Harwich · Lower Cape
Tile of America is a tile contractor based in West Yarmouth serving homeowners in Harwich with bathroom tile, shower tile, kitchen tile, floor tile, and backsplash tile installation across the lower Cape.
Every project starts with an on-site visit to review the subfloor, framing, and waterproofing before a quote is written, so the estimate reflects what the job in your Harwich home actually requires.
Subfloor inspection, waterproofing, layout, and professional tile installation for Harwich homeowners.
About Tile of America
Tile of America is a licensed tile contractor based at 15 Adams Rd in West Yarmouth. Owner Marco Aurélio and his crew install bathroom, shower, kitchen, backsplash, and floor tile throughout Cape Cod. Every installation includes a one-year written workmanship warranty. In Harwich that runs from the old summer cottages down by the harbours to the newer subdivisions out in East Harwich.
Tile Work for Harwich Homes
Harwich is seven villages rather than one town, and the tile work reflects that. Down by Wychmere and Saquatucket in Harwich Port there are summer cottages and shingled houses close to the water, many of them added to over the decades. Harwich Center and West Harwich hold the older year-round stock. East Harwich is where most of the newer building has gone, out toward the Harwich line. Tile of America prices the house in front of us rather than the town, because in Harwich those are genuinely different things.
Tile of America evaluates the subfloor condition, moisture exposure, and finish height requirements before any material is ordered. Every installation is built on substrates and waterproofing methods suited to the actual conditions of the home, not a standard template.
Tile
Showers, bathroom floors and walls, backsplashes and tile repair across Harwich. Shower assemblies are built on Schluter Kerdi-Board with a bonded membrane over the seams, corners and curb, because the barrier behind the tile does more work than the tile does.
Bathroom
Complete Harwich bathroom remodels, not just the tile. Layout, waterproofing, fixtures and finishes handled as one job, including walk-in shower and tub-to-shower conversions, so nobody is waiting on another trade to show up.
Kitchen
Full kitchen work for Harwich homeowners, from cabinets and counters through to the backsplash and floor. One contractor through the whole job, with the scope and the number in writing before anything is opened up.
Flooring
Porcelain, ceramic and natural stone through kitchens, entries and living areas, plus the subfloor preparation underneath it. Large-format tile needs a floor flat within a tight tolerance, so Harwich subfloors are corrected before the first row goes down.
Countertops
Quartz, granite, marble and porcelain slab countertops for Harwich kitchens and bathrooms, templated on site and fitted to the cabinets that are actually there. Old tops removed and disposed of as part of the job.
Market ranges for Harwich and the surrounding Lower Cape towns, so you can size a budget before anyone visits. Every job is still measured on site, and the written scope is what the price attaches to.
| Work | Typical range | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Shower tile, installed | $18 to $35 per sq ft | Size of the shower, tile format, and whether the pan and curb are rebuilt |
| Bathroom floor and wall tile | $10 to $25 per sq ft | Layout, how level the substrate is, and the amount of cutting around fixtures |
| Kitchen backsplash | $15 to $40 per sq ft | Tile format, outlet and switch cutouts, and whether an old backsplash comes off first |
| Heated floor, tiled | $15 to $35 per sq ft | Mat or cable system, floor area, and the thermostat location |
| Tile removal and demolition | $3 to $8 per sq ft | What is under the tile, and whether the substrate survives the removal |
| Full tiled shower, typical project | $3,000 to $9,000 | Everything above taken together, plus waterproofing, niche and bench work |
| Bathroom remodel, typical project | $9,000 to $34,000 | Scope, fixtures, and how much of the room is opened up |
| Kitchen remodel, typical project | $25,000 to $90,000 | Cabinets, counters, whether the layout moves, and the condition underneath |
Tile of America is registered with the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs as HIC #220711 · CS-123907, which you can check on mass.gov. Work is supervised under CSL #CS-123907.
A Harwich house has usually been added to at least once, and the joins between the old part and the new part are where tile gets into trouble.
The cottages around Harwich Port and West Harwich were mostly small when they were built and are mostly not small now. Rooms were added, porches were enclosed, bathrooms were put in where a closet used to be, and each phase was framed to whatever was normal at the time.
That history shows up as floors that sit at slightly different heights and move at slightly different rates. A bathroom straddling the join between an original room and a later addition is one of the harder tile jobs there is, because the two halves are not really one floor.
Near the harbours there is a second factor. Houses that close for part of the year, sitting a few hundred yards from salt water, hold humidity in a way inland houses do not, and anything less than a continuous waterproof layer eventually finds that out.
A Harwich quote starts with where the room sits in the house. Framing and deflection are checked on both sides of any join, the floor is brought to a single plane, the shower is set on Schluter Kerdi-Board, which is waterproof through the panel, and a bonded membrane is detailed over the seams, corners and curb.
Permit requirements in Harwich depend on the scope, and the town has its own historic district rather than belonging to the regional one.
Tile going back over a substrate that is sound is finish work, and normally needs no permit.
It does once a drain is moved, framing is opened, or plumbing is relocated, which is most full shower rebuilds. The Harwich Building Department determines that for each project.
Harwich is not part of the Old Kings Highway district, which stops at Orleans. It has its own Historic District and Historical Commission covering defined areas of the town, and as with any historic district the subject is the exterior of the building. A bathroom does not come into it unless a wider remodel reaches an outside wall, a window or a door.
Confirm the scope with the Building Department before anything is opened up, and we will point out any part of a project likely to need it.
Permits for this work are issued by the Harwich Building Department, and the permit is pulled before the work starts rather than after.
On a house that has grown in stages, the question under a tiled floor is not just whether the framing is strong enough but whether two different framings are going to move together. Getting them onto one plane and keeping them there is most of the work, and none of it is visible when the job is finished.
A modest share of the cost, and effectively all of the risk.
A foam-core panel carrying bonded waterproofing fleece, so the board is the barrier rather than a coating over cement board. Close to the water in Harwich Port, that is the layer that matters.
Premium wet-area systemWaterproof through the panel core, then a bonded Kerdi membrane over every seam, corner and curb above it. Two independent layers, so one weak point cannot reach the framing.
Two independent layersDeflection, levelness, framing condition, self-leveling and finish height against the adjoining floor, read on site. In Harwich that includes checking either side of any addition join under the room.
Quoted after site reviewTile of America is based at 15 Adams Rd in West Yarmouth and takes on tile work throughout Barnstable County, including Harwich and its villages. From Harwich Port and East Harwich across to Dennis, Brewster, Harwich and Orleans, we travel to complete shower, floor, backsplash and tile repair projects for homeowners across the region.
Harwich · Cape Cod · Massachusetts
Tile of America provides a one-year written warranty on every installation in Harwich and across Cape Cod.
Tile of America provides a one-year written warranty on every installation in Harwich and across Cape Cod. Covered workmanship issues are repaired at no charge, with no inspection fee.
The warranty is provided in writing before work begins, so you know exactly what workmanship protection applies to the installation.
“You cannot judge what is behind the tile. You can judge the people you trust to build it.”
What homeowners worry about
We inspect the structure before we quote, define the scope clearly and put one number in writing before work begins.
Marco is personally involved on every project, working alongside installers trained to follow Tile of America’s standards.
Waterproofing, substrate preparation and installation are treated as one complete system, long before the first tile is set.
Clear answers about tile installation, repairs, preparation, service areas, finishing standards, and licensing across Cape Cod.
Shower tile runs $18 to $35 per square foot installed, bathroom floor and wall tile $10 to $25, and a kitchen backsplash $15 to $40. A full tiled shower usually lands between $3,000 and $9,000. In Harwich the number often turns on whether the bathroom sits over one floor or two, which is why it is set after we measure rather than over the phone.
Tile set over sound existing substrate generally does not. A permit is required from the Harwich Building Department once the work touches plumbing, moves a drain, or opens framing, which covers most shower rebuilds. We pull it before work starts and the number goes on your paperwork.
Usually, yes. Harwich Port and West Harwich are largely older cottages near the water, often extended more than once, so the floors need more correcting and the waterproofing has more humidity to deal with. East Harwich is mostly newer construction with straighter framing, which generally needs less preparation. The build is the same either way, the work in front of it is not.
It is the thing we look at first. Two sections of a house framed decades apart will not move identically, and a rigid finish laid across that join is the classic place for a crack to appear in the first year. It is solvable: the floors are tied together and brought to one plane before anything is set, and sometimes a movement joint is the honest answer. What matters is that it is identified before the quote, not after.
Yes. Both ask more of the preparation than standard ceramic. Natural stone needs the right setting material and sealing, and some stone will show a reaction to the wrong cleaner for the rest of its life. Large-format tile needs a floor flat within a tight tolerance or the corners lip. We will tell you what your floor needs before you choose the material, not after.
One to two weeks for a standard shower rebuild, longer where stone or a complex layout is involved. Waterproofing has to cure before tile is set, which cannot be compressed. The day-by-day sequence is in writing before we start.
Yes. Tile of America is registered as a Home Improvement Contractor with the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs under HIC #220711, and work is supervised under Construction Supervisor License #CS-123907. Both are public records you can look up on mass.gov before hiring anyone, and we encourage it.
If you are deciding which surfaces to tile, working out whether your current floor can hold new material, or wondering whether repair work needs to happen first, that is the right time to reach out. Tile of America visits the property before quoting, so the estimate reflects the actual conditions of your Harwich home rather than a figure guessed over the phone.
