Hire a Tiler Adelaide SA - Get Local Quotes

Retiling Older Adelaide Homes and Units

Tiling work across metropolitan Adelaide takes in new floors, splashbacks and laundry walls, but this guide gives most of its space to retiling rooms that have been tiled before. Stone villas in Unley, brick bungalows in Prospect and post-war homes in Elizabeth can each have different layers under the old tiles. Units add a second set of rules, because the corporation made up of all the owners must approve work that reaches the common property. Licensing is the third topic, since every tiler who contracts for building work in South Australia needs a licence. Prices on this page are 2027 estimates for the Adelaide area, given in the same units tilers use on their quotes.

For every tiling specialty across the state, from shower recesses to pool edges, start with the SA tilers hub. Jobs that are mainly wet rooms suit a bathroom tiler, while open living areas suit a floor tiling specialist. Kitchens, laundries and outdoor areas follow the same licence and contract rules as the bathrooms and unit floors discussed on this page.

Adelaide Retiling Prices for 2027 (Estimates)

The bands below are 2027 estimates for tiling labour in metropolitan Adelaide, with tiles, adhesive and grout priced separately unless a row says otherwise. Square metre rates assume a flat, sound surface, so preparation in an older home is added on top, set out line by line in the Adelaide tiling cost guide. Waterproofing has its own line because the membrane, a waterproof layer under the tiles, is applied and left to cure before tiling starts. The removal and levelling rows apply whenever old tiles come up first, which is the starting point for any retile.

A small bathroom retile at $2,500 to $4,500 covers the tiler's labour for the floor and walls only. Add the membrane at $800 to $1,800, then removal, any new wall board and the plumber's work, to reach the full cost of the room. Large-format tiles, those with a side of 600 mm or more, cost $60 to $110 per m² to lay, since they need a flatter floor and are heavier to lift and set. Natural stone sits higher again at $80 to $150 per m², since stone varies in thickness and some types need sealing. If the job grows into new fixtures and cabinetry, compare it with bathroom renovation pricing in SA before deciding how far to go.

Tiles, adhesive, grout and trims sit outside every labour band above. Order extra tiles to cover cuts and breakage, and keep at least one unopened box from the same batch for future repairs. Batch numbers matter because tiles from different production runs can vary slightly in colour and size. If the tiler supplies the tiles, the quote should name the range, the size and the price per square metre. If you supply them, check the delivery date fits the tiler's start date, because late tiles can leave you paying a tiler on a day rate who cannot work.

How Adelaide Tilers Set a Price: Area, Days or the Whole Room

Adelaide tilers quote in three main ways, and the unit changes what a figure includes. Square metre rates suit open floors and long walls, day rates of $480 to $780 suit work full of cuts and detail, and single room prices suit a bathroom retile. Small repairs carry a minimum call-out of $150 to $250, even when the work takes less than an hour. Fixed room prices move the risk of slow progress to the tiler, while day rates leave that risk with you. The same three methods apply when you hire tilers on the Limestone Coast, tilers for Yorke Peninsula and the Mid North or tilers on the Eyre Peninsula, with travel added.

Regrouting at $25 to $50 per m² and splashbacks at $400 to $1,200 are quoted as fixed jobs by some tilers and by the hour by others. Both are short jobs where the minimum call-out may set the lowest possible price. Booking a splashback or a regrout alongside a larger retile avoids paying that minimum twice.

Day rates also suit jobs where the hidden layers are unknown until the old tiles come up. On a day rate you pay for every extra day, so agree the expected number of days in writing.

Check whether each price includes GST, since a quote shown without it can look cheaper than one that includes it. Quotes also carry an expiry date, and a quote that runs out before your start date may be repriced. Tile supply prices move separately from labour, so a quote that includes tiles should say how long that price holds. If you are comparing quotes received weeks apart, confirm each one is still current before you choose.

Retiling the Bathroom of a Villa or Bungalow

Stone villas and interwar brick bungalows were built in Adelaide long before waterproofing standards existed for wet areas. Whatever bathroom you have now was built or rebuilt to the rules of its day, and those rules may not have required a membrane at all. Any tiler pricing a retile in one of these houses needs to know whether the floor is timber, a later concrete slab or a mortar bed laid over boards. Each of those needs different preparation, and the difference can be larger than the cost of the tiles. Photos of the floor edge at the doorway and of any access hatch help a tiler quote with fewer provisional sums, meaning allowances adjusted once the real cost is known.

Timber floors in these homes can flex more than tiles can tolerate, so a tiler may suggest laying fibre cement sheet or a decoupling membrane over the boards first. Rotten bearers, the beams that hold up the floorboards, and poor ventilation are work for a carpenter or a subfloor repair specialist before any tiling starts. Hills cottages raise their own timber subfloor questions for Adelaide Hills tilers, while Barossa Valley tilers deal with stone homes whose damp walls need attention before any retile.

A decoupling membrane is a thin plastic sheet bedded in adhesive that lets the tiles move separately from the floor below. It goes down only after the boards are fixed and stiffened, and it cannot fix a floor that bounces underfoot. Wall tiles in a villa bathroom can sit on render, a cement coating over the stone or brick, and render that comes away with the tiles has to be patched or replaced. Plan for some of the room to be bare masonry for a day or two while patches dry.

Post-War Housing Trust Homes and Their Original Bathrooms

The South Australian Housing Trust was set up by the state government in 1936, and after the Second World War it built thousands of homes for working families. Elizabeth, in the northern suburbs, is one of the places the Trust helped build. The national asbestos agency advises that any home built or renovated before 1990 might contain asbestos, and that includes the original bathrooms in these houses. Before a removal price is accepted, find out whether the wall linings behind the tiles have ever been tested.

Sampling is done by an asbestos tester, who sends a small piece of the lining to a laboratory for analysis. Share the written result with every tiler you ask to quote, so every quote is based on the same result.

Swapping a bath for a walk-in shower in one of these homes changes more than the tiles. The floor waste moves, the floor needs a new fall towards it, and the membrane has to cover the new shower area. Any old bath hob or tiled podium also has to come out, which adds to the strip-out time. Each step belongs to a different trade, so the order of work affects how long the bathroom is out of use. One workable order is strip-out, then plumbing, then a sand and cement screed to slope the floor, then the membrane and tiles, with curing time between wet steps.

Layers a Tiler May Find Under Old Adelaide Tiles

Lifting old tiles is the moment a fixed price can change, because nobody sees the layers underneath until they are exposed. Older floors may have tiles set in a thick mortar bed, which is sand and cement laid deep enough to slope the floor towards the drain. Some rooms have an earlier waterproofing layer under the tiles, and some have none at all. Wall tiles may come away with render, leaving a rough surface that needs patching before new tiles go up. Careful tilers state in the quote what happens if each of these is found, and what it costs.

Screed is a levelled layer of sand and cement laid over the slab, and it is how a tiler builds the fall to the waste, the gentle slope that carries water to the drain. ARDEX makes subfloor levelling and smoothing compounds that are poured to flatten a slab before tiles go down. Flatness matters more with large tiles, since every dip in the floor appears under a big tile as lippage, meaning one tile edge sits proud of the tile beside it. Look for a floor levelling line on the quote, which shows the tiler has looked at the slab and not only the tiles.

Walls need the same attention once the old linings are off. Fresh wet area board or fibre cement sheet gives the membrane and adhesive a clean, stable substrate, which is the surface the tiles are actually fixed to. Studs, the upright timbers in the wall frame, that are out of line leave the tiles uneven, so a carpenter may need to pack or plane them first. Old wall cavities can also reveal water damage from a leak that went unnoticed for years. Rotten timber or rusted fixings should be replaced while the wall is open, because nobody will see them again once the tiles are on. Set aside extra money for this stage and agree in writing how any extra work will be priced.

Asbestos Sheet and Silica Dust When an Old Wet Area Comes Out

The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency lists wall and ceiling sheeting in bathrooms, laundries and kitchens among places asbestos may be found. The backing for wall tiles and splashbacks, vinyl floor tiles and the felt backing under old vinyl are on the same list. If your home was built or renovated before 1990 and has sheet linings behind the tiles, treat them as suspect until a test says otherwise. Under South Australian guidance, an unlicensed tradesperson may remove up to 10 m² of non-friable asbestos, meaning bonded material that does not crumble by hand. That limit counts across the whole project, and above it a licensed removalist is required, with an independent licensed assessor doing air monitoring. Bathrooms lined on every wall can pass 10 m² quickly, so removal may need to be booked as a separate job.

SafeWork SA licenses asbestos removalists and must be notified five days before licensed removal work begins. Asbestos waste has to go to a licensed transfer station or waste depot, and the Environment Protection Authority publishes guidance on moving and disposing of it. When the removal takes place in a home, the licensed asbestos removalist doing the work arranges the air monitoring. Licensed removal is quoted separately from the tiling and should be finished, with clearance given, before the tiler arrives.

If a tiler uncovers sheet linings mid-job that nobody tested, work on that wall should stop until a sample is analysed. Keep the room closed and leave any broken pieces where they are until the result is known. Laboratory results can take a few days, so a tiler on a day rate may move to another job in the meantime. Agree in advance how that pause will be charged, so a surprise discovery does not turn into a dispute. The same pause applies to old vinyl or felt backing found under floor tiles in a kitchen or laundry.

Festool makes mobile dust extractors in the L, M and H dust classes, the ratings for how hazardous a dust each can collect, including the CTH 26 for H class work. Rubi makes manual tile cutters, such as its TK range, which score and snap a tile without the dust of a saw. Montolit makes the Masterpiuma P5 manual cutter and diamond core bits for drilling holes through porcelain. Hand cutters suit straight cuts, while wet saws and grinders with extraction handle notches, holes and mitred edges, which are angled cuts that meet neatly at a corner.

Cracked Floor Tiles on Adelaide's Reactive Clay

South Australia is known for highly reactive soils, and University of Adelaide researchers describe how repeated wetting and drying makes the ground shrink and swell under foundations. Tiled floors are rigid, so movement in the slab or footings, the concrete base the walls stand on, can show up as cracked tiles or grout lines opening along one path. Replacing cracked tiles without finding the cause can leave the new tiles cracking along the same line. If cracks also show in walls, door frames or cornices, have the house looked at before the floor is retiled. A building inspector in Adelaide can tell you whether the cracking comes from the footings or only from the tile bed.

Schluter-Systems makes DITRA, a polyethylene uncoupling membrane that lets the tile layer move separately from the floor under it to limit cracking. Movement joints are flexible sealant joints around the edges of a room and across large floors, and they give tiles room to expand and shrink. Neither fixes a footing problem, but both reduce how much small slab movement reaches the tiles. Owners of a river shack or farmhouse can find tilers in the Murraylands and Riverland who plan joints for outdoor tiles in strong summer heat.

Single cracked tiles can sometimes be cut out and replaced if spares from the original batch were kept. Each tile repair visit costs at least the minimum call-out of $150 to $250, so group several repairs into one booking.

If an inspector or engineer finds footing movement, the repair to the house comes first and the floor second. Settling can continue after footing work and crack a floor retiled too soon, so agree a waiting period with whoever did that work. Mark the ends of any existing floor cracks with a pencil and date, then check them over a few months to see whether they grow. Footing and slab repairs are a job for foundation repair contractors, not tilers.

Strata and Community Title Approval Before the Floor Changes

Each Adelaide unit falls under one of two laws, and the law that applies sets out how the corporation approves a new tiled floor. Strata schemes were created under the Strata Titles Act 1988, but new strata plans could not be registered after 1 June 2009. Schemes divided since then use the Community Titles Act 1996, which was also in use before that date. Your certificate of title or the corporation's manager can confirm which Act covers your unit. Under either Act, building work on the structure or on common property needs the corporation's approval before it starts.

Because the boundary normally sits at the upper surface of the floor, the slab beneath your tiles is outside your unit and forms part of the common property. Grinding that slab, cutting it for a new drain or moving a floor waste can therefore need approval as well as a plumber. Send the corporation a written request with the tile type, the underlay and the dates, and keep its reply with your contract. The Adelaide plumber handling any drain change will need to know the approval is in place.

A special resolution is a vote at a corporation meeting that needs a larger majority than an ordinary vote, so the timing of that meeting can set your start date. Lodge the request early and include a simple drawing of the room, the tile and underlay products, and the hours the tiler plans to work. Mention how waste will leave the building and where the tiler will park and cut tiles. Lift bookings, protection for common hallways and limits on noisy work hours are practical points the manager may raise. Tilers who have worked in managed buildings before will expect these questions and can price the extra time.

Tiles Over a Neighbour's Ceiling: Underlay and By-Laws

Replacing carpet with tiles in an upper floor unit changes how footsteps sound in the unit below. Check the articles or by-laws, your scheme's own written rules, for any rule on hard floors, underlay or noise before you choose tiles. Under the Community Titles Act, an owner or occupier must not use a lot in a way that causes a nuisance or interferes unreasonably with another lot. By-laws can also regulate the materials and methods of building work on a lot, and restrict how lots are used to prevent that kind of interference. An acoustic underlay, a soft mat laid under the tiles, is one way to reduce impact noise passing into the ceiling below.

A set-down is a recess in the slab that lets a wet area floor sit lower than the rooms around it. Mapei makes Mapesonic CR, a rubber and cork mat laid on the slab under ceramic tiles to cut footstep noise. If the corporation asks for more than a floor underlay, an acoustic insulation specialist can advise on ceilings and walls. Underlay makers publish installation guides for each floor finish, and the tiler should follow the one written for tiles.

Tile choice in a unit also affects floor height and weight. Thinner tiles on a thin adhesive bed keep the finished floor closer to the old carpet height at doorways. Large-format tiles over an acoustic mat need a flat slab, so levelling may become part of the price. Doors may need trimming once the new floor is down, which a carpenter or handyman can do.

Checking a Tiler on the CBS Licence Register

Consumer and Business Services, known as CBS, is the South Australian agency that licenses building work contractors. Individuals and businesses who contract for building work must be licensed, and that includes subcontractors working for other licensed builders. Builders and tradespeople must show their licence number on advertising, including social media, websites and business cards. Employees of a licensed business do not need a contractor licence of their own. The Consumer and Business Services register can be searched with a tiler's licence number, and it shows which business or trading names are connected with that licence.

Contractor licences for building work come in more than one form. Contractors doing specified building work, meaning one listed trade such as bricklaying or carpentry, need at least $10,000 in net assets to apply, and subcontractors without enough net assets can get a restricted licence. If a tiler holding a restricted subcontractor licence offers to contract with you directly, read its conditions on the register first. You can also phone CBS on 131 882 to check whether a tradesperson is licensed.

The register confirms a licence, but it does not show the quality of past work. Recent photos of similar retiles, ideally in houses of the same age as yours, show how a tiler deals with old floors and walls. References from past customers can be checked by phone before you commit. Request a certificate of currency, the insurer's proof that a policy is active, for the tiler's public liability insurance. The business name on that certificate should match the name on the licence and the quote.

A building work supervisor is a registered person who oversees the work, and that registration has to cover the same type of work the contractor takes on. Tilers can hold the supervisor registration personally or nominate another registered person to supervise their work.

What Licence Conditions Mean for Tiling, Waterproofing and Plumbing

Every contractor licence carries one or more conditions that list the type of work the holder can contract for. CBS states that contracting for building work not listed on your licence is a criminal offence. In 2018, a company whose licence was limited to wall and floor tiling was prosecuted in the Adelaide Magistrates Court after taking on bathroom and laundry renovations. The company was fined $11,840 and ordered to pay $5,500 in compensation to three consumers. Compare the job described on your quote with the conditions shown on the register before you sign.

In 2015, the Commissioner of Consumer Affairs accepted an assurance, a formal written promise to comply, from a contractor whose licence did not include plumbing, after a bathroom renovation went ahead without the right licence. New lights, a fan or floor heating need an Adelaide electrician, and underfloor heating cables must be in place before the screed or tiles go down. Plumbing in a retile, including any change to a floor waste, belongs with a licensed plumber. When one contractor runs the whole job, that contractor's licence must cover the renovation, and each trade on site still needs the right licence for its part. When you book the trades yourself, you become the person coordinating them, so check every licence separately.

Deposits, Written Contracts and Cooling-Off on a Retile

South Australia changed its domestic building rules on 10 November 2025, lifting the threshold for its main contract rules from $12,000 to $20,000. Work under $20,000 is minor domestic building work, and a written contract is not legally required, though one is still sensible. From $20,000 up, the contract must be in writing, legible and signed by both parties, and it must set out all of its terms. It must also give the builder's business name and licence number. The contractor must give you a signed copy and the Form 1 notice, which sets out your rights and obligations, as soon as possible after signing.

On a contract of $20,000 or more you can end the agreement within 5 clear business days of signing, by written notice sent by certified mail or handed over in person. Building indemnity insurance must cover at least $250,000 per dwelling for loss when the builder has died, disappeared or become insolvent. It applies when the work is $20,000 or more and also needs development approval, so ask whether yours does once the price passes that figure. After the deposit, CBS allows genuine progress payments for work already done, so tie each payment to a finished stage such as strip-out, membrane or tiling.

Variations are changes to the agreed work after signing, such as a new shower niche or a different tile. Write each variation down with its price, and have both parties sign it before the tiler starts on it. Provisional sums for removal or screeding should be adjusted to the real cost, with the calculation shown on the invoice. Keep a running total of variations, so the final invoice matches what you expected to pay.

Some strip-outs are quoted by a bathroom demolition crew under its own contract. Read each contract separately, including its deposit, its payment stages and the licence number it gives.

AS 3740, the Fall to the Waste and the Code in Force Until 2027

AS 3740, Waterproofing of domestic wet areas, sets minimum requirements for the materials, design and installation of waterproofing, and copies are sold through Standards Australia. The National Construction Code, or NCC, is the national set of building rules, and South Australia adds its own variations. According to PlanSA, NCC 2022 Amendment 2 remains the building code in South Australia until 30 April 2027, and South Australia adopts the Building Code within NCC 2025 on 1 May 2027. South Australia's variation requires the floor of a wet area with a vessel, such as a bath or shower, to slope down to a floor waste, the drain set into the floor. If your retile is planned for the first half of 2027, ask the waterproofer which edition the work is being done to.

Laticrete makes HYDRO BAN, a membrane it lists as load-bearing and suited to crack isolation, which stops small floor cracks passing up into the tiles. Wedi makes the wedi Building Board, a waterproof extruded polystyrene board with a cement-based coating that can replace old sheet linings in a shower. Stormtech makes linear drains and floor wastes, including tile insert grates that take a strip of tile so the drain blends into the floor. Whichever system is chosen, the membrane and drain parts should be named on the quote.

Membranes need time to cure before tiles go on, and the cure time comes from the maker's data sheet for that product. Rushing this step to save a day can trap moisture or damage the membrane before it has set. Have the waterproofer note the product and the date it was applied, so the tiler knows when tiling can start. Cold mornings and damp weather can slow curing, which is one reason bathroom jobs run past their planned days. Allow a spare day in the schedule, and avoid booking the plumber's fit-off, when taps and fixtures go in, too close to the tiling finish.

A shower that already leaks needs the cause found before any retile is priced. Leak investigation belongs with remedial waterproofing specialists, while new membranes can be booked through Adelaide waterproofing services.

Getting a Faulty Retile Put Right

Start by writing to the tiler with photos, dates and the repair you want, and keep a copy. If that fails, CBS can give advice to help you reach an agreement, and it offers voluntary and compulsory conciliation, where an independent officer helps both sides agree. Court claims can be brought in the Magistrates Court or, for larger amounts, the District Court. Statutory warranties apply to all domestic building work, minor or not, and a claim must be started within 5 years of completion. That 5 year limit cannot be extended, so do not let a slow leak run for years before acting.

Under consumer guarantee guidance from the ACCC, a tiler must use acceptable care and skill, and finish within a reasonable time where no date was agreed. Services and any resulting products must also be fit for any purpose you told the tiler about. Leaking shower repairs can need both a waterproofer and a tiler, so the repair quote should name both. Keep the contract, the quote, payment records and photos taken during the job, including shots of the membrane before tiling. Those photos may be the only record of work that is now hidden under the tiles. Store copies away from the house, such as in an email to yourself.

Quote Lines That Need a Second Look in Adelaide

A low price for an older bathroom can mean the preparation has been left out, not that the tiler works faster. Check whether the quote assumes the old tiles lift cleanly, or allows for a mortar bed, new wall board and screed. Look for the licence number, the name of the membrane system and the person responsible for the membrane. Provisional sums should be realistic for the age of the house, and each one should say what it covers. Raise asbestos testing before you sign if a quote for a pre-1990 home does not mention it.

Tile supply can also be missing from a quote, so confirm who buys the tiles, who orders spares and who pays if a batch arrives short. Dry Treat, now sold under the STAIN-PROOF name, makes impregnating sealers for natural stone, tiles and grout. ARDEX makes undertile waterproofing membranes and tile adhesives as part of its tile installation systems. Laticrete makes SPECTRALOCK PRO, a high-performance epoxy grout, and the grout type should be written on the quote. Caroma makes bathroom products with dual flush and Cleanflush technology, so decide early whether the toilet is staying or being replaced.

Check the payment details on the quote as well. Paying cash with no invoice leaves you without a record that names the business, the work and the date it was done. That record matters if you later claim under the statutory warranties or the consumer guarantees. Pay by a traceable method and keep every receipt with the contract.

Getting Three Adelaide Tilers to Price the Same Retile

Send every tiler the same brief: suburb, age of the house, room sizes, photos of the floor and walls, and the tiles you have chosen. State whether you or the tiler will supply the tiles, and give the tile size and whether they are rectified, meaning cut to exact square edges at the factory. Mention whether the home is a unit, and attach the corporation's approval if you already have it. Request separate prices for removal, preparation, membrane, tiling and clean-up. Back-buttering, which means spreading adhesive on the back of each tile as well as the floor, adds time, so the method should be stated for large-format work. Ask for the start date, the expected days on site and the payment stages tied to finished work.

Comparing quotes is easier when each one uses the same units, so convert room prices to a square metre figure. City-based tilers may add a travel charge for jobs on the Fleurieu Peninsula or further out, and holiday homes there raise their own access questions. Choose the quote that names its methods and products clearly, not simply the one with the lowest total. If the job also takes in other rooms, wall tiling and shower tiling specialists can be briefed at the same time.

Inner suburbs with narrow streets and permit parking can add time for unloading tiles and removing rubble. Mention any parking limits in the brief so each tiler can allow for them.