The builder says the bathroom is ready. Your crew finds unfinished joints, damaged board and a work order that says only “tile bathroom”. Tiler subcontractor work turns sour when the handover leaves the important decisions to site.
Make your package easy to assess. Then write down the surfaces, preparation, materials, readiness conditions and approval route before you book labour.
Choose the tiler subcontractor work you want
Pick the work before you approach builders. A clear target stops you pricing jobs that do not fit your crew, location or programme.
Run each target through a go/no-go test. Does your crew have the skill for the tile format and finish? Can you handle the stated substrate preparation? Will occupied-site access slow the work? Does the travel fit the job value? Does the programme leave enough time to order materials and book labour? Decline the target when the answers do not fit your business.
Set your boundaries as well. If you do not remove existing finishes, repair structural movement, install plumbing or correct another trade’s work, say so. Do not offer a vague package and expect the site manager to understand the limits.
Keep a prospect log with:
- Builder and contact name
- Project types and service area
- Date contacted
- Person handling builder tiling enquiries
- Follow-up date
- Reasons work was accepted or declined
Ask for the person who issues tiling packages. That may be an estimator, quantity surveyor, contracts manager or site manager. Explain the rooms, tile formats and project types you want.
Review the log after each completed job. Keep builders who provide usable information, sensible access and enough time to prepare. Stop chasing work that repeatedly falls outside your boundaries.
Give the builder a package they can assess
A builder should be able to understand what you install without a long telephone call. Send a short, current package instead of a folder full of unrelated photographs.
Include:
- The installations and project types you take on
- Your normal service area
- Your quoting contact details
- Clear scope boundaries
- Examples of comparable completed work
- The information you require before quoting
- Insurance or registration details when the proposed package calls for them
Use photographs that show finished edges, transitions, niches, falls and junctions. Label the room and installation. A close-up without context proves little.
State how you want enquiries sent. Ask for the project address, programme, drawings, drawing revision, finish schedule, tile selections, tender return date and contact for technical questions.
Ask how the builder onboards subcontractors. Do not send bank details or tax paperwork in an unsolicited first message. Wait until the builder identifies the accounts process and the contracting business.
For a limited company, copy the correct legal name and billing details onto your quote. If the identity is unclear, check the Companies House company search (opens in a new tab) before issuing commercial documents.
Good tiler subcontractor work starts with a package the estimator can file, compare and send to the right project team.
Qualify builder tiling enquiries before spending bid time
Do not start a take-off from an old drawing and a room name. Ask for the information that controls the work first.
Confirm:
- Site address and project stage
- Tender return date and proposed start
- Current drawing and finish schedule revisions
- Room names used by the builder
- Tile products, formats and laying patterns
- Grout, trims, profiles and sealants
- Approved samples or outstanding selections
- Person answering technical questions
- Person approving price and scope
Then assign the materials. Record who supplies each tile, fixing product, grout, trim, waterproofing product, sealant and protection material.
Delivery is not one task. State who receives the load, unloads it, moves it to the work area and provides secure storage. If your crew must distribute tile from another part of the site, that labour belongs in the scope and cost.
Check what must happen before tiling. Demolition, plumbing, electrical work, boarding, screeding, waterproofing and drying can all control the start. Ask the builder to name the trade responsible for each item.
Pause when an essential decision is missing. Send a short query list. Do not silently choose a tile, pattern, trim or preparation method and price your guess as accepted work.
If the builder needs an early figure, label it as an estimate or state the assumptions clearly. The quote versus estimate guide explains when to give a fixed quote and when the unknown work needs a range instead.
Inspect each room and write the readiness conditions
Walk the site before fixing the tiling subcontract scope. Plans show intended work. The room shows what your crew will face.
Record every floor, wall, niche, return, step, threshold, penetration and change of finish. Use the builder’s room names so the quote, order and site discussion all point to the same place.
Check the visible substrate. Record material, condition, joints, damage, contamination, movement, falls and any obvious difference from the drawings. Photograph the whole surface and then the problem area.
The common site argument starts here. The builder says the bathroom is ready, but the substrate has unfinished joints and damaged areas. Nobody has named the trade responsible for correction. Do not absorb that work. Record the condition and ask the builder to assign it.
Where waterproofing responsibility or evidence is unclear, stop and use the tiler waterproofing pre-start checks before covering the substrate.
Write readiness conditions into the quote. These might require the agreed substrate work to be complete, other trades to leave the room, materials to be accessible and a suitable cutting area to be available. State what happens if the conditions are not met when your crew arrives.
If a workplace health and safety question affects access or the work method in Great Britain, check the current guidance with the Health and Safety Executive (opens in a new tab). For a site in Northern Ireland, check with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (opens in a new tab). Record the site control needed before work starts.
Do not decide whether building regulations approval is required from the project name alone. For work in England, ask building control about building regulations approval (opens in a new tab). In Wales, check the route with the Welsh Government (opens in a new tab). In Scotland, check the Scottish Government building standards guidance (opens in a new tab). In Northern Ireland, ask your local council building control service and check the Northern Ireland building regulations guidance (opens in a new tab).
Write the tiling subcontract scope before costing it
Describe the work room by room. “Tile bathroom” is not a scope.
For each room, name:
- The floor and wall surfaces included
- Tile product, format and orientation
- Pattern and setting-out point
- Joint, grout and sealant requirements
- Niches, returns and penetrations
- Trims, profiles and exposed edges
- Thresholds and finish transitions
- Height, boundary and stopping point
- Preparation included before fixing
- Protection and cleaning after installation
Split responsibilities by party. Give the tiler, builder, client and other trades their own lines. If the builder supplies the tile but you supply adhesive and grout, write both statements. If another trade forms the falls or fits the boards, name that responsibility.
Keep these headings separate:
- Inclusions: work covered by your price
- Exclusions: work outside your price
- Assumptions: conditions used to build the quote
- Builder-supplied items: materials, access or preceding work provided by the builder
- Options: separately priced choices the builder may accept
Name the person allowed to approve the variation. An instruction from somebody else can leave you arguing over payment later.
Use this blank scope control sheet for the next enquiry:
Project address: [address] Builder legal name: [contracting entity] Builder contact: [name, role, phone, email] Tender return date: [date] Proposed start: [date or readiness trigger] Quote reference and revision: [reference] Drawing revision: [revision and date] Finish schedule revision: [revision and date] Rooms and tiled surfaces: [list] Tile products and formats: [list] Layouts and patterns: [list] Joints, grout and sealant: [list] Edges, trims and transitions: [list] Stopping points: [list] Tiler responsibilities: [list] Builder responsibilities: [list] Client responsibilities: [list] Other-trade responsibilities: [list] Inclusions: [list] Exclusions: [list] Assumptions: [list] Builder-supplied items: [list] Options: [list] Readiness conditions: [list] Variation approver: [name and role] Payment steps: [contact, dates and documents] Invoice contact: [name and email] Retention wording, if included: [copy the subcontract terms]
Cost the accepted scope and set the payment terms
Cost the written installation. Not the builder’s short project description.
Build the job cost from:
- Labour for preparation, setting out, fixing, cutting, grouting and cleaning
- Materials you supply
- Equipment needed for this site
- Delivery, unloading and distribution under your responsibility
- Waste handling and disposal under your responsibility
- Site supervision and job overhead
- Planned return visits
Use your own supplier costs and labour records. Add a markup to the total cost to reach the selling price. Keep markup and margin separate.
The framework is:
- Job cost = labour + materials + equipment + delivery + disposal + job overhead
- Price = job cost + markup amount
- Margin = profit divided by selling price
Here is the house electrical example. It is a worked example in sample currency units, not a tiling rate card.
R. Chen’s job at 14 Oak Street covered a bathroom exhaust fan and four LED downlights. Quote Q-1847 was 1,105. The job cost was 850, so profit against the original quote was 1,105 − 850 = 255. Markup was 255 ÷ 850 = 30%. Margin was 255 ÷ 1,105, or about 23%.
The ceiling was lined and the quote excluded chasing. Extra cable and chasing were approved on site as a 160 variation, taking invoice INV-1847 to 1,265. Do not calculate profit using 1,265 and the original cost of 850. The costs of the variation are not supplied.
For tiling, record preparation, fixing materials, labour and rework against the individual job. The tiler job-costing process gives you the cost tracking buckets without turning the quote into a rate card.
Before you start, read the subcontract payment process. Copy the application dates, invoice trigger, payment dates, notice route, retention terms and required evidence into the quote and job record. Do not assume that sending an invoice starts the approval process.
If retention is included, record withheld money separately from unpaid variations and disputed work. Use the builder retention invoice process to track the final balance.
Confirm the contracting entity, billing address and required tax details. Check HMRC’s CIS guidance (opens in a new tab) and HMRC’s VAT guidance (opens in a new tab) for the current processes. Do not copy tax treatment from an older job or another subcontractor.
Check the tiling subcontract order against the accepted quote
The document name varies by builder. It may be called a subcontract order, purchase order or works order. Call it the subcontract order in your own job record and do not book the crew until it matches the accepted package.
Check the subcontract order against:
- The accepted quote reference and revision
- The current drawings and finish schedule
- The rooms, surfaces and scope boundaries
- The programme and readiness trigger
- The agreed payment dates, retention terms and evidence
- The named person allowed to approve a variation
A subcontract order that says only “tile bathroom” does not settle demolition, waterproofing, substrate correction, tile supply, protection or waste removal. List the differences between the order, quote, drawings, finish schedule, programme and payment terms.
Ask for a corrected subcontract order or written acceptance of the differences before reserving labour. Then give the crew room-level instructions covering the current layout, product, boundaries, preparation and stopping points.
Stop and record changed work on site
A different tile format changes cutting and setting out. A new pattern changes labour. Unfinished preparation changes sequence. A blocked room changes access. Stop at the affected work.
Write the variation with:
- Job and room
- Existing accepted scope
- Changed condition or instruction
- Extra or omitted work
- Price and programme effect
- Name of the authorised approver
- Date and written approval
Get approval before continuing with the changed work. If immediate work is needed to leave the area safe or protect completed work, record exactly what was done and why. Do not treat that record as automatic approval for the full extra package.
Keep dated photographs, delivery records and a contractor job diary under the same job. Record who gave the instruction, which room was affected and when the crew stopped or restarted. That connects the variation to the site condition instead of relying on memory at invoice time.
Review the job and ask for the next suitable enquiry
Close the job by comparing estimated and actual labour, materials, delivery, disposal and rework. Record the reason for each meaningful difference. The point is to improve the next take-off, not rewrite the history of the finished job.
Review the builder as well. Did the drawings match the room? Were selections made before you started? Was tile accessible? Did other trades leave the area ready? Did the authorised person answer variation requests?
Send a short close-out note stating the rooms completed, accepted variations, outstanding snagging and documents supplied. Then name the tiler subcontractor work you want next and ask for the next suitable package.