Tiling Quote Checklist: What a Bromley Quote Must Spell Out

A tiling quote is only useful if it tells you what work is actually being done. The price on its own means nothing, because the parts that decide whether tiling lasts a decade or fails in a year all sit in the specification, not the total. Here is the checklist I would run any written quote through before signing anything, written by someone who spends part of every year stripping out tiling that failed because the quote left the important work off the page.

Key takeaways

• A real quote names the work: preparation, adhesive, tanking, and how joints are finished.
• A single line and a single number is a price, not a quote.
• Two quotes look different mostly because of preparation that one priced and the other ignored.
• Get the specification in writing so you can compare like for like.

A quote should describe the trade behind the tile, not just the finish you see at the end. Bathroom tiling service

What should a tiling quote actually contain?

A quote you can trust reads like a short specification. Before you compare prices, check that each of these ten things is written down. If any are missing, that is not a cheaper job, it is an incomplete one.

• The substrate preparation included (levelling, priming, decoupling, backer board where needed).
• The adhesive grade and the grout, named or described, not left blank.
• Whether wet areas will be tanked, and with which product.
• How movement is handled, including the floor-to-wall joint.
• The setting-out approach, especially for patterns and large format tiles.
• Whether the figure is labour only or includes materials and consumables.
• Removal of old tiles and waste, and who carries that cost.
• Making good around the edges, trims, and the finish at door thresholds.
• A realistic timescale, including curing time for tanking and grout.
• The workmanship guarantee, in writing.

The rest of this checklist explains the items that get skipped most often, because those are the ones that cost people later.

Does it name the substrate preparation?

Most of a good tiling job is what happens before a single tile goes up, and most of the cost lives there too. The quote should say what is being done to the surface: floors levelled, walls made true, anything hollow or loose dealt with, priming where the surface needs it, and a decoupling membrane such as Schluter Ditra or a properly fixed backer board where the floor moves.

This matters more in Bromley than in many places because the housing is so mixed. Older terraces near Bromley South and Shortlands often have suspended timber floors that flex, and tiles laid straight onto a moving floor crack every time unless the floor is decoupled first. Newer builds bring fresh screeds and plasterboard that need priming and the right adhesive rather than being treated as ready to tile. A quote that says nothing about the substrate has not accounted for the part of the job that actually decides the outcome. See do you need to level a floor before tiling for why this step is not optional.

Does it specify the adhesive and tanking?

You want a specification, not a brand pulled off a shelf. “A C2 flexible adhesive suited to the tile and substrate” is the right shape of answer. Porcelain needs more than a basic ceramic adhesive, and underfloor heating or wet areas change the choice again.

Tanking is the item that gets left off quotes most often, and it is the most expensive thing to skip. In any wet area, the waterproof layer behind the tiles should be named: Mapei Mapelastic, BAL Tank-it, or a Schluter Kerdi membrane. Tiles and grout are not waterproof on their own. Without tanking, water creeps through the grout over months and rots the structure behind, and you see nothing until it is serious. A bathroom or shower quote that never mentions tanking is a red flag, not a saving. See what is tanking for why this one line decides whether a wet area survives.

Does it cover movement and the floor-to-wall joint?

Tiles and the surfaces they sit on expand and move. A good quote accounts for it. The floor-to-wall joint should be finished in silicone colour matched to the grout, never in grout itself, because the floor and wall move independently and a rigid line there cracks within a year and lets water in. On larger floors and over underfloor heating, the quote should mention perimeter and intermediate movement joints. These are small details, but they are exactly the details that separate work that lasts from work that fails quietly.

Why does a one-line quote cost you more in the end?

This is the heart of it. When you compare a detailed quote against a one-line price, the cheaper-looking number almost always has the preparation, the tanking, or the movement detailing missing. You are not comparing two prices for the same job. You are comparing a complete job against a partial one. For more on why honest quotes vary so much, see how tilers price a job.

The fix is simple: ask every tiler to put the specification in writing, then compare the specifications first and the totals second. A tiler who is doing the work properly will be glad to write it down, because the detail is what justifies the price. If you want the wider set of questions to ask alongside the quote, see how to choose a tiler.

Getting a properly detailed quote in Bromley

I quote every job in writing after seeing the room, with the substrate preparation, adhesive, tanking, movement detailing, timescale, and guarantee all spelled out. Whether it is a bathroom, a wet area, or a floor, you get a specification you can actually compare against anyone else’s, not a single number. You can see how I work locally on the Bromley bathroom tiling page and across the wider Bromley service area.

If you have a room in mind, get in touch and I will give you a straight answer and a quote with every line of the work on the page.

See: how to choose a tiler | how tilers price a job | what is tanking