The order you do things in is most of the job.

Renovation problems are almost never problems of taste. They are problems of sequence.

Blocking that was not set before the wall closed. A pan that was not sloped before it was tiled. A valve roughed to the wrong depth for the finish that got chosen three weeks later. None of it shows up on a mood board and all of it shows up in the bill.

Working design-build is the direct answer to that. The layout, the material and the rough-in are decided together, by the same people, before demolition starts — so the order of operations is settled while it is still cheap to settle.

Six large-format porcelain panels dry-laid across the floor in daylight, sequenced so the grey and gold veining runs continuously from one panel to the next. A new alcove tub sits unboxed by the window.

Slab sequenced on the floor before any of it goes on a wall

Tolerance

Where the money goes

The feature wall square on: four porcelain panels book-matched so the veining opens symmetrically across the joint like a mirrored pair. Leveling clips are still in place along every seam.

The finished ensuite from the doorway: the glass enclosure reads as a clear box set into the room, with the book-matched wall behind it, the vanity at right and the backlit mirror reflected in the glass.

A wall is either flat or it is a story you tell about light.

Large-format porcelain shows everything. A panel sitting a millimetre proud of its neighbour will catch a raking light and run that shadow the entire height of the wall. So the joints are clamped level while the mortar cures, panel by panel, and the clips are snapped off and binned afterwards.

The same logic applies to the parts nobody photographs. The fall of a shower pan is set with a string line, not by eye. Seams and inside corners are banded before tile, not caulked after it. These are not upgrades. They are the difference between a room that is finished and a room that is merely covered.

Book-matching the veining is the one part of this that is purely for looks — panels sequenced so the pattern opens symmetrically across the joint instead of stopping dead at it. It costs an afternoon of laying slabs out on the floor and deciding.

On this site

Editorial note

Nothing here is a stock photograph and nothing here is an after shot.

Every image on this site is from one real project, taken on site during the work. Of 52 frames, 29 are published. The cut ones and the reason each was cut are listed on the work page.

You will notice there are no testimonials, no star ratings, no awards and no project count. That is deliberate. When there is something real to put there, it will go there.

Ask us how we would sequence your project.

Call 437-818-0168 See the work