In homes built before the 1980s, assume old flooring and mastic may contain asbestos until it has been tested.
Ogden has the oldest bathrooms in this service area, and that makes the first decision a different one from anywhere else: whether to replace the tile at all. A pre-war bathroom with its original hexagonal floor and mortar-set walls is often in better structural condition than a shower built in the 1990s, and it is frequently worth more to the house intact than renewed. Where it does need work, the complication is that nothing in a house of that age is plumb, level or square, and tile is an unforgiving material to install in a room that is none of those.
Original mortar-bed tile is a durable assembly, and small hexagonal floor tile set in mortar over a solid base can last a century. Before assuming replacement, it is worth establishing what condition it is actually in: whether it is still bonded, whether water has been getting behind it, and whether the problems are cosmetic or structural.
Cosmetic problems have cosmetic fixes. Stained or failed grout can be raked out and replaced; a handful of cracked or missing tiles can often be matched closely enough from salvage; worn finish on an old tub is a refinishing question rather than a tile one. None of those require taking a sound wall apart.
Structural problems are different and they are usually about water. Soft areas, a wall that has started to bulge, tile that has debonded in a patch around a valve, or rot visible in the framing below the tub all mean the assembly has been breached. That is replacement, and at that point it is worth doing properly with modern waterproofing rather than rebuilding the old system.
A hundred-year-old house has moved. Walls lean, floors slope, door openings are out of square, and a tub that was level when it was installed may not be now. Tile makes all of that visible, because grout lines are straight and the room is not, and the only question is where the discrepancy is going to show.
Good work in an old house therefore starts with measuring and planning rather than setting tile. Which wall is the reference. Whether to follow the floor or follow level. Where to put the tapering cut so it is least visible. Whether to float a wall to bring it closer to plumb, and whether that is worth the thickness it adds in a small room. Those decisions determine how the finished room reads.
It is also why a fixed-price quote from somebody who has not seen the room is close to meaningless in this housing. The variable is not the tile, it is how much correction the substrate needs, and that cannot be guessed from a photograph.
Many Ogden bathrooms still have the original cast iron tub, and those are worth keeping where the finish allows — they are better than most replacements and extremely heavy to remove. But they interact with tile work in two ways that need planning. The joint between an old tub and new tile is the single most common place for a retiled bathroom to leak, and it takes flexible sealant rather than grout, because that joint moves.
The other is sequence. If the plumbing behind the wall is galvanized and at the end of its life, or the drain is old and marginal, the moment to address it is when the wall is open. Tiling over plumbing that is going to need replacing within a few years is how a finished bathroom gets opened up again, and nobody enjoys that conversation after the fact.
So the useful order is: decide what plumbing work is happening, do it, then build the wet-area assembly, then tile. A contractor who asks about the plumbing before quoting the tile is thinking about the right things.
Quite possibly. Mortar-set tile over a solid base is durable and often in better condition than a shower built in the nineties, and it can add real value to a house of that period. Failed grout, a few cracked tiles and a worn tub finish are all cosmetic and fixable. Soft areas, a bulging wall, debonded patches around the valve, or rot in the framing mean the assembly has been breached, and that is replacement.
Yes, but the planning matters more than the tile. Grout lines are straight and the room is not, so someone has to decide which wall is the reference, whether to follow the floor or follow level, and where to hide the tapering cut. Floating a wall closer to plumb is an option but it eats space in a small room. This is why a fixed price from someone who has not seen the room means very little here.
Two things. The joint between an old tub and new tile is the most common leak point in a retiled bathroom, and it needs flexible sealant rather than grout because it moves. And if the galvanized supply or the old drain behind that wall is near the end of its life, do it while the wall is open — tiling over plumbing that will need replacing in a few years means opening the finished bathroom again.
Describe the job and we'll match you with an installer who builds the assembly in the right order.
Get a Tile InstallerA rough description is plenty — we will follow up to scope the details and set a time.
