Flooring and tiling contractors in Mumbai.

Mumbai flooring and tiling hiring guide

What a flooring and tiling contractor does and where the work stops.

A flooring and tiling contractor removes old flooring where needed, prepares and levels the base, lays floor and wall tiles or stone, cuts around fixtures, grouts the joints and fixes skirting. Common materials are vitrified and ceramic tiles, marble, granite and other stone. Some also lay laminate or engineered wood floors. The work stops at several points. Filling a sunken bathroom slab and waterproofing belong to a civil or waterproofing contractor and must finish first. Drain positions and floor slopes depend on the plumber. Marble polishing after laying is often a separate polishing team. Wooden skirting and thresholds may belong to the carpenter. Ask each candidate which of these they include and who they expect you to arrange.

How to vet a tiling contractor before you pay.

Visit a site where tiles are being laid now. Tap a few laid tiles with a coin and listen for a hollow sound, run your hand across joints for lips between tiles and check that the bedding covers the whole back of a lifted tile. Ask for two finished floors at least a year old and look for cracked tiles, shade variation and stained grout. For a firm, ask for its GST registration and check the name matches the quote. For an individual, record the full name, mobile number and a photo identity document. Ask which tile shop they buy from and whether you may buy the tiles yourself. A contractor who shows only photos of finished floors has told you nothing about the bedding underneath.

What a proper flooring quotation contains.

A usable tiling quote prices labour per square foot of laid area and states how it measures, including whether skirting is by running foot and whether wall tiles and floor tiles carry different rates. It states whether tiles are included or supplied by you, and if included it names the brand, size, grade, finish and thickness. It names the adhesive or cement bedding method, the grout type and brand, and the spacer width. It lists removal of old flooring, levelling, slope to drains, thresholds, cutting around fixtures, transport and lifting to your floor and debris removal as included or excluded. It gives the wastage allowance for cutting and pattern, GST, payment stages and a written warranty against hollow tiles and lipping.

Common tiling frauds and how to catch them.

Tile batch mixing is the classic one. Boxes from two production batches carry slightly different shades and sizes, and the difference shows once the floor is grouted. Second-grade or commercial-grade tiles are billed as first grade, and the grade stamp on the box is the only place you can check. Wastage is padded, so you pay for tiles that go home with the crew, and leftover sealed boxes disappear. Large tiles are spot-bedded with a few dabs instead of full coverage, so they crack and sound hollow. Grout is diluted or a cheap cement grout is billed as epoxy. Indian marble is sold as imported. Check box stamps for batch and grade, count boxes in and out, lift one tile during laying and keep the empty boxes until the floor is grouted.

When to hire a tiling contractor directly and when to go through a contractor.

Hire a tiling contractor directly for a floor on a dry, level base where nothing else changes, such as re-tiling a living room. A bathroom is different. The sunken slab fill, waterproofing, drain positions, slope and tiles must all agree, and if the floor pools water the tiler blames the plumber and the plumber blames the waterproofing. A civil, interior or turnkey contractor who runs all of them owns the slope and the leak warranty as one party. If you still hire the tiler directly on a bathroom, write down who checks the waterproofing ponding test, who sets the drain level and who pays to relay a floor that does not drain. Decide this before the first bag of cement arrives.

Sequence, dependencies and site checks during tiling work.

Tiling starts only after concealed plumbing and electrical are tested and covered, waterproofing has passed a ponding test and the base is level and dry. Have every box delivered at once and check that batch numbers match before a single tile is cut. Lay out the pattern dry on the floor and agree where the cut tiles go, usually along the least visible wall. Check the floor level and the slope to every drain with a level before bedding starts. During laying, tap tiles each day for hollow sounds and check joints for lips. Photograph the bedding on a lifted tile and the finished floor before grouting. Protect the finished floor with sheets until the painter and carpenter are done.

Payment, handover and warranty closure for flooring.

Pay an advance only against tiles delivered to site with the shop invoice, and count the boxes yourself against the quoted quantity. Release the next stage after laying is complete and you have tapped the floor for hollow tiles and checked joints for lips. Release the last stage after grouting, cleaning and a water test in every bathroom showing that the floor drains without pooling. Hold back the agreed retention for the period in the contract. At handover collect the tile invoices with batch numbers, a few spare tiles from the same batch for future repairs, the bedding and layout photos, the grout brand and shade and a written warranty against hollow tiles, cracks and lipping. Keep the contact of the person who laid the floor.