January 7, 2026
Shower waterproofing membranes: three systems, one rule
Liquid membrane, bonded sheet or foam panels: all three work. What makes them fail is always the same thing.
Read the guide →
Tile installation · Eastern Townships
The tile is the easy part
What decides how long a tile job lasts sits underneath it: substrate flatness, the membrane, the mortar and the movement joints. Here is how each job is done, what a quote should name, and why two prices can differ by half.
What sits under the tile
The tile
The visible part
Setting mortar
Type depends on format
Membrane
Waterproofing or uncoupling
Substrate
Flatness and rigidity
A quote naming only the tile describes one layer out of four.
3 mm
Flatness tolerance for large format
L/360
Maximum deflection for a tiled floor
24 h
Length of a shower flood test
8
Work types explained here
The work
Eight jobs, eight ways to go wrong
A shower, a backsplash and a balcony share neither substrate, membrane nor mortar. Here is what each one actually involves.
01
Bathroom tiling
Walls, floor and tub surround: where waterproofing starts and where tile alone is not enough.
Wet room
02
Curbless shower
Slope to drain, membrane and flood test: the three points where a shower is won or lost.
Slope and membrane
03
Floor tiling
Floor deflection, substrate flatness and movement joints: what actually cracks a tile.
Flatness
04
Kitchen backsplash
Mosaic, subway or large format: why a small surface costs so much per square foot.
Small surface
05
Heated floor under tile
Cable, mat or heated uncoupling membrane: what gets decided before the tile goes down, never after.
Cable or membrane
06
Grout and joint repair
Cracked grout, blackened joints, failed caulk: what can be repaired and what signals a deeper problem.
Maintenance
07
Large format tile
The bigger the tile, the less the substrate forgives. Levelling, mortar and alignment systems.
XXL slabs
08
Outdoor tiling
Balcony, terrace, entryway: why tile installed outdoors in Quebec follows entirely different rules.
Freeze-thawHow it should go
Four steps, and what to check at each one
01
Assessing the substrate
Flatness measured with a straightedge, floor rigidity, wall condition, presence of moisture. That diagnosis determines everything else, and it does not happen over the phone.
02
The quote
It should name the membrane, the mortar type, the joint width, the grout and what happens to the substrate if it is out of plumb. Without those, two prices do not compare.
03
Preparation
Levelling, backer board, membrane, and on a shower, the flood test before the first tile. That is half the job time and the invisible half.
04
Setting and joints
Layout decided with you, movement joints at the perimeter and at changes of plane, grout then caulk at the corners. Corners are not grouted, they are caulked.
How to recognize a good installer
The one who talks about what is underneath knows the trade
A contractor who opens with tile, colour and pattern is selling a product. One who starts by measuring flatness, testing floor rigidity and asking what is behind the wall is doing the trade. The difference shows on the first visit.
- They measure substrate flatness with a straightedge
- They name the membrane and explain why that one
- They check deflection before accepting large format
- They plan a flood test before tiling a shower
- They raise movement joints before you ask
Territory covered by this site
Ten Eastern Townships cities
From Sherbrooke to Granby, through the villages of the Val-Saint-Francois and the Haut-Saint-Francois. Each page covers what is specific to its building stock.
Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke
0 km from Sherbrooke
Magog
Memphrémagog
30 km from Sherbrooke
Granby
Haute-Yamaska
75 km from Sherbrooke
Coaticook
Coaticook
35 km from Sherbrooke
Windsor
Val-Saint-François
35 km from Sherbrooke
Richmond
Val-Saint-François
45 km from Sherbrooke
Cookshire-Eaton
Haut-Saint-François
35 km from Sherbrooke
Waterville
Coaticook
20 km from Sherbrooke
Val-des-Sources
Les Sources
55 km from Sherbrooke
North Hatley
Memphrémagog
20 km from Sherbrooke
What customers say
★★★★★
The contractor refused to tile my floor until the deflection was corrected. He was right: my first installer had cracked the same room two years earlier.
Isabelle Cloutier
Sherbrooke
★★★★★
A 24-hour flood test done in front of me before the first tile went into the shower. I did not even know that existed.
Mathieu Béliveau
Magog
★★★★★
The quote named the membrane type, the mortar and the joint width. That is what let me understand why one bid was 40 percent cheaper.
Chantal Dubois
Granby
★★★★★
They explained why my 24 by 48 slabs needed the floor levelled first. It added to the budget, but not one tile moves.
Sylvain Roy
Windsor
★★★★★
My grout was blackening in one corner. Instead of redoing it, they traced where the water came from. It was the tub caulking.
Nadine Perreault
Coaticook
★★★★
Good work on the backsplash. It took a day longer than planned because of an out-of-square wall, which was explained before they continued.
Éric Lamontagne
Richmond
The guides
Understand before choosing a tile
January 21, 2026
Moisture-resistant drywall or cement board: the line is clear
Green board handles ambient humidity. It does not handle liquid water. In a bathroom, that distinction decides everything.
Read the guide →
February 4, 2026
Shower slope: where it is created and why it fails
Slope is not made by tilting tiles. It is created in the mortar under the membrane, and it is verified before anything covers it.
Read the guide →