Tiles set straight, the first time.
Bathrooms, kitchens, floors and wet areas across St Kilda and the surrounding bayside suburbs. Preparation, waterproofing and setting out done properly before the first tile is fixed.
Photos of the area help — send them with your enquiry and the quote comes back in writing. Contact details.
ST KILDA · ST KILDA EAST · ELWOOD · BALACLAVA · WINDSOR · PRAHRAN · ALBERT PARK
SERVICE AREA — BAYSIDE MELBOURNE
01 —
What we can look at for you
Wet areas. Shower walls and floors, bath surrounds, falls to the waste, membrane and screed. The tiling is the visible half; the set-out and the fall decide whether it works in five years. Bathroom & shower tiling
Floors. Hallways, living areas, laundries and balconies — large-format porcelain, ceramic and mosaic. Substrate is checked and levelled before anything is fixed. Floor tiling
Splashbacks and feature walls. Kitchen splashbacks cut around power points and rangehoods, subway and stack-bond layouts, mitred external corners. Kitchen tiling
Repairs, regrouting and leaking showers. Drummy or cracked tiles, tired grout, silicone junctions that have failed, showers that are wetting the wall next door. Repairs & regrouting
02 —
Three jobs that come up most weeks
The images below are reference photography showing the type of work and the finishes we talk through with clients — tile format, joint width and where the cuts land. Photographs of completed jobs are added here as clients agree to them being published.
Bathrooms and showers
Full wall and floor tiling, hobs and niches, shower falls set to the waste, membrane taken up the walls and into the junctions before tiling begins.
Kitchen splashbacks
Cut cleanly around power points, window returns and rangehoods. The set-out starts from the cooktop centre line so the pattern reads straight where people actually look.
Floors and repairs
New floors over checked and levelled substrate, plus replacement of drummy or cracked tiles where the surrounding floor is sound and matching stock can be found.
03 —
The setting-out sheet
DATUM
LAYOUT
CUTS
FALLS
JUNCTIONS
SEALING
Datum
A level line is marked around the room before anything is fixed, because floors and ceilings in older bayside flats are rarely true. Everything above and below is measured from that one line.
Layout
Tiles are dry-laid to decide where the full tiles sit and where the narrow cuts end up. On a 600 × 600 format, a 20 mm shift in the set-out is the difference between a clean corner and a sliver.
Cuts
Cuts are kept off the sight lines: away from the shower entry, behind the vanity, low on the wall. External corners are mitred or trimmed depending on the tile edge and the traffic it will take.
Falls
Shower floors are screeded to fall toward the waste — commonly around 1:100 — and checked with water before tiling. A floor that ponds is a screed problem, not a grout problem.
Junctions
Wall-to-floor and internal corners move. They are detailed with bond breakers and flexible sealant rather than rigid grout, so hairline cracking does not open a path for water.
Sealing
Grout colour is chosen with you, joints are filled solid and cleaned back the same day. Porous stone and some porcelains are sealed before grouting so the surface does not stain.
04 —
Where the water actually goes
Most leaking showers we are called to look at are not tiling failures. They are membrane, fall or junction failures — water finding a path at the floor-to-wall corner, at the hob, or around the waste.
In wet areas the screed is set to fall toward the waste, then primed, then covered with membrane carried up the walls and into every corner and left to cure before tiling. It is the part of the job you never see once the tiles are down, and the only part that cannot be corrected later without removing them.
05 —
Where we work
St Kilda · St Kilda East · St Kilda West · Elwood · Balaclava · Ripponlea · Windsor · Prahran · Albert Park · Middle Park · South Melbourne · Port Melbourne · South Yarra · Caulfield · Brighton
The work in this pocket of Melbourne has a particular character: 1920s and 30s flats with timber floors that need sheeting before tiling, brick period homes with uneven wall substrates, and newer apartments with strata rules about noise, lift access and waste removal. All of it affects the preparation and the time on site, and all of it is discussed before the quote goes out.
If your suburb is not listed, ask — nearby areas are often still workable.
06 —
Tiling advice
Signs shower waterproofing has failed
Swollen skirting in the next room, a musty smell, paint bubbling on the far side of the shower wall. What to check, and what a repair usually involves. Bathroom & shower tiling
Porcelain or ceramic — which suits the job
Water absorption, edge strength, slip rating and cost, and why porcelain usually wins on floors while ceramic is fine on a splashback. See tiling services
What causes drummy tiles
Hollow-sounding tiles usually point to poor adhesive coverage, movement in the substrate, or a missing movement joint — and how much has to come up. Ask us to look
Get a free quote
Tell us the suburb, the room, roughly how many square metres, the tile you have in mind if you know it, and when you would like it done. Photos of the area make the estimate far more accurate — especially for repairs, regrouting and leaking showers.
What happens next
1. We read the details and come back with any questions — access, existing tiles, whether the room is stripped.
2. Where it is needed, we arrange a look at the site. Some repairs can be quoted from photos alone.
3. You receive a written quote setting out preparation, materials, tiling and waterproofing separately, so you can see what you are paying for.
Tiling, waterproofing and tile repairs across St Kilda and the surrounding bayside Melbourne suburbs.