Kitchen tile is decided in the wrong order more often than any other tile in the house. The cabinets get picked, then the counters, then the appliances, and the tile gets whatever wall and floor are left. The result is a backsplash that fights the counter and a floor that stops short of the toe kick. This guide is the order we’d have you decide in, and the questions we ask on every kitchen site visit.
Decide the floor first, because it goes in first
In a well-run kitchen renovation the floor tile goes down before the cabinets. The cabinets then sit on finished tile, the floor runs under the toe kicks, and if you ever change the cabinets the floor is complete underneath. Doing it the other way, tiling up to the cabinets after they’re in, leaves a seam at every toe kick and a floor that’s shorter than the room.
That means the floor decision comes early. Porcelain, almost always, for a kitchen: it’s hard, dense, doesn’t stain, and comes in every look from limestone to oak plank to concrete. Natural stone is possible if you understand what it asks of you; our natural stone page is honest about that. Ceramic is fine in a light-use kitchen and a stretch in a working one.
Then the format. Large-format porcelain, 24 by 24 and up, gives the continuous surface open-plan kitchens want, and it needs a flat subfloor. Most kitchens in older Vancouver or Burnaby homes are on their second or third floor covering and are nowhere near flat. Budget for levelling. Newer homes in Surrey and Langley are flatter but still settling. Either way, ask your installer how they check flatness and what they do about it. Our floor tile page covers the prep.
Decide where the floor stops
Open-plan kitchens rarely have a wall where the tile can end. The floor runs into the dining room, down the hall, sometimes through the whole main level. Decide the boundary now. If the tile meets hardwood, the transition needs planning so the two finish at the same height with a clean profile. If the tile runs through, the layout has to hold true through doorways, which means setting out from the longest sightline, not from the kitchen corner.
Heated floor, or not
Electric heated floors are on most of our kitchen and bathroom jobs now. The cable is set into an uncoupling membrane before the tile, the electrician connects a thermostat, and the floor is warm within minutes of switching on. It adds material and a trade, and in a Lower Mainland winter it’s the upgrade people don’t regret. If you want it, decide before the floor is planned, because it changes the assembly.
Backsplash: after the counters, always
The backsplash goes on after the counters are set, so the tile meets the stone with a single clean silicone joint. Any installer who wants to tile the backsplash before the counters is planning to hide the joint under a bead of caulk, and it won’t hold. This is also why the backsplash tile can be decided later than the floor: you have until the counters are templated.
What to decide for the backsplash:
- How high. To the underside of the uppers is standard. To the ceiling behind the range or on a wall with no uppers reads as a feature.
- Material. Handmade ceramic and zellige are the most requested and the most variable; each piece is different, and that’s the point, but the installer has to blend it deliberately. Subway is timeless if the layout is thought through. Slab porcelain or stone gives a continuous surface with one or two seams. Marble is beautiful and etches; see the stone page.
- Where the pattern centres. On the range, on the window, on the sink. Pick one. A pattern that lands wherever the first tile started looks like an accident.
- Outlets. Work with the electrician to shift boxes a few centimetres so they land inside a tile rather than across a joint. It costs almost nothing and it’s the difference between a backsplash that looks planned and one that doesn’t.
Our kitchen backsplash page goes deeper on each.
The range wall
The wall behind the range is where a kitchen makes its statement and where grease and heat test the material. Full-height tile to the hood, a slab panel, or a patterned field centred on the range are the usual moves. Use a high-performance grout that resists staining, and don’t use white. If the backsplash turns an outside corner at the end of the run, ask for a mitred edge instead of metal trim so the surface reads as solid. That’s custom tile work, and it’s a small upgrade with a large effect.
Grout and silicone
Grout is the part of a kitchen that ages fastest, so decide it with care. High-performance and epoxy grouts resist staining and cleaning chemicals far better than standard cement grout, and they’re worth it behind a range and on a floor. Colour: match the tile for a quiet surface, contrast it to show the pattern. The joint where the backsplash meets the counter is silicone, colour-matched to the grout, so it flexes as the cabinets settle. Grout there cracks within a year.
The sequence, in one place
- Demolition and rough-in by the plumber and electrician.
- Subfloor flattened, uncoupling membrane and heating cable if you want it, floor tile set and grouted, then protected.
- Cabinets installed on the finished floor.
- Counters templated and set.
- Backsplash tiled, grouted, silicone at the counter.
- Appliances, plumbing fixtures, and the final clean.
If one contractor runs all of that, the sequence is theirs to keep. If you’re coordinating trades yourself, this is the order to hold them to. Our kitchen renovations page explains how we run it either way.
Kitchens around the region
Condo kitchens in Richmond and Burnaby are compact jobs with strata logistics: a backsplash and floor in a few days once the cabinets and counters are in. Character-home kitchens in Vancouver need the most floor prep. New builds across Surrey, Langley and the Tri-Cities are about long continuous floors and slab backsplashes.
If you’re planning a kitchen, send the layout or a few photos and the tile you’re considering. Request a quote and we’ll tell you where tile fits in your sequence and what it will take.