmen with a plan and the will to complete your tile or stone project to a very high level of finish. No short cuts taken, just the best value for your money. We are the guys you can trust to install a waterproof shower or custom back splash because we look at every job like an audition. What makes us most proud is when people call us time and time again or pass our name on to friends. If you're looking for installers with the highest quality standards and if you appreciate hand made craftsmanship, please give us a call. Professional Finish, Tidy service...Detail oriented tile guys.

About Houzz

Houzz is the leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish – online or from a mobile device. From decorating a small room to building a custom home and everything in between, Houzz connects millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world. With the largest residential design database in the world and a vibrant community empowered by technology, Houzz is the easiest way for people to find inspiration, get advice, buy products and hire the professionals they need to help turn their ideas into reality. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Houzz also has international offices in London, Berlin, Sydney, Moscow, Tel Aviv and Tokyo. Houzz is a registered trademark of Houzz Inc. worldwide. For more information, visit houzz.com.

Tile fireplace remodel in Milton, GA.

Fireplace tile remodel in Milton, GA.

A fun project video for you to check out:

A master bathroom remodel in Kennesaw, GA. The before and after!

Kennesaw, GA master bathroom shower.

This is one of our latest bathroom remodels in Kennesaw, GA. I really enjoyed this one and I’m really proud of how it turned out. This homeowner was really our ideal customer. We have a bit of an unorthodox process when it comes to the initial phone call. We usually try to get the majority of the ‘discovery’ and ‘qualification’ (if you will) done over the phone and e-mail. We do this because we’re a two man crew and we’re extremely busy with the act of building showers and doing tile work. If we ran out and saw everything we received a call about we’d have no time for anything. I always say “You can just as easily tell me no over the phone!” Most people understand where we’re coming from and this homeowner was one of them. I usually start out by asking for some pictures of the space they want remodeled and for them to also choose out what kind of tile their interested in by visiting a couple tile stores we work with. The sales people at the stores help with design. When I show up for an in home consultation, I want people to have an idea of what they want, because pricing can vary so much based on what tile someone chooses. It works out great for everyone when our system is utilized. These folks were more than happy to collaborate with us and trust our expertise and we were able to produce a really great finished product for them. That’s what I love about this business, when you do things right, you know it, because you get happy customers and beautiful tile work.

The glass is attached to a membrane and that allows you to build it out to be flush with the outside field tile.

My favorite part of this job was putting all the parts together and saving the glass decorative band for last. It was the most technical part of the install and I saved it for last! I cut about 100 glass arabesque variations in half, and the trick with glass is to cut it so the colored paper on the back doesn’t blow out and cause a jagged edge when everything is grout up. So, I cut each piece of the glass, one by one, being sure not to mess up, and then I sanded the sharp edge on each and every one of the glass pieces. I then put all the sheets together with the halves and measured the height of it all and cut the length to fit. because the glass was thinner than the outside field tile, I had to install it on a membrane so I could build out the band to be flush with the field. I let that all dry over night, cut the length in half and then, the moment of truth…will it fit?! I put it all up, and guess what…DIDN’T FIT! So I had to cut the top 6 inches off and trim a quarter inch off, no biggie, right? Just for that one glass decorative band down the center of the shower, Two Days labor! Gosh.

The best part, though, was when it was all grouted up. I get why people want glass tile. It looks SMOKING when it’s done. Boy, it is hard to work with, but when it’s put together to a high level it is amazing.

Another neat part of the job was that we were able to use Schluter’s new foam pan that has the waterproofing already attached to it. It worked out really great. Schluter’s engineers really aced it! They pretty much solved all the issues with the old foams pans with this new one. It’s a lot more stiff/sturdy, it’s a bit bigger than the old pan and the slope is right on the money. Makes for a very nice shower floor because the slope is very consistent. Far less build up putting it all together as well. We ended up self leveling inside the shower pan, and when it was time to set tile, it was dead nuts level all the way around. Can’t ask for much more that that!

Good times.

BEFORE:

We took the wall out and the framed door. The homeowner had to duck his head to fit under the door frame. This thing was built before the sale of this house and looked and performed just well enough to sell the house.

I’ll never understand natural stone. I am not a fan, generally.

That drain was packed tight! The pan wasn’t draining correctly so the natural stone shower floor looked (and was) permanently wet.

This corner bench was a wood box built on top of the shower pan with tile set directly to wood. This shower had a permanent stink to it, and it was coming from the swamp that was inside and all around this corner bench.

AFTER:

The shower leaked and this persons insurance company paid for the bathroom floor. Not bad, all things considered. Straight set 12x24’s is always the way to go! Not only do you get a flatter floor, and the ability to get larger pieces everywhere in your layout, it’s also a more contemporary, modern look.

The corner bench was designed for leg shaving only. Generally, people don’t even sit on the big corner benches and simply use them for “stuff”…this one was made smaller for a singular purpose. We’ve been doing that a lot. so it may be a trend. We used color matched Schluter profiles to edge this tile. This is another trend, moving away from antiquated bull nose.

This is a glass band falling into a penny round floor. We used a hard surface curb for easy cleaning.

Originally, this floor had 12x12 porcelain tile…rounded edges. They upgraded to this large format, rectified edge tile. The difference in daily use is going to be astronomical. This is why we remodel, and why you want a new bathroom.

Your new bathroom, what will it cost?

A recurring theme and the reason you are here: what’s my master bathroom going to cost me to remodel? I’m sitting here thinking with dread about the writing of this post because of the magnitude of the undertaking. It’s simply such a huge question with so many different variables.  In a perfect world I’d love for people to be able to think more about the VALUE they are getting added to their house and life, but we live in a physical world, where people get money (through work or however else) and it’s put in a bank account. It becomes the means to purchase what we want. So, the numbers are very often of the utmost importance. Most people think, what is the most I can get for the amount of money that I have.

The biggest problem with many of the calls I get is that people vastly underestimate what things cost in 2019. I’m starting to get used to the arbitrary numbers and time frames people come up with, but it’s taken some time. A lot of this is coming from the DIY television shows, where within a half hour they’ll have the before and after and say it all cost $3,000! Another scenario is that people will go on Houzz or Pinterest and see this intricate tile work and say, “I want that!” The reality is that the work you’re seeing on those sites is someone’s top tier work, with massively expensive material, and all we see is the finished product without the context as to what it took to get that space to those breath taking finished photos.

I’ll say it plainly, all tile work doesn’t cost one base price. Square foot price for a bathroom? I don’t even think in those terms! The example I like is when you’re buying a car. You can buy the low end one with no features or you can buy the high end one with all the bells and whistles. Buying a car and tile work are similar in that fact that they are both INHERENTLY EXPENSIVE. If you want tile built to last and done correctly, it’s going to cost you. “Correctly” is not a subjective term, by the way. “Correctly” means built according to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and TCNA (Tile Council of North America) standards. Tile is a permanent finish, and any great tile guy is going to come at it with the ‘forever’ mindset.  

Why is there so much variation in the cost of remodeling with tile?

1.       The cost of the material. Where are you buying your tile from? Are you buying it from a whole sale shop like Floor and Décor? At a store like that you’re dealing with a lot of seconds. Low end tile coming from far away places like Turkey that don’t have the same quality standards and haven’t gone through the same rigorous quality control. A tile from Italy or Germany where the standard of living is higher will usually be better than a tile from China. I could get into the politics of all of this but instinctively, I think you can square the circle. Our projects are more expensive because we always recommend that our customers go to a real tile supplier, where if there is a problem with the tile, there is some form of accountability.

 On the subject of accountability, a quick story. We were working for a friend who was setting large format plank tile throughout an entire house. We finished setting the tile, started grouting, and as we were grouting the finish of the porcelain tile would scratch, just by grout being cleaned up with a sponge. The sand in the grout was scratching the finish off the tile. We brought this up to Floor and Décor and they couldn’t even tell us who the tile was supplied from. They gave the homeowner the cost of the tile back, but that was it. He was caught with the labor cost and a floor that scratched from looking at it. Imagine the headache.

 We regularly use this story. We’ve been using Tile House in Marietta for years now, where you walk in and Cindy comes out and helps you with design. A truly knowledgeable person who has been at this for a long time, a careerist in fact, and has a grasp on all aspects of tile work. Yes, the tile is traditionally not in stock, but it’s within 3-5 days.

You don’t get the same same level of service and know how at Floor and Décor. It’s rare to run in to someone that knows anything about tile, Oh sure, they’ll act like they do, but really? Almost every time I walk in the place, there are new people working at the front desk. I am a man of routine, of habits and the difference between great tile work and bad tile work is the store and the builder having a system in place to attain high end finishes. I’ve heard many builders say they don’t even let their customers shop at Floor and Decor. We are a bit more flexible than that, but with that flexibility comes hassle for us! Hassle means we have to get paid more for our services. Something to think about!

Another thing that bugs me is that they take returns on tile, which is good and bad. Yes, you can return the tile you bought if you have extra, but it just goes back into the pile and the next person gets tile that is not of the same dye lot! So, it may look completely different when it’s put up.

 Floor and Décor is good for SOME THINGS, like setting materials, but they are extremely hit or miss. The lines, the staffing. It’s a good place for a homeowner that wants to go in and put hands on material, see it, touch it….It’s a nightmare for a legitimate installer that’s running on tight margins. For someone who knows what they’re doing and knows what they’re looking at, It’s not the place to be. Something to think about, cheap tile will cost more to have someone make it look good. There will be more skill involved to make it work! So, where are the cost savings, really?

 Tile cost, anywhere from $2 a square foot to $50 a sqft.  The average master bath will have 100sqft inside the shower and 100 sqft outside the shower. The shower floor mosaic tile is usually between $10-$30 a square foot, not to mention the granite if you want hard surface tops, the edging and the prep materials.

 Let’s talk about the prep materials, this is where it gets interesting! There are many ways to prep a bathroom. ‘Prep’ being short for the preparation of the surfaces to make it ready for tile. Some people use modern systems like Wedi or Schluter….Some people go old school and will ‘mud’ the walls, some people will build a ‘water in water out’ shower system, some will use cement board and a topical water proofing, what kind of thin set will the builder use? The bottom line is that if you are the average consumer…This is the part you probably know nothing about, but is the most important part of the whole job. This is where you lose your shirt if you don’t dot your I’s and cross your t’s.

 This is where the difference of thousands between each bid will manifest itself. How is the builder waterproofing? Realize that there are many ways to prep a bathroom, so it’s important to determine what you’re paying for as far that goes. Your shower on average will see 1100 inches of water per person per year. Your roof sees 30….the waterproofing is very important. You make your choice on how you want your stuff built, I have lots of information on this site about prep and there’s plenty more on YouTube if you’re interested.  This is the part of the build where a contractor will ‘save you money’ by cutting corners and hurting you in the long run!

 2.       Labor.

What kind of builder are you hiring? The cost of a job will vary based upon how much the skilled tradesmen is going to cost you. I’m always wary when I hear a job will be a “competitive bidding scenario” because that usually means that the person who’s willing to lose the most money will get the job. The person who doesn’t have a grip on their numbers, will win. It can be a race to the bottom in this business. Who you hire and the differences between him and the other guy, is mostly based on common sense. If you value craftsmanship, you’ll pay more. If you want to trust and know the people that are working in your house, you’ll pay more. If you hire a company that has a show room, for example, you’ll pay more. A lot of this is basic business. Companies with high overhead and expenses have to charge more than a guy with a truck that has no workman’s comp, insurance and doesn’t pay taxes. I advise you to put yourself in the builders shoes when you’re hiring. Would you do the work for the amount of money they’re asking to be paid? What do you make to go to work every day? In turn, what does your employer need to bill out? When we do a master bathroom, we set up in our client’s house for two weeks on average. Two guys, two weeks….countless hours in traffic….We don’t do multiple jobs, or work on the side….we have families too. So that is a good baseline question. Would I do this amount of work, for  the money this builder is asking for? If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. As the old saying goes, Good work aint cheap…Cheap work aint good!

 Not to get too far into politics, but from what I see here in Georgia, many builders use the most marginalized people in society to work construction. We all watch the news. I’ll leave it at that. This isn’t your grandpa’s construction business! Ask the builder, who will be working in my house? If you don’t care, that’s fine, but a bathroom remodel is not a risk free endeavor, and if you can’t afford to do it twice, use caution! If you’re going to go with the lower price, ask yourself if you think that guy will be in business in six years if you need him…80% of construction businesses go out of business in the first five years.

In our bids, we build into our price the amount of time we have to spend on fixing others peoples mediocre work that was done when the house was originally built. When we rip something apart, we own it and we’re also responsible for getting it back to a place where that structure can accept high end building material. It’s not easy. A framing crew in GA will frame an entire house in two days, that’s quite a few corners cut that trickle down to us during the remodel. How much fixing is the other bid going to do, in order to get your house structurally sound? Every. single. job we do has a major amount of framing that has to be fixed, floors that have to be flatted and re enforced, plumbing that has to be properly done. That all adds time, which in turn is money.

Do you know why not many people build according to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and TCNA (Tile Council of North America) Standards? It’s because it takes more time and skill, therefore it costs more money!

 I have a popular blog post about what to watch out for when hiring a re modeler. Check it out here. My favorite is “The cult of personality hire” I think the term is an original creation of mine based on what I’ve seen.

 3.       What are you wanting done?

I have another blog post called “How to save money on your next bathroom remodel.” The post lays out some pretty simple steps to save some money. If you’re moving walls, plumbing, electric. More money. Intricate tile patterns. More money….Are you using a designer or a “design build firm” more money. Are you getting a soap niche, a corner bench, a decorative inset band? That’ll all drive up the cost as well. Sometimes, if you are on a fixed budget and you’re not willing to budge, you will have to change the scope! I know, no one wants to hear that. We want what we want, when we want it! If you’re working with a good builder, they are flexible. This is ultimately a collaboration, so be someone that’s willing to collaborate if it’s not possible to do what you want done with your budgeted funds.

Generally, that describes where the variations in pricing between builders comes from. It requires you to use some common sense and think like the business person you’re wanting to hire. The old saying goes ‘you get what you pay for.’ I like to add to that by saying, TRUST BUT VERIFY! The best way to verify is by looking online to see if the company you’re looking to use does content marketing. The photos and videos the company has made of them working will tell you all you need to know.

 One of my favorite things to tell a potential client who has the arbitrary number of $10k that they want to spend is, start adding up the numbers. When the average free standing tub is $2000 dollars, plus the fixture at another $800 plus the cost of the plumber to put it in, we’re at $4000 roughly already. Just start adding up the parts in your head. I like to send old bids to potential customers so they can see for themselves how fast it all adds up.

When I get the arbitrary number of $5k for a stand up shower and the prep material is at $1k, the frame less glass door that everyone wants to have is at $1-3k, the tile is at roughly $1k, add the fixtures and the licensed plumber, there’s not a ton left over…$2k for taxes, miscellaneous supplies, wear and tear on tools,  one week of labor costs for two people, countless other problems to solve,  overhead, and yes, PROFIT. People should not have a business with out profit. “Free” and cheap are trigger words for me. We’ll always end up paying, one way or another.

Our average stand up shower costs $12-20k. Most of your money will be inside your shower, Add another $2-4k for the average master bathroom floor.

We are a company that will do partial bathrooms. A lot of our bathrooms are showers and floors, because the showers are built so atrociously bad and they are failing (leaking) so, they absolutely have to be done. The showers we tear out are the famous 5 year specials! Our average cost for a bathroom without new counter tops, paint, toilets, cabinets, electric, minimal plumbing, come in around $15-25k.. Sometimes, the customer will paint the area themselves and do their own drywall if necessary.

A full gut, new everything, usually comes in anywhere from $30-50k.

 Which, in my opinion is a steal compared to a “design build” firm that will easily want $50k. Yes, you won’t get the CAD drawings with us, but you’ll get far better craftsmanship because we don’t necessarily focus on the bells and whistles of the sale, we focus on building you something that will last forever and function as it should.

I also want to talk a little bit about designers. When you hire designers, they’re famous for going after the aesthetic. They generally focus on the looks, while ignoring the functionality. We worry about, what will the maintenance of this shower/bathroom be like? Will it be easy to clean? What will this tile look like in 20 years? I see many ‘designer’ showers that will mix porcelain tile, warped…strange patterns that don’t meet TCNA standards (brick set 12”x24”s for example) and a natural stone shower floor that gets pitted and nasty in one year! They’ll say…”Of course we can do 1/16” grout joints”….without ever taking into account what the tile manufacturer calls for! They’re generally famous for making promises that can’t be kept by the installer. The perfect mix is a designer that thinks like an installer, who also thinks about what it’ll be like to USE the shower everyday! Yeah, you’ll pay extra for that, when using a design/build construction company.

If you’ve found someone, or if you’re doing a full gut yourself, think about how many corners will have to be cut to get it in at $10k. Maybe you don’t cut any corners, think about how much effort, time and hassle YOU (yourself) will have to put into your project. Do you really know enough about the in’s and out’s of building to under take the management of your own bathroom remodel. I can give you phone numbers of multiple homeowners who took it on themselves thinking they were well equipped, only to find out they didn’t know half of what they needed to and simply didn’t have the experience necessary to manage a high end bathroom remodel. Those are the people who are thankful they found Jason to help them along! When you GC your bathroom yourself, you won’t be getting the level of detail that you see on this site. Maybe you “don’t need all that.” I hear that frequently, but I advise you to think about the RETURN ON INVESTMENT. If you have the ability to put the $30k into a bathroom and you can easily sell your house for good money when you inevitably move, you become the winner. Most of the tile work I see out there WILL NOT sell a house. What does any real estate person say, The money is in the kitchens and bathrooms.

People suffer “sticker shock” at the initial price of a bathroom and they’ll usually end up spending more than their original budget anyway. It’s a lot to take in, but hopefully this blog post warms you up to the reality of remodeling. I spoke earlier about a bathroom remodel not being a ‘risk free’ endeavor. You may be surprised to know that 1/3rd of our customers this year were folks who had another company start (or finish) their project and had to fire them and have our company come in to clean up the mess. This happens more than people believe. I always ask, how much did you pay the other guy, and without fail it’s a number that leaves Jason and I wondering, “what did you expect?”

It’s not a scare tactic when I warn people on this site, Remodeling is a SKILLED TRADE. For whatever reason, mostly involving politics and sociology in my opinion, the trades are dying, and that’s resulting in higher prices for great work. What we’re also seeing out there, is an overall decline in quality and that is becoming the new normal.  All work is not the same. My perfect scenario would be to be able to bring a potential client through one of my bathrooms, then through the competitions’. That’s why I do a lot of video!

In a nutshell: Our prices: January - December 2018 (Atlanta, GA)

$10-20k for a standup shower.

Add $2-4k for a the outside floor .These are based on the average size of a middle class home in the Atlanta area.

Average partial bathroom remodel this year has been $12-25k.

Add $3-5k for a curbless shower, all to eliminate that 4” curb! The height for the slope to the drain has to come from somewhere! Learn more here.

Add a heated floor $1.5-2.5k - the expense comes in running an independent electrical line to your bathroom if necessary.

Average full bath gutted: $30-50k.

Average jack and jill or side bathroom is $12k-15k

 Can be way more or way less, but again these are general numbers.

Fight the urge to search for a deal... From my experience, the people looking for a deal are the ones who take a loss.

My main hope with this post is to inform people in the “price discovery” phase. I empathize with people who are in this phase and I’m hopeful that this post is helpful and will save you a chunk of time.

Good luck!