Preparation is the job
A tiler is only as good as the surface underneath. In Brentwood houses that usually means overboarding a springy timber floor, self-levelling a screed that has dipped, or flattening a wall that is 15mm out over two metres before anything is set out. We price preparation openly rather than tiling over a problem and blaming the building later.
CM13 to CM15 substrates
Brentwood is largely interwar and post-war detached and semi-detached housing on generous plots, with substantial period property around Shenfield and Hutton. Shenfield and Hutton houses are big, so rooms are large enough for wall-hung suites, islands and large-format tile, and the setting out matters more than in a small room. That decides the boarding, adhesive class and whether a decoupling layer is needed, and it goes in the quote as a visible line.
Large format and natural stone
Tiles over 600x1200 need full back-buttering, a flat bed and laser-checked levels or every lip shows in raking light. Marble and light stone are sealed before grouting and fixed in white adhesive so nothing bleeds through.
Wet rooms and tanking
Wet areas get cement or foam board, two-coat tanking with taped joints and reinforced corners, formed falls and a linear drain. Tanking is never skipped to hit a price.
Tiling across Brentwood
Brentwood is roughly forty minutes from our base, so jobs are booked as continuous days — set out, fix, grout, silicone — rather than trailing over three weeks. A lot of CM13 to CM15 stock has already been extended once, which means mixed floor levels and build-ups that have to be levelled before anything is fixed down.