A customer sends a few photos of a finished bathroom and asks when you can start. Tile contractor lead qualification means screening the job before you put that bathroom in the calendar.
Collect enough evidence to choose a route: decline, request more information, provide a preliminary estimate or book a site visit with a written inspection plan.
Set the tile contractor lead qualification gate before booking
Do not treat the first call as a sales performance. Treat it as a booking gate. Every question should help you decide whether the job fits and what remains unknown.
Give each lead a route:
- Decline it because the work, location, timing or risk does not fit your business.
- Request more information because important facts are missing.
- Provide a clearly labelled preliminary estimate based on written assumptions.
- Book a tile job site visit with a defined purpose.
Do not book a visit just because the customer wants a price. Book it when seeing the bathroom will answer questions that photos and product details cannot.
Write the route in the lead record. That stops a request for more photos from quietly becoming a promise to quote.
Ask for the job facts before discussing dates
Start with the room and the requested result. Dates mean little until you know what work must happen before tile installation.
Ask the customer:
- Which bathroom is involved?
- Which walls, floors, niches, curbs or other surfaces need tile?
- Is this new work, a renovation, a repair or defect inspection of somebody else's installation?
- Is the existing finish still in place?
- Who is removing the existing tile, fixtures and backing?
- Who is disposing of demolition waste?
- Does the customer want installation only or preparation and waterproofing as well?
- What finished edges, transitions and penetrations are expected?
A bathroom tiling enquiry may sound like a simple floor replacement until the customer mentions a shower, damaged backing or a wall layout after the booking. Get those facts first.
If the enquiry concerns failed or disputed work, do not promise a repair from the phone. Use a separate defect inspection record. Call it a callback only when your business completed the original work.
Name the responsible party for each part
Put a name against demolition, disposal, substrate preparation, waterproofing, tile supply, trims, sealing and fixture handling. Do not leave those items under a loose phrase such as customer to prepare bathroom.
Ask who disconnects and reinstalls the toilet, vanity, shower controls, screens and accessories. If another licensed trade must do part of the work, identify that trade without including its work in your scope by accident.
The answer can be the customer, your crew, another contractor or not decided. Not decided means the lead needs more information before you promise a start date.
Confirm the tile and installation products
Ask for the exact tile product, not just porcelain or large format. Request the product name, tile dimensions, finish, quantity, delivery status and product information available from the supplier or manufacturer.
For customer-supplied tile, record who carries the risk of shortages, damaged pieces and late delivery. Ask who supplies trims, setting materials, grout, sealant and waterproofing products.
The customer may have selected a large-format tile without confirming the room dimensions, layout or trims. That is not enough information for a firm quote. Record the selection as provisional and ask for the missing product facts.
Ask whether the bathroom remains in use
An occupied bathroom changes access, protection, cleanup and work sequencing. Ask whether it is the only bathroom in use, whether belongings will be removed and who keeps children or pets away from the work area.
Confirm whether the room will be stripped before your arrival. If not, ask which fixtures and finishes will remain when your work starts.
Write the current condition down. Occupied, vacant, stripped and partly demolished are different starting points.
Request photos and measurements that expose uncertainty
Ask for wide photos from the doorway and opposite corners. Then request close-ups of the floor, wall junctions, shower area, thresholds, drains, penetrations, existing damage and transitions into adjoining rooms.
Request photos of the route from parking to the bathroom. Stairs, narrow halls, finished floors and limited material storage affect the work even when the tiled area is small.
Ask the customer to provide room dimensions, ceiling height where walls will be tiled, opening dimensions and the dimensions of the selected tile. Treat customer measurements as intake information, not final quantities.
Record the proposed tile direction and layout. Ask about centred features, aligned joints, niches, borders, patterns and finished edge locations. These choices affect cuts, setting out and what you must inspect.
Mark what the photos cannot prove
A photo of the finished surface identifies the room. It does not confirm the condition of concealed backing, previous waterproofing or framing behind it.
Say that plainly in the lead record. Do not let a clean finished-surface photo become an assumption that the substrate is sound.
If existing tile still covers the room, mark the substrate and waterproofing as concealed. Decide whether the quote requires a test opening at a named location, demolition by another party or a scope exclusion before pricing the work.
Check whether the lead fits your business
Screen the lead against the work you actually take. Check the service area, job type, crew capability, crew availability and the dates promised by other trades.
Do not invent a travel radius or minimum job size for this decision. Use your own business rules. If the lead falls outside them, decline it early and record the reason.
Ask whether the work includes a shower, heated floor, structural alteration, plumbing changes, electrical work or fixture relocation. Separate tile work from every other trade before discussing price.
For a licence question, use only the official provincial or territorial trade licensing and safety authority responsible for that trade. Find the regulator through the province or territory's official government website, ask which licence class covers the proposed work and write down the answer.
For a building-permit question, contact only the property municipality through its official website. Do not guess from a similar job in another municipality.
For worker coverage, contact only the official provincial or territorial workers' compensation board. Ask about your business and crew rather than making a legal assumption from the lead call.
Decide whether to estimate, visit or decline
Use a preliminary estimate only when you have identified the tiled surfaces, approximate dimensions, tile product and demolition responsibility. Write every assumption beside it. State the surfaces covered, excluded preparation, customer-supplied products, unresolved conditions and the event that triggers a site visit or firm quote.
Do not present a preliminary estimate as a fixed promise. If the customer needs help understanding the document, send them the plain-English explanation of quotes and estimates.
Book a site visit when concealed conditions, access, drainage interfaces, layout or preparation could materially change the scope. Give the visit a purpose such as confirming tiled areas, inspecting visible backing and assigning demolition responsibility.
Decline the work when it sits outside your crew's capability, safe operating limits, service area or accepted job type.
Confirm the customer, access and trade sequence
Identify the property owner, the person attending the visit and the person who can accept the quote. They may not be the same person.
The person at the visit should be able to answer scope questions. If they cannot approve the work, record who can and how decisions will be passed to that person.
Ask about parking, building access, elevators, stairs, material storage, cutting space, power, water and washroom access. Ask what protection is needed through occupied areas.
For a condo or managed building, ask for approved work hours, elevator booking, loading rules, protection requirements and the building contact who can confirm them. If those conditions block the crew or delivery, delay or decline the booking.
Then put the trades in working order. Record who handles demolition, plumbing, electrical work, inspections, backing, waterproofing and tile installation. Dates follow the sequence. They do not replace it.
Build the lead record before the tile job site visit
Keep one record for the enquiry. Save the customer name, property address, postal code, contact details, photos, measurements, tile information and requested timing.
Add the proposed scope, named responsibilities and the budget they gave you. A budget is useful for fit. It is not a complete scope and does not set your price.
Tile contractor lead qualification also needs a record of uncertainty. List missing answers, concealed conditions, assumptions and promises already made. If someone said the quote would include preparation, write down exactly what preparation they meant.
Use a short intake record like this:
Lead status: <decline / more information / preliminary estimate / site visit> Customer: <name> Property address and postal code: <address> Owner or authorised decision-maker: <name and role> Site contact: <name and phone> Visit date and time: <appointment> Expected attendees: <names and roles> Access instructions: <entry details and contact> Parking or elevator booking: <arrangements or missing> Visit charge, if any: <amount and acceptance status> Bathroom condition: <occupied / vacant / stripped / partly demolished> Requested tiled surfaces: <surfaces and rooms> Existing finishes: <what remains in place> Demolition and disposal by: <party> Substrate preparation by: <party or undecided> Waterproofing by: <party or undecided> Tile product and dimensions: <details or missing> Tile supplied by: <party> Trims and setting materials supplied by: <party> Other trades and dates: <details> Photos received: <views received and missing> Measurements received: <details> Concealed or unconfirmed conditions: <list> Visit purpose: <questions the visit must answer> Customer to have ready: <products, access or decision-maker> Next actions: <action / responsible person / due date>
Before saving the appointment, tell the customer what to have ready. That might be access to the room, the tile product details, the person making layout decisions or confirmation of another trade's scope.
Inspect the conditions that can change the quote
Carry a written inspection list. Do not rely on memory after several bathroom visits.
Start by recording the visible substrate type and its condition in each tiled area. Note visible moisture damage, movement, cracking, contamination, loose material and any section that needs an opening or further test before you can price preparation.
Measure the tiled areas yourself. Check walls and floors for plumb, square and flatness where the proposed layout depends on them. Record floor stiffness concerns beside the affected area rather than writing a general note for the room.
Check the existing falls around drains and record any visible drainage concern. Confirm drain, valve, pipe and other penetration positions. Measure transitions into adjoining floors and walls. Mark the proposed edge finish at exposed ends, thresholds, niches, outside corners and changes of material.
Check the proposed layout at corners, openings and transitions. Note where cut sizes, joint alignment or finished edges need a customer decision.
Mark existing movement-joint locations and the places where the proposed assembly needs them. Check the selected preparation, waterproofing, setting materials, grout and tile against the product instructions and applicable local requirements for the visible substrate.
Create a substrate inspection record before preparation begins. Create a separate waterproofing completion record after that work is finished; use the tile contractor waterproofing checklist to keep the stages separate.
Finish the visit with one output. You will prepare a quote, request further investigation, ask for missing evidence or decline the job. Tell the customer which one applies before you leave.
Turn the site findings into a controlled quote
Choose the confirmed work before costing it. Build the price from labour, materials, equipment, subcontracted work and markup. Use your own supplier costs and crew records, not an invented bathroom rate.
For a shower lead that passes screening, carry the substrate, waterproofing and finish decisions into separate quote lines. Do not bury preparation under tile installation.
Write the quote in plain sections:
- Included demolition and disposal.
- Included preparation and waterproofing.
- Tiled surfaces and agreed layout.
- Contractor-supplied materials.
- Customer-supplied products.
- Fixture and other-trade responsibilities.
- Exclusions and concealed conditions.
- Approval process for extra work.
Customer-supplied does not mean unrecorded. Name the exact product, required quantity, delivery responsibility and what happens if pieces arrive damaged or short.
Control concealed work with a change order
The Oak Street electrical job is the house example for scope boundaries. It is not a tile price or rate card.
Quote Q-1847 for R. Chen at 14 Oak Street was 1,105 sample currency units. The lined ceiling was known, and chasing was excluded from the quoted work.
Extra cable and chasing were approved on site as a 160 change order, so invoice INV-1847 was 1,265. The same rule applies when bathroom demolition exposes damaged or unsuitable backing outside your quoted preparation scope: stop, describe the extra work, price it and get approval before proceeding.
Send the next document while the site facts are fresh
Turn the findings from tile contractor lead qualification into the next document while the site facts are fresh. Attach the photos, product information, measurements and scope decisions to the lead record.
If the scope is confirmed, prepare the quote using a consistent structure. The quote-writing guide helps turn the inspection record into clear inclusions, exclusions and acceptance terms.
If you use Yes Foreman, enter the confirmed scope into the quote and create the accepted tiling job record. Record the next action before you close the lead.