Bathroom drywall and wall preparation, Etobicoke and Toronto.
The wall is the thing the tile hangs on. It is worth having the same person build it and tile it.
Send a few photos and the rough size — you get a written price the same day. No site visit, no sales call.
What's included
Everything in the quote, listed.
Written out so nothing appears as an extra later. If something on your job falls outside this, it is named in the quote — not discovered on the invoice.
- Old tile, board and any damaged framing removed back to the studs
- Framing checked for plumb, twist and rot, and corrected before anything is boarded
- Blocking added for grab bars, benches, niches and heavy fixtures
- Cement board or foam board to every wet area, drywall to dry areas
- Seams taped, corners banded, fasteners set below the surface
- Waterproofing membrane over the wet-area board, detailed at corners and penetrations
- Walls left flat and in plane, ready to tile without shimming
How it is done
The parts of the job you will never see again.
Once the tile is down, every quote looks the same. This is what separates them while the floor is still open.
- 01
The wall is made straight before it is made waterproof
A wall that is out of plane cannot be fixed with adhesive later. Large-format tile shows it immediately — one end of a slab sits proud and the joint opens. So the framing is checked and corrected first, and the board goes on flat, because every problem left in the wall at this stage is still there when the tile is on it.
- 02
Drywall does not go behind tile in a shower
Ordinary drywall — including the green moisture-resistant kind — is not a tiling substrate for a wet area. Wet zones get cement board or foam board, dry zones get drywall, and the line between them is decided by where water actually goes, not by where the tile stops.
- 03
Blocking goes in while the wall is open
A grab bar, a bench or a heavy vanity needs something solid to fix into, and the only cheap moment to add it is now. Even where nothing is planned yet, blocking at grab-bar height costs almost nothing while the studs are exposed and is a wall rebuild once they are not.
- 04
The same person boards it and tiles it
When boarding and tiling are two trades, the boundary between them is where responsibility goes missing — the tiler says the wall was out, the boarder says the tile was set badly. Here there is nobody to hand that to, which is the point.
From his jobs
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Glass-mat board to the wet walls, niche framed into the opening -
Sealed waterproof board behind, slabs going on over it
What it costs
What actually moves the number.
Anyone quoting this job without seeing these four things is guessing, and the guess gets corrected halfway through the work.
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How much has to come out
Taking one wall back to the studs is a different job from taking a whole bathroom back. What has to come out is usually clear from photographs.
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What is found in the framing
Rot around a shower base or a leaking valve, or studs that have twisted, mean repair before rebuild. This is the most common thing to be discovered on opening a wall.
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Wet area versus dry area
Cement board and membrane cost more than drywall in both material and time. The bigger the wet zone, the more of the wall is in the expensive category.
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Whether the plumbing moves
Relocating a valve or a shower head means opening more wall and coordinating with a plumber, which changes both the price and the schedule.
Get a quote
Six short questions. A written price the same day.
No site visit to get a number, and no sales call afterwards. If the budget is not right, you will know from the reply instead of from an afternoon off work.
Rather just talk? (437) 875-1982 · English, русский, українська
- Liability insurance in place. Certificate on request.
- Written warranty on the workmanship, on request.
Questions
What people ask about this job.
Can you do the drywall as well, or do I need a separate trade?
He does it. Walls are stripped, framing corrected, boarded and waterproofed by the same person who tiles them, so there is no gap between two trades for a problem to fall into.
Can green drywall be used in a shower instead of cement board?
No. Moisture-resistant drywall is for damp rooms, not for behind tile in a shower. Wet areas get cement board or foam board with a membrane over it.
Do I need to decide about grab bars now?
It helps. Blocking is cheap while the wall is open and expensive afterwards, so it is usually worth putting it in even if nothing is being mounted yet.