Bathroom tile installation
Bathroom tile
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Bathroom Remodeling in Frederick & Central MD
Shower waterproofing
The stage nobody sees and everybody pays for twice if it is wrong. A bonded membrane system over the pan and walls, detailed at every corner, curb, niche and penetration before a single tile is set.
Licensed & insuredFree written estimatesFrederick-based crewClean-site guarantee
Quick answer
How do I know if my shower is leaking behind the tile?
The early signs are not in the shower. Look for a soft or discoloured patch on the ceiling below, a skirting board swelling in the next room, a musty smell near the base of the wall, or grout that stays dark for days. In the shower itself, loose tiles low down and grout that keeps cracking in the same corner both point the same way.
The work
What waterproofing actually involves.
Tile is not waterproof and grout is not waterproof. Water passes through both, slowly and continuously, for the entire life of the shower. What stops it reaching the timber behind is a membrane, and whether that membrane was installed properly is invisible the day the job finishes and obvious about three years later.
Almost every failed shower we are called to look at failed in the same few places: an inside corner where the membrane was not lapped, the joint where the pan meets the wall, the flange around the drain, and the top edge of a curb. None of those are difficult. All of them are quick to skip, and skipping them is cheap at the time and very expensive afterwards.
The installation methods are not a matter of opinion. The Tile Council of North America publishes the assemblies — which membrane, which backer board, which mortar, in which order, for a wet area. We build to those methods and we flood test the pan before any tile goes down, because a leak found at that stage costs an afternoon and a leak found later costs the room.
Bonded membrane, not just board
Corners and penetrations detailed
Flood tested before tiling
What waterproofing costs in Maryland
Waterproofing priced as part of a shower build. Shown separately here because it is the stage most often quietly left out of a cheaper quote.
- Standard alcove, pan and three walls
- $1,400 – $2,900
- Large or curbless wet area
- $2,400 – $4,800
- Cement backer board, supplied and set
- $3.50 – $6.00 per square foot
- Pre-formed corners and banding
- $280 – $650
- Niche and bench detailing
- $180 – $450
- Strip out and rebuild a failed shower
- $6,500 – $14,000
Ranges, not quotes. Real numbers come from a walkthrough — access, condition, height and finish level move a price more than square footage does. Estimates are free and in writing.
Get your numberFull waterproofing cost guide for MarylandPrefer to just talk?
Call and describe the job. You’ll get a straight answer on whether it’s something we do and roughly what it runs.
(301) 524-1729
Self-performed
Shower waterproofing
What’s included
Everything the waterproofing scope actually covers.
Written into the estimate, not assumed. If something on your job is not on this list, it gets priced and named before anyone starts.
The right substrate first
01Cement backer or a bonded foam board in the wet area, never ordinary plasterboard and never the moisture-resistant kind, which resists humidity and does nothing about standing water.
Corners and changes of plane
02Pre-formed corners or banded joints at every inside and outside corner, lapped in the direction water travels. This is where failures start and it is the first thing we detail.
Drain flange bonded in
03The membrane taken into and clamped at the drain assembly itself, so there is no gap between the waterproofing and the only hole deliberately left in it.
Curbs, kerbs and thresholds
04Wrapped over the top and down both faces as one continuous piece, because a curb is three changes of direction in nine inches and a seam on top of it will fail.
Penetrations sealed
05Mixer valve, shower arm, body jets and any fixing through the membrane sealed individually, each one treated as a deliberate hole rather than something to be grouted over.
Flood tested before tile
06The pan plugged and filled, left to stand, and checked from below where there is access. We do this before tiling, which is the only point at which the test is still useful.
On the job
Bathroom Remodeling work across Frederick & Central MD.
What the trade looks like at each stage. Photos of our own recent jobs come out at the walkthrough, on the actual house.
Straight answers
Waterproofing questions
Not covered here? Call and ask — you’ll get a real answer, not a “depends on the job”.
No. Green board and its equivalents are made for humid rooms, not for the inside of a wet area, and using them behind tile in a shower is one of the most common shortcuts we find. The wet area needs cement backer or a bonded foam board plus a membrane. Anything less is a repair with a date on it.
Honestly, no, not in a way we would warrant. There are products sold for it and they can buy a year or two, but a membrane only works bonded to a sound substrate, and the existing tile is sitting on whatever already failed. If the shower is leaking, the fix is to take it back and rebuild the wet area properly.
The TCNA Handbook assemblies, which specify the membrane, backer, mortar and sequence for a given wet-area detail. They are published and you can check what we tell you against them. We also flood test the pan before tiling, which is not a standard so much as common sense made a habit.
Same crew, same visit
The rest of the bathroom remodeling work.
Most bathroom remodeling jobs are two or three of these at once, which is why they are priced and scheduled together rather than as separate call-outs.
From the field
Read up before you book.
Longer answers than a quote page has room for — how the work fails, what putting it right actually involves, and when waiting is the honest call.
Sources worth your time
Check us, and check the work
None of these are ours. They are the offices and standards bodies that set the rules we work to, so you can verify what we say rather than take it.
Tile Council of North America
Publishes the TCNA Handbook, the installation-method standard that tells a tiler which membrane, backer and mortar a wet area actually calls for.
OpenEPA indoor air quality
Damp drywall, mould and construction dust are air-quality problems as much as cosmetic ones. Plain guidance from the EPA on both.
OpenMaryland Home Improvement Commission
Check any Maryland contractor's licence before you sign. Ours is on file with the Commission.
Open
Talk to the people doing the work
Get a straight number for the whole job.
Tell us what needs doing. We’ll walk it with you, sequence every trade it touches, put the price in writing, and leave you to decide.
Get a quote
Let’s price your project.
Two short steps. No obligation, no pressure — just a clear number and a straight answer about what the job involves.
Tick as many as you like. Most jobs are two or three of them at once, and I sort out the detail when I come and look. Nobody gets turned away for choosing the wrong box.
