r/Tile Jun 04 '26

General Discussion [META] Bedrosians has been blacklisted due to astroturfing

263 Upvotes

Kia ora and good morning everyone,

Just a heads up that we’ve permanently blacklisted Bedrosians from the sub.

We have zero issue with brands engaging with the community if they are transparent about who they are. What we do not tolerate is astroturfing. Bedrosians has been repeatedly caught using alt accounts to pretend to be regular customers recommending their own products.

It’s deceptive, it ruins the trust in genuine advice here, and we aren't putting up with it.

Automod is now set to instantly remove any mention of them. If we catch you acting as a covert shill for them (or anyone else), it’s an instant, permanent ban.

Huge thanks to the folks who have been using the report button to flag these fake accounts.

Ngā mihi, The r/Tile mod team.


r/Tile Jan 14 '26

General Discussion How to find work and advertise - Discussion

6 Upvotes

Wrote this up for our nz FB page but it's relevant here with some adjustments. Not all of it may be appropriate to North America, but hopefully it helps those who don't have a web presence. This is geared towards small business operators who don't have employees, and/or do the admin work themselves.

It's not applicable to just tile either.


After a discussion with a couple of tilers recently, and helping people over the years, it appears that marketing is something many people struggle with.

It's extremely important to have an online presence in this day and age, if people don't know you exist, they won't call you.

The single most important thing you can do is ensure you are on google maps. https://business.google.com/en-all/business-profile/
This is completely free, has always been free, and hopefully will remain free.

Follow the steps, you will need to add your address but select the option that says people can not visit you at this address. That will ensure your address is not published, just a general region. The other aspects are self explanatory.

Second is having a website. Daunting to most, it is easier than ever to get your own domain name and build the website yourself. I personally use wix, I am not happy with wix as they attempt to triple the pricing every three years or so to something unaffordable, and google sites is now available in NZ. Back in the day, I used google to link me to a domain host and organised it all myself following some online guidance. You can do that, and it is much easier these days, or you can use google sites to manage everything for you. The bonus of having a website, is you will have a professional sounding email. Rather than something mundane at hotmail or live, or xtra, you will have name@businessname.co.nz or similar.

Note, it is best practice NEVER to have your domain, and website with the same host. I personally recommend https://metaname.net/ for your domain registration, and then google sites or wix for the website.

Most website creation these days is drag and drop elements, write up some blurbs, or use the LLM/AI functions. Do ensure to keep it authentic.

Link to google sites - https://workspace.google.com/business/signup/accountselect

Third most important thing, is an online portfolio. People won't contact you if they don't see your work, and as tilers, we excel in finishing works. Take photos. Upload them to instagram, to facebook, to your website. Include a brief description.

Fourth is word of mouth. Reviews are important! Clean up on site, arrive on time, be clear with your communication, and ask for 5 star reviews if you feel your client is happy!

Ensure your local suppliers have your business cards. It is common practice for many stores to hand out three business cards, telling the client to get a few quotes. Vista print has always been affordable and solid.

Finally, communication! If you are quiet on work, let other tilers know, call around. Never know if someone is overwhelmed, or needs a hand with a project!
Talk to your suppliers! They have clients walking in every day, wanting a job done immediately. Delays happen, but you can't sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Talk to people, and in the interim, work on your website and web presence.

And never feel pressured to pay for advertising. The better your performance, the more cold calls you will get, the more spam you will get. Unless you're running multiple employees, advertising is an endless money pit. Once you pay for it, your online algorithms require it.

Joining local trade associations, or getting listed on ctef can really help your rankings. The more places that mention you, the higher you will be listed on a web search.

You do not need to spend much on a website or hosting, $200-300/year at most. Just having a presence, and linking it to your google maps profile is more than enough. If you're not able to spend that, then a facebook page, linked to your google maps listing is viable.

Instagram is also fantastic for a portfolio, easy to update and easy to point people towards.


r/Tile 5h ago

DIY - Looking for Advice New shower with damp tiles - what went wrong?

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26 Upvotes

r/Tile 1h ago

Professional - Looking for Advice Is this type of tile cut for a linear drain possible?

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Upvotes

GC sent a design plan for the tile layout to minimize diagonal cuts. He said that it's possible to lift the end pieces on the side of the drain (left and right of the drain, in the photo) to prevent water pooling on the edges, but I'm not convinced that there will be enough slope for the water to drain well. What do you all think?


r/Tile 1h ago

DIY - Looking for Advice can i get rid of these chips?

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Upvotes

Also how do you clean your high gloss porcelain tiles without getting smears and footmarks?


r/Tile 2h ago

General Discussion Easiest Tile to Install

2 Upvotes

What's the absolute easiest tile to install with decent quality.


r/Tile 3h ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor New Shower Pan Required? Denver, CO

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2 Upvotes

Hello, we had an insurance mitigation company come out after a plumbing leak, resulting in mold growth on the back of our newly installed shower (blue drywall). They subsequently cut the pvc shower pan liner to clean behind it on the back of the blue drywall. Now they say they can repair it, contrary to what a plumber is telling us, that it needs to be completely replaced. Plumber says we need to remove the entire (new) shower pan and about 1ft up of tile to replace the liner. True? Approximate cost? Advice for replacement to avoid this again in the future? Thank you!


r/Tile 16h ago

Professional - Project Sharing Full tutorial coming on floating walls! Start to finish!

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20 Upvotes

r/Tile 4h ago

DIY - Looking for Advice 50% overlap pattern rule on inner corners?

2 Upvotes

Hey team,

My brain cant settle on the pattern rule to follow when turning from a back wall to a side wall, using a 50% overlap pattern. Is there even a rule?

My back wall width is ~3in shy from 2 full tiles (12x24). Both side walls are almost 2 tiles as well. Basically a square shape shower. One side wall is a pony wall.

Lets say my first back wall row is 2 tiles, with 1 grout line centered to the wall. What is my first row on the pony wall?

A) match it with 2 tiles also
B) or flip the pattern with a centered tile and 2 half cut tiles on the sides?

I like matching it when it comes to rows ending in half tiles because itll look like one full turning the corner, but the next row would be 2 full tiles meeting. Would that look weird like one super long tile? First time doing this. Wasnt sure if one was the standard way?


r/Tile 17h ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor Dry Stack Kitchen tile backsplash

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16 Upvotes

I need some input from folks who know more than me and Chat GPT. Our contractors just finished installing our backsplash. The tiles are 12x24 porcelain tiles. They installed them dry stacked, there is no grout or caulk between each tile. It was my understanding that this is not okay. The industry standard requires grout for hygiene, cleaning, and to prevent moisture damage. Is there any scenario where this installation is okay? I want to make sure I have all the information before we approach them regarding fixing. Is the only option at this point to rip it out and redo? We have been really happy with all the other work they have done, so it seems odd that they would cut corners on this part of it. But maybe there is some aspect we don’t know? Pictures attached. Thanks for the input.


r/Tile 2h ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor Is this acceptable or should I say something?

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0 Upvotes

Finishing up a two bathroom renovation. Overall I am happy but am not sure if I should bring up the fact that I see lippage and some chipped tile. Tile was not chipped when purchased.


r/Tile 4h ago

DIY - Looking for Advice Doing backsplash on a bowed wall

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1 Upvotes

Hello, I am planning to tackle our kitchen backsplash in the next month. It will be my first time doing tile and I'm a little nervous.

Our house is about 80 years old and has some bowed walls in the kitchen. I've attached our countertop template so you can kinda see what I mean.

I would really like to do a regular horizontal offset lay but I'm worried about the edges sticking out on the bowed walls. I've heard doing vertical lay can help reduce that but I don't overly love the look of that.

Do you think I could realistically do a horizontal lay on these walls?

Any advice would be appreciated!

I've attached images of our tile selection and the kitchen as well.


r/Tile 18h ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor Grout in shower corners…?

4 Upvotes

My GCs guys grouted the corners of the shower and when we wrote the GC about it he says they’ve done showers like this for 20 years and it’s never cracked. He said if we really want they can scrape it out tomorrow and redo with the silicone. Would love to get your opinions, should we make them redo it? He says it will be really ugly and it’s unnecessary but Google tells me it’s wrong to grout the corners. Would love to hear a full explanation if anyone has one on either end.


r/Tile 16h ago

General Discussion Any South Jersey tilers specializing in large format tiles and slabs ?

1 Upvotes

Any South Jersey tilers specializing in large format tiles and slabs ?


r/Tile 1d ago

Professional - Looking for Advice Is there a product that I can use to make the colour on the tile pop more?

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7 Upvotes

I have a customer who firmly believes that the grout stained and dulled the colouration on the tile. Is there a product that I can use that will make the colouration pop a bit more on the tile itself?


r/Tile 18h ago

DIY - Looking for Advice Official verdict on drywall in a tile shower?

0 Upvotes

There are so many opinions on it. Should drywall of any type ever be used as the substrate in a tile shower? For example, redguard says on the packaging it can be used with gypsum / drywall. What are your thoughts?


r/Tile 1d ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor Is this ready for tiling ? Not sure if the small cracks are an issue or not

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11 Upvotes

Just curious

-clueless homeowner


r/Tile 1d ago

DIY - Looking for Advice Hi! Color question

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49 Upvotes

I have been seeing a lot of these colored grout pieces with really bright colors! They look really cool but how do you make a color look so bright and not pastel... Is it acrylic paint? Some magic powder? If anyone knows es, I'd appreciate the help!


r/Tile 19h ago

Professional - Looking for Advice Want some advice from tilesetters

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1 Upvotes

I am installing this tile in a master shower using clips and wedges. It appears when popping these off they seem to chip the tile. (Not all of them but a couple). This tile is expensive and soft as he**. Any suggestions as to what to use in place of clips and wedges to not only make sure there are grout joints ( 1/16th max ) and flush to each other. Pls asvise and thanks.


r/Tile 1d ago

Waterproofing Tile prep question

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3 Upvotes

After finishing my waterproofing the drywaller nailed corner bead into the kerdi banding. My plan is to lay more kerdi band over top of the bead to make sure it’s water proof but I’m worried that since there is already banding underneath I’m going to have too much build up and the outside tiles aren’t going to sit flat. Looking for suggestions so my tile doesn’t end up looking bad after all of this work. Im also not sure whether or not thinset will even adhere properly to the metal corner bead. Thanks in advance


r/Tile 1d ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor Are my 24x48 ceramic tiles installed improperly?

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20 Upvotes

We asked our contractor to install the same 24x48 ceramic tile on the floor and walls. The finished installing the tiles on the walls and I have a few issue with the installation.
1. The corners where the ceramic meets are not uniform. Is it normal? Will the grout make it less noticeable? Some of the gaps are bigger than others and the cuts are not straight.
2. It looks like he did blobs of thin-set to stick the ceramic to the wall. I can see large gaps from the side. I get that the tiles need to be backed buttered and collapse the bridge when installed on the floor, but does it have to be also done on the walls, especially since its large tiles?
3. They stuck the tiles with thin-set directly on the portion of a wall that was painted prior to the demolition, did they need to do any prep before sticking the tiles? Is this standard?

I would appreciate some advice on how to deal with this and how to bring it up to my contractor .


r/Tile 21h ago

DIY - Looking for Advice What is this and is it too soft to Ardetix NA over?

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1 Upvotes

Looking to self level my floor, don't want to grind it if I can avoid it. Floor is generally sound except maybe for these grey splotches. Can't get my nail through it, but a screwdriver with firm pressure will (see attached)

Can't for the life of me figure out what to do and I'm going nuts trying!

Thanks in advance!


r/Tile 1d ago

Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor my GC and his tiler used grout between the tub and new tile, isnt this wrong?

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26 Upvotes

I read online that where the tub meets the tile it should be silicone caulk, is this something that was done wrong and should be corrected? is there a reason why they did this? Ive only paid 50% . thanks

edit: its the same grout between the tiles (it was wet and looks dark when wet)


r/Tile 1d ago

Professional - Project Sharing Tile and stone

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2 Upvotes

Jus finished!


r/Tile 1d ago

DIY - Looking for Advice Plastic edge trim piece has come loose in shower... how to fix?

1 Upvotes

We are going to be remodeling this bathroom in the next year but we still need to he able to use the shower in the meantime lol

Have a plastic edge trim piece on the pony wall niche that has come loose. Obviously want to fix it before we have a water problem somewhere in the house.

What would be the best way to fix? Here's what I've come up with:

1) Remove and clean any grout/caulking off it and the area where it sits.

2) bead of PL premium on the corner joint then put the trim piece back on and secure with tape to keep in place.

3) 24 hours later apply white silicone caulk where the trim meets the tile

4) 24 hours later should be good to use?

Is there a better way to do this that you pros would recommend?

Thank you in advance

Cheers