Please note: this page contains reviews and opinions sent in by Berkeley Parents Net subscribers. Your own experience may be different. Please always check references before hiring!

• Reviews of Tile Installers
• Where to Buy Ceramic Tiles
• Where to find tile to match existing tiles
• Where to Buy Slate Tiles
• Bathroom Remodel
• Kitchen Remodel
• Floors

Reviews of Tile Installers

We want to install a tile floor in our bathroom. We currently have carpet over subflooring. So any experience with installing tile floors - great tilesetters to do it, and best places to purchase tile - would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! jessica

I want to recommend Posch Tile (510-932-5895) for laying tile. They did our very complex bathroom tile job efficiently and beautifully. They were polite and a pleasure to work with as well as affordable. They did a great job with our complex design layout and our handmade irregular tile! Oliver Posch is the owner and is great to work with. Feel free to contact me should you want to see pix of the bathroom job or with other questions Jenn

Our fireplace face and hearth were prepped for tile years ago. We intended to do the finish work ourselves but...well, you know how it goes. Two children later we still have concrete and metal. At this point, we need someone to (1) put the detail touches on the design -- for which we have a concept and did pick out some tile, but that was long enough ago now that we don't know the same stuff will still be available -- and help us order the right quantities; and (2)install the tile. Experience with Arts & Crafts style handmade ceramic tiles would be great but mostly we want someone meticulous and responsive who will do this smallish project well. The recommendations on the website are kinda old. Anyone hire a great tile person recently? Holly

Tim Eriste has done several tile jobs for me over the past year and I have always been exceptionally pleased with his work. He is prompt, efficient, clean and always has great ideas and input if he thinks we should modify a job. I highly suggest you give him a call, he works all over the bay area. For the quality of work you receive, his prices are very reasonable. His phone # is (617)823-6371. Christina

I want to post a recommendation for people who need tile installation in their bathroom or kitchen: Mike Rudd does great work at very reasonable prices. I highly recommend him - he is fair, honest and trustworthy to boot. Please contact me with questions... His contact info is: Mike Rudd ph. 510-703-1657 fax 415-824-2684 email handyman[at]lmi.net
Christy

We recently had Ron van Leeuwaarde re-tile one wall of our bathroom (above the tub/shower) after we had our plumbing replaced. I don't know how his cost compares to other tilers, but he charged (if I recall correctly) $40 per hour. He did a great job on a challenging project -- he had to line up the new tiles with the existing tiles that were a fraction of an inch larger. He communicated well with us and accommodated our shifting schedule. He is a really nice guy, too. Ron van Leeuwaarde (The Flying Dutchman), 848-6996 robin

Hi - we hired Nicole Boyd of ASCENSION TILE AND STONE to do both of our bathrooms and our kitchen back-splash. We LOVED her work and I would call her again for any other tile work. In the bathrooms, she laid stone tiles on the floor and did the shower stall in one and the bathtub in the other. In the bathroom with the shower stall, she also created the shower pan because it was an odd size. We have an old house with quirky floors and walls but she was able to work with them and do a great job. She is extremely professional, easy to work with, artistic, etc. She gave us some great ideas and suggestions that we would not have even thought of. I'd be happy to email you some pictures of the work we had done if you'd like. She can be reached by email or VM - 510.469.6252 or ascension22 AT hotmail.com Lani

We can't say enough about Deborah Buckley, whom we hired to install our antique marble tile floor and marble and glass mosaic backsplash in our recently remodeled kitchen. She is really helpful in all aspects, from ordering materials (without a lot of excess), to helping with grout colors & sealants, to accomodating special requests. She works out of the City of Paris Studios in Oakland and can be reached at 655-5454. Good luck! proud owner of a gorgeous kitchen

I searched for a while to find a good tile guy. I was given Rafael's name by a contractor friend and Rafael was amazing. As hard as I looked, I thought I should make it easier for the next person. He is skilled, polite, considerate, on time and affordable, or was (he has his license now). He did my bathroom, including the floor, three walls around my shower, a niche in the shower and a tile apron for the tub all in a week and all for about 3K. He floated everything, including the walls, the sign of a true pro. I would strongly recommend him for any tile job. His name is Rafael and his cell number is: 415-793-5014. I would be happy to show you pics if you'd like to see his work up close. Hunter

We recently sold our house and wanted to make the front entrance a WOW!. We picked out tile at Import Tile (in Berkeley) and they were incredibly kind enough to make contact with a tiler (as we had had zero success getting anyone with short notice). We used Aesthetics and they did an incredible job. Kathy

I cannot recommend Jim Zwaal highly enough. He does excellent work at an affordable price, works with you to get the look you want and will also let you do legwork (if you desire) to cut down on the cost. He is an independent contractor, so he can get quite busy. Once he begins the project however, he is very good about getting it done ON TIME, even if he needs to come in extra days, weekends, etc. Jim can be reached at his home number: 652-8258

I highly recommend Kathleen Curry. She did a wonderful job on the tile work in the bathroom that we put in during our remodel in last year. She was reasonably priced and pleasant to work with. She was a building contractor for 20 years before she became a tile setter, so she knows all the ins and outs of a remodel. She worked with us in an often awkward situation, as we sub-contracted the work ourselves and she had to fix some of the initial carpentry work in preparation for the job. She handled the whole thing with grace and aplomb. Her number is 510-528-1219.

By the way, do be careful about where you purchase tile. We initially ordered ours from at Home Expo. They did not advise us correctly on how much to buy, kept calling us out to the Emeryville store to pick up more tile that was supposed to be there when it wasn't and then finally sent us home with a lot of unusable, broken tile. Kathleen was able to find us additional tile through another distributor at the last minute, thus averting disaster (without it, it would have held up our project by another 3 weeks). In retrospect, we should have gone with one of the two tile shops in Berkeley we had purchased from in the past (there is one on Harrison and one on Hearst--not related to one another). We had good experiences with both of them. Anyway, I can't recommend Kathleen enough. Good luck. sarah

Can anyone recommend someone to install floor tile in a new bathroom? I have picked out the tile that I would like to use but need someone who can install it, seal it and give me tips on taking care of it. Any advice or leads would be appreciated,
Judi (8/16/00)