We are a tile installer writing a guide about how to evaluate tile installers, which you should read with appropriate skepticism. So here is the useful thing we can offer instead of a sales pitch: the questions are specific enough that they work on us too. If you ask them of three contractors and one of them cannot answer the waterproofing question clearly, you have learned something real.
The reason this matters more in tile than in most trades is that tile hides its own workmanship. A shower where the waterproofing was skipped looks exactly like a shower where it was done properly — for about three years. By the time the difference shows up, the tile is in the way of finding out.
Why a cheap estimate can cost more
When two estimates for the same bathroom differ a lot, the gap is almost never the tile. Tile is a material anyone can price. The gap is in the labor and the materials you never see:
- Whether the substrate gets flattened or the tile goes on a wavy wall
- Whether there is a real waterproofing system behind the tile or a coat of something on drywall
- Whether the corners and the change-of-plane joints get the treatment they need
- Whether a membrane goes under a floor that needs one
- Whether the shower floor is pitched correctly before any tile is set
Every item on that list is invisible when the job is finished and every one of them is the reason a shower fails. A low number can simply be a number for less work. The questions below are how you find out which it is.
Registration and insurance
1. Are you registered as a Home Improvement Contractor in Massachusetts, and what is your number?
In Massachusetts, most residential home improvement work requires the contractor to be registered with the state as a Home Improvement Contractor, and the registration number is supposed to appear on contracts and in advertising. It is a straightforward question with a straightforward answer: a number, which you can look up.
Our registration is MA HIC #219595. We cover what HIC registration is, what it does and does not guarantee, and how to verify one in a separate article — including the part that matters most, which is that unregistered work puts you outside the state's dispute resolution program.
2. Are you insured, and can I see the certificate?
Liability insurance covers damage to your property. If the contractor has employees, workers' compensation covers injury on your job. Asking to see a certificate is normal and a sound contractor is not offended by it. The certificate should be current — check the dates, not just that a document exists.
3. Will a written contract cover this work?
For residential home improvement work in Massachusetts, a written contract is the expectation, not a formality, and there are required elements. If someone wants to do a bathroom on a handshake and a verbal number, that is a signal about everything else.
The technical questions
These four are the ones that actually distinguish installers, and they are the reason to read this article rather than a generic hiring checklist.
4. What waterproofing system will you use in the shower, and what are the corners getting?
This is the single most informative question you can ask. You are listening for a specific, named system — a sheet or liquid membrane, a foam board system, a pan assembly — and for the installer to talk about the corners and the change-of-plane joints without being prompted, because that is where showers leak.
A good answer sounds like a method. A bad answer is "we waterproof everything" with no detail, or a reference to the tile and grout being waterproof, which they are not. Tile and grout shed water; they are not a barrier. That distinction is the whole subject of why waterproofing matters more than the tile you pick.
We install with manufacturer waterproofing and setting systems and have hands-on training from them — Schluter-Systems Innovation Workshop and the Mind Your Business Workshop, both in 2025, and certification as a wedi shower system installer. The certificates are listed on our credentials section. The point is not the logos; it is that these systems have published methods and we follow the one for the product we are using.
5. What are you doing about the substrate?
Ask what goes behind and under the tile, and whether anything needs flattening. The answer should reference the actual room. In an older Cape house, walls are rarely flat and floors have moved, and a large-format tile has a tight flatness tolerance — the reason that matters is covered in large format versus mosaic.
If the answer to "are the walls flat enough for the tile I picked" is a shrug, that is the answer.
6. Will you check the subfloor, and what happens if it is not stiff enough?
Tile is rigid and does not tolerate a floor that flexes. A bouncy floor cracks tile and cracks grout lines, and no setting material fixes a structural problem. A good installer looks at the subfloor, says whether it needs stiffening or an uncoupling membrane, and tells you before starting rather than after a crack appears.
7. How will the shower floor be pitched, and where is the drain going?
Every shower floor has to slope to the drain. Ask how the pitch is being built and confirm it happens before tile, because it is part of the pan, not something you correct with thicker mortar under some tiles. If you want large-format tile on the shower floor, this is the conversation where a linear drain comes up, and it has to happen before the pan is built.
Scope, materials and change orders
8. What exactly is included, and what is not?
Demolition and disposal. Plumbing disconnect and reconnect. Who buys the tile, the setting materials, the membrane, the trim. Glass enclosure. The niche. Paint afterwards. Each of those is a real line item that gets assumed away, and the assumptions are where two estimates stop being comparable.
9. Who buys the tile, and how many do I order?
Usually the homeowner buys the tile — you are picking it, and you should own what you picked. What you want from the installer is the quantity, including the overage for cuts and for breakage and for the piece you will want in five years when something gets damaged and the product has been discontinued. Getting a precise quantity is part of the estimate; we give the amounts to order for the walls, the shower floor and the main floor.
10. What happens if you open the wall and find rot or an old leak?
In a Cape house with a shower from the eighties, this is not a hypothetical. Ask how a discovered condition gets handled: how you get told, how it gets priced, and whether you approve it in writing before the work happens. A contractor who has a clear answer has been through it. One who says it never happens has not opened enough walls.
11. What is the payment schedule?
Massachusetts regulates deposits on home improvement contracts, and the schedule should be tied to the work rather than to the calendar. Be cautious about any request for the bulk of the money up front. A reasonable progression against milestones is normal.
How the job will actually run
12. Who is physically doing the work?
Whether the person giving you the estimate is also the person setting the tile, or whether it goes to a crew or a subcontractor, is worth knowing. There is nothing wrong with a crew; there is something wrong with finding out on day one that the installer you evaluated is not the installer you got.
13. How long will it take, and will you be here every day?
A realistic timeline includes the curing and drying time that is not optional, and a good installer tells you about the days when nothing visible happens. The bigger question underneath it is continuity: an installer who starts your bathroom and disappears for a week to start someone else's is the most common complaint in this trade. We break the schedule down day by day in how long a bathroom tile job actually takes.
14. How do I reach you while the job is running, and how fast do you answer?
This sounds soft next to the waterproofing question and it is the one homeowners complain about most. Not the tile — the not calling back, the not showing up when they said, the finding out about a delay after the fact. Ask it directly, and then notice how the estimate process itself went. If getting a number out of someone took three weeks of chasing, that is a preview.
Answers that should worry you
- "Tile and grout are waterproof." They are not. They shed water. The barrier is behind them.
- A price with no site visit. Nobody can scope a bathroom without looking at it. A number over the phone is a guess that will be revised.
- Cash only, no contract, no registration number. Every one of those on its own has an explanation. All three together is a pattern.
- Most of the money up front. Deposits are normal. A majority of the contract before work starts is not.
- "We can start tomorrow." In a region where good installers are usually booked weeks out, immediate availability is worth asking about rather than celebrating.
- Vagueness about the substrate. If nobody mentions what is behind the tile, assume nothing is planned for it.
- Pressure to decide now. A discount that expires today is a sales technique, not a scope.
- No interest in your actual room. An installer who does not want to look at the walls, the subfloor and the existing shower is not pricing your bathroom. They are pricing a bathroom.
The short list to bring with you
If you only ask five, ask these:
- What is your Massachusetts HIC registration number?
- What waterproofing system goes in the shower, and what do the corners get?
- Do the walls and the subfloor need any preparation for the tile I have chosen?
- What is included and what is excluded in this number?
- If you open the wall and find a problem, what happens next?
Ask all five of three installers and the differences will not be subtle.
Questions we get asked
Should I always get three estimates?
Two or three gives you a sense of range and, more usefully, lets you compare how each one scoped the job. Watch what differs in the scope rather than only the total — that is where the information is.
Is the cheapest estimate always a bad sign?
Not necessarily. Sometimes it reflects lower overhead or a lighter scope that genuinely suits your job. What matters is knowing which. If a lower number comes with less preparation and no membrane, it is not the same job at a lower price.
How do I check a Massachusetts HIC registration?
Registrations are held by the state's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and can be verified through its contractor lookup. We walk through why it matters in the HIC article.
Do I need permits for a bathroom remodel?
It depends on the scope and on the town, and the towns on the Cape handle it differently. Work touching plumbing or electrical generally does. Ask who is pulling permits and confirm it rather than assuming.
What if I only need a backsplash or a small repair?
The same questions apply at a smaller scale, minus the shower-specific ones. A backsplash is usually a one-day install and still deserves a written scope.
We would rather answer them now than after the tile is up.
Tell us your town and what you are planning. Lucas calls you back, usually the same day, and comes out to measure. Cape Cod and the South Shore.
Tiles by Fox · Sandwich, Massachusetts · Licensed and insured · MA HIC #219595
General guidance from a registered Massachusetts contractor, not legal advice. Registration and contract requirements are set by the Commonwealth and can change — confirm current requirements with the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, and confirm permit requirements with your own town's building department.