Laying tile? how much$$$$$$ ??

[Dahitman44]

Any BALLPARK ideas how much it should cost to lay standard 12-inch square pattern tile? The kitchen doe have a few strange angle cuts, but that should just be part of the job?

Thanks!

Hit

[GatorBait]

What kind of sq.footage are we talking about?

[Dahitman44]

Oh it is about 88 sf.

[clownshack]

Depending on the tile and sub-floor anywhere from $8 to $16 installed for standard 12" ceramic

[slammer]

8-16$ per sq foot??? Can I come and work for you? I need to raise prices!

[daylate]

I charge $4.50/ square foot for tile on a straight lay. If you need a subfloor installed it would be an additional $1.50/sq foot. Thats labor only price.

[JohnMickish]

Lets remember fellas, if your advertising your services or looking to hire services off of the forum your looking to get yourself into trouble since that is against forum policy.

It's ok to discuss pricing, but don't take it any further.

[quijibo]

How do you guys pay your employees charging so little? Not to mention insurances.

[delcecchi]

How do you guys pay your employees charging so little? Not to mention insurances.

$4.50 to lay a square foot tile is "so little"? Yes, some have to be cut, but 700 bucks for a 12 by 12 room seems like plenty. How much time would that take?

[bradyd]

$4.50 is exactly what our tile guy charges us for our jobs.

[LightningBG]

$4.50 to lay a square foot tile is "so little"? Yes, some have to be cut, but 700 bucks for a 12 by 12 room seems like plenty. How much time would that take?

12x12 I would imagine would take a day to lay, a day to grout. (at most I would imagine).

[LightningBG]

OK, so I talked to my friend that used to own a tile business (until he got a different job offer and took it).

He said. 88 sq ft. Would take about 4-5 hours to lay, 1-2 hours to grout

If it was over concrete cost would be about $5/sq ft (including all materials except tile)

If over wood, would be about $8 Sq Ft (which would include the cost of the underlayment and all thin set/grout, etc)

[daylate]

LightningBG is fairly accurate. $4.50 is middle of the road. There are alot of self employed tile setters that would do it for less. Involve any store or contractor and you will pay alot more. For example HM DPT will charge $6.50 as a starting point.

[clownshack]

Just so everybody keeps there panties in place, I answered the OP, Materials and Labor, Typical install from my subs. Sorry if this offends anyone, but this is going rate for standard ceramic tile and underlayment.

[delcecchi]

I don't think anyone was upset. Does the 8 to 16 you quoted include the tile? I guess a lot depends on the prep work necessary.

[jeffreyd]

I had 1800 sq put down, they pulled up old tile and ground the floor down, pulled the toilets put in new wax rings, in for 7200. It was 18 inch tile on an angle. This figured to 4 bucks a sq which included all the above, tile, grout, and thinset. that was 4 yrs ago.

[clownshack]

I was quoting a complete job tile and sub-floor. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[clownshack]

1800sf is not in the same ballpark as 88sf. The costs are way different when you start looking at a 3-4 day job vs a 1/2 day job. Looks like you got a fair deal for the sf you revealed.

[hitthebricks]

I'm with Quijibo on this, 144 sq. ft. is a 6 hr job to set, 2.5 hrs. to grout the next day, plus advertising costs, time to estimate the job, insurance, setup time, equipment, gas. At that prices I can not afford to pay anyone but myself a lousy wage of about 4-8 bucks per hr as a skilled tradesman. The problem now is every skilled tradesman to a marginal handyman is now a competitor of in that respective trade and also many people working side jobs are still collecting unemployment driving the costs and expenses of legitimate contractors to the point where we will all be hustling to make 4-8/hr. including our equipment/gas and labor. Don't cut your own throat by cutting your wages. As a licensed and insured contractor I believe in a good living wage for a good days work.

I agree there is a few contractors that are way out of line because of overhead cost but most small business are charging a minimum if not less.

Sorry to rant

HTB

[daylate]

HTB- Well said.

[delcecchi]

I'm with Quijibo on this, 144 sq. ft. is a 6 hr job to set, 2.5 hrs. to grout the next day, plus advertising costs, time to estimate the job, insurance, setup time, equipment, gas. At that prices I can not afford to pay anyone but myself a lousy wage of about 4-8 bucks per hr as a skilled tradesman. The problem now is every skilled tradesman to a marginal handyman is now a competitor of in that respective trade and also many people working side jobs are still collecting unemployment driving the costs and expenses of legitimate contractors to the point where we will all be hustling to make 4-8/hr. including our equipment/gas and labor. Don't cut your own throat by cutting your wages. As a licensed and insured contractor I believe in a good living wage for a good days work.

I agree there is a few contractors that are way out of line because of overhead cost but most small business are charging a minimum if not less.

Sorry to rant

HTB

144 square feet at $5 per square foot (low according to some folks above) is $720. $720/8.5hrs is $84.70per hour. If you are only getting $8/hr, that is 68 bucks so you are spending $650 on overhead on that job?

Something doesn't add up. Sounds like you should only take larger jobs.

I agree that someone working a trade has to make a living wage. but please don't try to blow smoke up an orifice with this stuff.

[daylate]

Del, you have a very good point. As a tile setter myself I would say that it isn't quiet that black and white. overhead is more like $20-$25 per hour. the mentioned job of 144 sq feet would take 8-9 actual working hours but is done over 2 days. So one job just took up 2 days time. The remainder of those 2 days is spent driving, setup/clean-up, picking up supply's/tile, meeting with customers, submitting bids, paying bills, catching up with paperwork.

I guess my rambling point is setting tile is the only thing you actually get paid to do but alot more goes into it than that. It is a good way to make a living for a highly skilled and motivated person who doesn't mind taking a shower after work every day(instead of before)

-Oh, I almost forgot. That second day of 2.5 hours of grouting is a great day to go out and ice fish afterwards!

[delcecchi]

I wasn't trying to say that 6 dollars a square foot is outrageous. But the claim that someone only could pay 4 to 8 bucks an hour out of that seemed a little hard to understand, so I posted the calculation.

I guess that is why one place wanted so much to put new vinyl on my 100 sq ft breezeway some years ago. They wanted like 1200 bucks. Old vinyl was from 70's and embossed and supposedly asbestos. So it is still there with a carpet remnant on top. Guy can buy a lot of crankbaits and boat gas for 1200 bucks. At least that is what I recall the price quote being.

Anyone know if one could put down ceramic or whatever on concrete in an unheated space, like my breezeway (if all all the current junk on the floor were gone)?

[daylate]

yeah the 4-8 bucks an hour thing was pretty preposterous. Tiling over concrete in an unheated space is no problem. It also may be possible(and much easier) to tile over the vinyl. It must be clean(dirt and wax removed), not pealing, and roughed up. and it would have to wait for spring.

[delcecchi]

Thanks. I don't know if I will ever do it. If I do it might be a do it myself thing. It is a nice small area and rectangular. The walls are wooden combination doors (old style) so they might go at the same time.

[slammer]

HTB is right on. Alot of these guys will do your work and you will never see them again. Most will not be trained, licensed, or insured. Those of us that take the time to keep up on industry standards and all the rules and regs are the one feeling the pinch from being undercut by the "know it alls". Our rates are based on all the things HTB said. Most all our expenses come from our pocket. Do some research b/4 you hire the cheapest price.