Tile
Tile installation for Lakewood Ranch homes
Most tile work in Lakewood Ranch starts in a house that already has tile in it: the builder's, chosen once for a whole village. We take it up and set what the owners actually wanted, picked at our tile store on 14th Street West in Bradenton, about ten miles from Lakewood Ranch Main Street, and installed by our own installers.
Two jobs come up here more than any others, the shower and the main floor, and the slab under each decides more than the tile does. How we set tile in general is on the tile installation page; this one is the Lakewood Ranch part.
Showers for staying in the house
Several Lakewood Ranch villages are built for people over 55. Cresswind Lakewood Ranch describes itself as gated 55-and-over living, and Del Webb Lakewood Ranch has an association of its own. In those houses, and in plenty of others, the shower people ask for is the one with no step to climb over.
On a slab that means one of two things: cutting out the concrete under the shower and pouring it back lower, or building the rest of the bathroom up to meet it. A curbless shower on a concrete slab walks through both. If the house sits on a post-tensioned slab, nothing is cut until the builder's plans or an engineer show where the cables run.
Plan the niche at the same time, because it is framed before the walls are boarded. Shower niche height and size gives the measurements we work from.
Moving a drain is plumbing
Setting tile is finish work. Moving a drain, adding a linear drain or changing the shower valve is plumbing, and the Florida Building Code requires a permit before anyone alters a plumbing system. Lakewood Ranch spans Manatee and Sarasota counties, so which county issues that permit depends on which side of the line the house is on.
We settle that at the first visit, because it sets the order of the job: the new plumbing is inspected before the shower floor is built over it, and the tile comes after that.
Big tile wants a flat floor
The tile that replaces a builder's floor is usually much larger, 24 by 48 inches or more. The industry's installation standard, ANSI A108.02, tightens the rules for any tile with an edge of 15 inches or longer: the floor under it may vary by no more than an eighth of an inch over ten feet, and a sixteenth of an inch over two feet.
A newer slab often comes close, which is good news, but close is something we measure. We run a ten-foot straightedge across the rooms before the tile is ordered, grind the high spots and level the low ones, because a floor that misses by a little shows as tile edges catching the light. Large-format porcelain against ordinary tile explains what else changes as tile gets bigger.
Sun through the sliders
Open plans with wide sliding doors onto the lanai are the norm in these houses, and the afternoon sun lands on the floor. Tile and the slab under it move with heat, so the industry's movement-joint method, EJ171, calls for soft joints every 20 to 25 feet in each direction indoors, and every 8 to 12 feet where tile sits in direct sun, as well as at the walls and wherever the floor meets another surface.
Those joints are filled with a flexible sealant coloured to match the grout, so they read as grout lines. Leaving them out is a common reason a large tiled floor lifts or cracks after a few summers. Running porcelain tile from the kitchen out across the lanai keeps one floor all the way to the screen, with the outdoor half jointed more closely.
Twenty minutes from the tile store
From Lakewood Ranch Main Street to the showroom is about ten and a half miles, around twenty minutes. That makes it easy to take a sample home and look at it under your own windows before deciding, and it puts our installers close enough to come back for the last details at the end.
Flooring in Lakewood Ranch covers the wood and plank side of the same houses, and what the villages' associations ask to see.
Tile questions we get in Lakewood Ranch
Do I need a permit to retile a shower in Lakewood Ranch?
The part that needs a permit is the plumbing. Moving the drain, adding a linear drain or changing the valve alters the plumbing system, and the Florida Building Code requires a permit for that. Lakewood Ranch spans Manatee and Sarasota counties, so the permit comes from whichever county the house is in, and the new plumbing is inspected before the shower floor and tile go over it.
Can large tiles go straight onto a new Lakewood Ranch slab?
Often, once the slab has been measured. ANSI A108.02 allows a floor under tile with any edge of 15 inches or more to vary by no more than an eighth of an inch over ten feet. Newer slabs often come close; we check with a ten-foot straightedge before the tile is ordered and grind or level where it misses, rather than finding out from the first row of tile.
What grout should go in a new shower?
For a shower floor and the joints people scrub, epoxy grout resists stains and water better than cement grout, and it is harder to work, so it costs more in labour. For walls and dry floors, a good cement grout is usually enough. Epoxy grout against cement grout sets out the trade in full.
Worth reading first
- Engineered hardwood vs LVP for a Florida house on a slabReal oak or rigid-core vinyl over a Florida slab: how water, dogs and sanding split the two, what wear layer means on each, and which rooms get which.
- Porcelain countertops vs quartz for a Florida kitchenHow porcelain and quartz countertops are made, how each handles heat and Florida sun, and why the edge profile decides whether a porcelain top looks like stone.
- Curbless shower on a concrete slab: how it is built in a Florida houseHow a curbless shower is built on a Florida concrete slab: recessing the slab or raising the floor, choosing a linear drain and tile, and waterproofing with no curb.
- Epoxy grout vs cement grout for Florida showers, kitchens and floorsWhere epoxy grout earns its place in a Florida shower or kitchen, where cement grout is the better choice, whether either one needs sealing, and why epoxy takes longer to install.
