Tiling and Waterproofing in Allentown
Tile and Waterproofing for Allentown Bathrooms
A waterproofing membrane goes on before a single tile is set, floors and walls built to a tested system, grout sealed once everything underneath is dry.
What Goes Under the Tile, and Why It Matters
You end up with tiled floors and walls backed by a continuous waterproofing membrane, so water stays where it is meant to.
This covers waterproofing and tiling a shower, a tub surround, a bathroom floor or a backsplash, and repairing a membrane that has already failed behind existing tile.
It does not cover fitting the vanity or the fixtures once the tile is down, or a full gut of the room. Those sit under Full Bathroom Remodels and Vanities and Storage.
Over three hundred shower pans, tub surrounds and tiled floors waterproofed since 2010, in rowhouses, twins and newer builds across the Lehigh Valley.
Most calls are for a shower wall and pan, a bathroom floor, a tub surround or a backsplash behind a vanity, in roughly that order of how often the phone rings.
A bonded sheet membrane goes behind every tiled wall, an uncoupling mat goes under every tiled floor, and a sloped mortar bed goes under a shower pan rather than a thin dropped-in liner. That is what stops water reaching the joists underneath it.
A homeowner with a stain on the ceiling below the bathroom calls first. A family redoing a bathroom before selling calls next, wanting tile that will not need explaining to a buyer's inspector.
Call (610) 555-0133 for a free look at the room and what is behind the surface. You go from guessing what is under the old tile to knowing exactly what is going back in.
Tiling and waterproofing work covered here
One crew handles the membrane, the mortar bed and the tile, so nothing is handed between two trades that have to agree on the same wall.
- Waterproofing a shower pan and curb
- Tiling a bathroom floor
- Tiling shower walls and a niche
- Waterproofing behind a tub surround
- Repairing a shower pan that is leaking
- Tiling a backsplash behind a vanity
- Heated floor prep under new tile
Retile the old waterproofing, or strip it back to the studs
A cracked tile or two does not always mean the membrane behind it has failed.
Where the membrane is sound, dry behind the wall and the failure is cosmetic, isolated cracked tile or worn grout, the old waterproofing can stay and only the surface gets redone. That is the cheaper route and it is often the right one.
Where there is a soft spot in the floor, a stain on the ceiling below, or grout failing at nearly every seam, the membrane underneath has to be assumed compromised. Retiling over it just buries the same leak under new grout.
Which one applies gets decided once the old tile is off and the substrate underneath is actually visible, including telling you plainly when the cheaper route is the right one.
Cement board and a taped seam, never greenboard and caulk
Kerdi-Band or an equal fabric strip taped into every seam, not a bead of caulk troweled over a gap.
Half-inch cement backer board goes behind every tiled wall, never greenboard, screwed to the studs on a manufacturer's pattern rather than a handful of screws wherever they land.
A bonded sheet waterproofing membrane covers the board, with a fabric strip or pre-formed corner at every seam, every inside angle and every plumbing penetration, because a membrane is only as good as its weakest joint.
Floors get a mortar bed sloped a quarter inch per foot to the drain, not a flat bed with a slope built into the tile itself. Large-format porcelain is set in a full mortar coverage bed rather than dots of thinset, and every membrane is flood tested before the tile goes on top of it.
- Half-inch cement backer board, never greenboard
- Bonded sheet membrane at every wet wall and floor
- Mortar bed sloped a quarter inch per foot to the drain
- Fabric strip taped into every seam and inside corner
- Full mortar bed under large-format porcelain, no dot-and-dab
- Every membrane flood tested before the tile goes on
Ask what membrane and mortar bed is going under your tile before anyone quotes the job, at **(610) 555-0133**.
(610) 555-0133Why do two tile jobs the same size price differently?
The room measures the same either way. What is behind the old surface and what system goes back in is what actually moves the number.
- Size of the tiled area
- A powder room floor and a full shower, tub surround and floor are very different amounts of membrane and tile, and square footage sets the baseline before anything else changes it.
- Waterproofing system chosen
- A sheet membrane and a liquid-applied one differ in labor and cure time, and a mortar bed pan takes longer to build than a preformed one dropped into place.
- Condition of the substrate
- Plaster on lath, a rotted subfloor or a corroded waste stack found once the old tile comes off all change the plan, and none of it is visible until the tear-out starts.
- Tile size and layout pattern
- Large-format tile and a pattern like herringbone take longer to lay out and level than a straight run of standard field tile in the same room.
- Waste stack condition
- A corroded cast iron stack found when the floor opens up for a new pan adds plumbing work ahead of any waterproofing going back in, and it is not something anyone can price before the floor is actually open.
- Extras like a niche or bench
- A tiled niche, bench or accent band adds framing and membrane detailing beyond a plain shower wall or floor, and each one adds its own seams that have to be waterproofed properly.
Every factor above gets confirmed once the old tile is off and the substrate is visible, so the number quoted then is the number kept. Get a free quote
From your first call to a finished bathroom
Two to three weeks door to door, and the noisy work is over well before the halfway point.
Call for a free in-home visit and a start date that works around your one bathroom.
Get a free quoteWhat tiling and waterproofing are worth when you sell
A shower that never leaked is worth more than one a buyer's inspector has questions about.
No published resale report breaks out tiling and waterproofing as its own line item for this region. Remodeling studies that price bathroom work look at the whole room as one job, not the membrane behind the tile, so a specific recovery figure for this piece of it does not exist to quote honestly.
What holds value is invisible once the tile is grouted. A membrane that was flood tested and a mortar bed built to slope, rather than a liner dropped in to finish the job, is what keeps an inspection clean years later. Tile pattern and grout color are the buyer's to redo. A leak found behind new tile at inspection is a repair the seller pays for, and costs more than the waterproofing would have.
What older Allentown bathrooms hide behind the tile
Cast iron waste stacks corrode from the inside out, joists in a pre-war twin were never sized for a mortar bed, and plaster on lath is never a flat surface to tile onto.
- Cast iron stacks hide their own corrosion
- A stack that looks fine from the basement can be paper thin at the shower drain connection. Opening the floor for a new pan is when it gets found, and it has to be dealt with before any waterproofing goes back in, not after.
- Joists were never sized for a tiled floor
- A mortar bed and porcelain tile weigh more than the vinyl or linoleum a floor joist in a rowhouse or twin was built to carry. Some floors need blocking or sistering under the new bed before a membrane is worth installing over it.
- Plaster on lath is never actually flat
- Backer board fastened straight to uneven lath telegraphs every high and low spot into the tile above it. Shimming the board flat before the membrane goes on is routine here and rarely needed on a newer stud wall.
Tiling and waterproofing finished around the Lehigh Valley
Recent tiling and waterproofing work finished for homeowners around the Lehigh Valley, most of it behind a wall nobody sees again.
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Curbless shower in a rowhouse bath
Allentown
A narrow rowhouse bathroom with a stepped tub swapped for a curbless tiled shower, floor sloped to a linear drain set against the original joists.
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Full tile reset over a repaired pan
Bethlehem
A leaking shower pan traced to a corroded fitting, rebuilt with a sloped mortar bed and sheet membrane before the wall tile went back on.
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Herringbone floor in a powder room
Easton
A small powder room floor laid in a herringbone pattern over an uncoupling mat, the layout planned around an off-center drain.
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Shower pan rebuild after a leak
Emmaus
Ceiling staining downstairs traced to a failed preformed pan, replaced with a mortar bed and flood-tested membrane before retiling.
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Tiled tub surround and niche
Whitehall
A tub surround retiled with a recessed niche added, backer board and membrane extended around new framing for the shelf.
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Waterproofed floor over old joists
Macungie
A twin's bathroom floor sistered under a new mortar bed before tiling, after the original joists proved undersized for the load.
What Lehigh Valley customers said about their tile work
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Rated 5 out of 5
Old tile came off and the subfloor under it was rotten. Cost a day and they showed me the wood before it went in the truck. Floor is solid now.
Rich M. Coplay Tiling and Waterproofing -
Rated 5 out of 5
One bathroom in the whole house and two kids. They told me at the measure it would be out nine days and it was out nine days. I planned my week around that number and never had to change it.
Denise K. Allentown Full Bathroom Remodels -
Rated 5 out of 5
My father moved in with us last spring and I called about grab bars. The guy who came out talked me into a curbless pan while the floor was open instead. He was right. Dad gets in on his own now.
Anthony P. Bethlehem Accessible Bathrooms
Ask what a bathroom like yours actually took, and we will tell you the days before we tell you the number.
Get a free quoteFAQs
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about tiling and waterproofing
Can you tile over my existing shower pan?
Only if the pan and the membrane under it are sound. A pan with a soft spot, a stain on the ceiling below it, or grout failing at most seams gets opened up rather than tiled over, because new tile over a failed pan just hides the same leak.
Does the waterproofing cover the whole wall or just the shower?
The membrane covers every tiled surface in a wet area, the full shower or tub enclosure, floor to ceiling, not just the section that gets splashed most. A partial membrane behind full tile is the most common failure we get called to fix.
How long before I can shower after new tile goes in?
Grout needs a few days to cure and any sealant on natural stone needs to dry fully before regular water contact, so the room is usually left alone for about a week after the last tile is set, longer for a mortar bed shower pan.
How do I know if I need a new pan or just new tile?
A soft spot underfoot, a smell that will not go away, or a stain on the ceiling below the bathroom usually means the pan, not just the tile on top of it. We open a corner on the visit to check before pricing either option.
Why does large-format tile cost more to install?
A bigger tile shows every dip in the wall or floor underneath it, so the substrate has to be flatter and the mortar bed more carefully built before it goes on, which adds labor a small mosaic tile never asks for.
Will I be without a bathroom during a tiling job?
If it is the only bathroom in the house, the demo, membrane and tile stages get scheduled to keep the disruption as short as possible, and the plan is talked through on the free visit before anything is opened up or ordered.
What waterproofing do you actually use behind the tile?
A bonded sheet membrane, such as Kerdi or an equivalent, goes behind every tiled wall and floor, with a fabric strip or pre-formed pieces taped into every single seam and inside corner before mortar or tile ever touches it.
Do you need to shut off water to the whole house?
Only the fixtures being worked on, usually just the bathroom in question, so the rest of the house keeps running water. Cast iron stacks are shared between floors in some rowhouses, so that gets confirmed on the visit rather than assumed.
What happens if a tile cracks after you leave?
A single cracked tile from a knock is a straightforward swap once a matching piece is on hand. Cracking across several tiles usually points at movement underneath, which gets checked before anything is simply replaced and hoping it holds.
Can you tile a bathroom with old cast iron plumbing?
Yes, and it is routine work across the Lehigh Valley's older housing stock. The waste stack gets checked when the floor opens up for the new pan, and any corroded section gets addressed before the waterproofing and tile go back in around it.
Is epoxy grout worth it with hard water here?
It resists the mineral staining and scale that hard water leaves in cement grout, and it does not need sealing every year or two. It costs more to install because it works differently on the trowel, but it holds up longer.
How do I know the waterproofing actually worked?
Every membrane gets flood tested before any tile goes on, water held on it for a set period and checked from below wherever that is possible. That is the point where a bad seam shows itself while it is still easy and cheap to fix.
Allentown Bathroom Pros
Allentown Bathroom Pros has remodeled bathrooms across the Lehigh Valley since 2010.
Allentown Bathroom Pros handles full bathroom remodels, tub to shower conversions, tiling and waterproofing, vanities and accessible bathrooms for homeowners across Allentown and the surrounding Lehigh Valley, from older rowhouse baths to newer houses further out. One crew sees the job through, start to finish.
Why call Allentown Bathroom Pros for a bathroom remodel?
- Trading in the Lehigh Valley since 2010
- Same-day callback on every call
- Carries general liability and workers compensation insurance
- A free in-home visit before anything is priced
- One bathroom scheduled around, not left unusable for weeks
A house with one bathroom cannot lose it for longer than the job needs, and Allentown Bathroom Pros orders the materials and schedules the trades around that before demolition starts. For a full remodel, a shower conversion or a tiling job anywhere in Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, call (610) 555-0133 for a free in-home visit and a start date.
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office@allentownbathroompros.com
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1275 Glenlivet Dr, Ste 100, Allentown, PA, 18106
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