Sandwich · Upper Cape
Tile of America is a tile contractor based in West Yarmouth serving homeowners in Sandwich 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 Sandwich home actually requires.
Subfloor inspection, waterproofing, layout, and professional tile installation for Sandwich 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. Sandwich is the oldest town on the Cape, and north of Route 6 its houses sit in the Old Kings Highway historic district.
Tile Work for Sandwich Homes
Sandwich was settled in 1637 and it has the housing stock to prove it, particularly along Route 6A and through the village, where antique Capes and Colonials sit on their original framing. South of Route 6 the picture changes completely: Forestdale and the newer neighbourhoods there are mostly late twentieth century. That line also decides whether the exterior of a house falls under historic district review. Tile of America settles both the structure and the scope before pricing a bathroom.
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 Sandwich. 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 Sandwich 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 Sandwich 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 Sandwich subfloors are corrected before the first row goes down.
Countertops
Quartz, granite, marble and porcelain slab countertops for Sandwich 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 Sandwich and the surrounding Upper 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.
Sandwich spans the oldest houses on the Cape and some of its newest, and the two need almost nothing in common.
North of Route 6, through the village and along 6A, the houses are genuinely antique. Board subfloors over hand-cut joists, lath and plaster, low doorways, and three or four centuries of settling and alteration layered on top of each other. Nothing in a room like that is square, level or flat to begin with.
South of Route 6, in Forestdale and the subdivisions near it, the houses are mostly from the nineteen seventies onward. Plywood subfloors, dimensional framing, straight walls. The preparation needed there is a fraction of what the village requires.
The antique side carries the harder constraint, which is height. Making a board subfloor flat and stiff enough for tile adds thickness, and that thickness has to still clear original doorways, stair nosings and baseboards. In houses where the doorways are already low, there is very little room to work with.
Both get the same assembly and very different preparation. Framing, deflection and levels are read on site, finish heights are planned against what the house already has, the shower is built on Schluter Kerdi-Board, waterproof through the panel, and a bonded membrane is detailed over every seam, corner and curb.
Permit requirements depend on the scope, and everything north of Route 6 sits inside the Old Kings Highway Regional Historic District.
Tile replaced over a sound substrate is finish work and does not normally need a permit.
Once a drain moves, framing is opened, or plumbing is relocated it does, which covers most full shower rebuilds. The Sandwich Building Department makes that determination project by project.
On historic review, the boundary is precise and worth knowing. Sandwich has its own Old Kings Highway Historic District Committee administering the regional act, and the district takes in all properties north of the centreline of Route 6 up to the Cape Cod Bay shore. What the committee reviews is exterior change: buildings, signs, fences and visible construction. A bathroom inside the house is not within its scope. It becomes a question if a remodel reaches a window, an exterior door or anything that shows from outside.
Settle the scope with the Building Department before anything is opened up, and if the house is north of Route 6 and the work touches the exterior, raise district review at the same time.
Permits for this work are issued by the Sandwich Building Department, and the permit is pulled before the work starts rather than after.
In the oldest town on the Cape, the work that decides a tile job is turning a centuries-old board floor that still moves with the seasons into a flat, stiff base, and doing it inside the height an original doorway allows. South of Route 6 that work is a fraction of the job. North of it, it is the job.
None of it shows when the bathroom is finished, and all of it decides whether the bathroom is still sound in a decade.
A foam-core panel with bonded waterproofing fleece, waterproof through the board rather than through a coating over cement board. It is also thinner and lighter than the alternatives, which is what an antique house with no spare floor height needs.
Premium wet-area systemWaterproof through the panel core, then a bonded Kerdi membrane over every seam, corner and curb. Two independent layers, because the framing behind the wall of a house this old cannot simply be replaced.
Two independent layersDeflection, levelness, board condition and seasonal movement, self-leveling needs, and finish height against original doorways and stair nosings, all read on site before a panel is cut.
Quoted after site reviewTile of America is based at 15 Adams Rd in West Yarmouth and takes on tile work throughout Barnstable County, including Sandwich and the Upper Cape. From Sandwich Village and East Sandwich across to Forestdale, Bourne, Mashpee and Falmouth, we travel to complete shower, floor, backsplash and tile repair projects for homeowners throughout the area.
Sandwich · Cape Cod · Massachusetts
Tile of America provides a one-year written warranty on every installation in Sandwich and across Cape Cod.
Tile of America provides a one-year written warranty on every installation in Sandwich 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. Antique houses north of Route 6 sit at the upper end, because correcting a board subfloor and resolving finish heights is real work before any tile is set. Newer houses south of Route 6 generally sit lower in the range, which is why the figure comes after we measure.
The permit comes from the Sandwich Building Department once the work touches plumbing, moves a drain, or opens framing. Tile over a sound substrate generally needs nothing. On historic approval: Sandwich has its own Old Kings Highway Historic District Committee and the district covers everything north of the centreline of Route 6. It reviews the outside of a building, not a bathroom, so interior tile work raises no question. It matters only if a project reaches a window, an exterior door or something visible from outside.
Substantially, and it is the main thing that changes the quote. Village and 6A houses are genuinely antique, with board subfloors, settled framing and floors that can be well out of level across a small room, all of which has to be corrected before tile. Forestdale and the newer neighbourhoods are late twentieth century with plywood and dimensional framing, and they usually need very little preparation.
That is the right question to ask in an antique house and we work it out before quoting. Making an old floor flat and stiff enough for tile adds height, and all of it has to clear the existing doorway and meet the next floor without a lip or a trip. Sometimes that means a thinner build-up, sometimes it means taking the old layers out rather than adding to them. What it never means is finding out on the day the door will not close.
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 Sandwich home rather than a figure guessed over the phone.
