Andre Hartwell and a crew of three lay porcelain, stone and mosaic tile in bathrooms, kitchens and mudrooms around Naperville. Every floor gets a level check and a written price before the first tile goes down.
4.9 from 138 Google reviews Insured, registered in Naperville
Prices include setting materials, thinset, grout, sealer and haul-away. Tile itself is extra and runs $3 to $12 per sq ft depending on what you pick.
Old tile out, subfloor checked and stiffened, a waterproof membrane, then tile laid to the drain so water goes where it should. Most hall baths take four to five days.
Big open floors in porcelain that shrugs off boots, salt and dog bowls. We lay out the whole room first so cut pieces end up under cabinets, not in the doorway.
Only what your floor needs. Each one is listed on the written estimate.
| Electric heated floor mat with programmable thermostat | $14–$18 per sq ft + $290 |
|---|---|
| Tear out old tile and mortar bed | $3–$5 per sq ft |
| Self-leveling pour over a dipped floor | $2.50–$4 per sq ft |
| Marble threshold at a doorway | $95 each |
| Pull and reset toilet with new wax ring | $125 |
| Matching tile baseboard | $9 per linear ft |
The size and the layout change how much tile you buy, how long the job takes, and how the room feels. Here is what we tell people at the estimate.
Our most-laid floor. Clean, fewest grout lines, quickest to set.
Extra tile 10%
Looks like wood planks. A third, not half, so long tiles do not rock.
Extra tile 12%
The one people photograph. Slower to lay and every edge piece is cut.
Extra tile 18%
Grippy under wet feet, so it is our pick for shower floors and small baths.
Extra tile 8%
Enter the room size from wall to wall. We add the extra for cuts and breakage so you order once.
Before tear-out, leveling or heat mat. Minimum job $650. Andre confirms the price after seeing the floor.
Tile needs time between steps. This is a normal week for a hall bath with a new floor and heat mat. Your toilet is back by Friday noon.
Mon
Floor protection down the hall, old tile and toilet out, subfloor screwed tight. Dumpster bags gone by 4 pm.
8 am – 4 pmTue
Backer board or membrane, heat mat stapled and tested, self-leveler poured over it.
8 am – 2 pmWed
Layout lines snapped from the center. Every tile back-buttered and checked with a level.
7:30 am – 5 pmThu
Grout color you picked at the estimate, joints tooled, haze wiped twice.
9 am – 1 pmFri
Sealer, threshold, toilet back with a new wax ring, thermostat set. Walk-through and pay.
8 am – 12 pm
Andre spent twenty minutes with a laser before he would quote, then told us the floor dipped half an inch by the tub. He fixed it, and the hex in the shower drains perfectly. Two years in, not one cracked grout line.
Our mudroom gets salt and three hockey bags all winter. The porcelain they laid looks the same as day one, and Luis set the cuts so you never see a sliver.
The heated floor alone was worth it. They texted every evening with what was done and what was next, and they were gone by noon on Friday like they said.
I learned tile on commercial jobs in Chicago, setting floors in hospital corridors where nothing could be out of level. In 2014 I started Hartwell Tile & Floor to do the same careful work in people's homes, one floor at a time.
There are four of us: me, Luis who has set tile with me for eight years, his nephew Danny, and my wife Simone, who answers the phone and keeps the schedule honest. I come to every estimate and I check every floor before we leave.
| Floors finished since 2014 | 960+ |
|---|---|
| Heated floors installed | 310 |
| Workmanship warranty | 5 years |
| Certified by | CTEF, Schluter |
We work within about 25 minutes of our shop on Iroquois Avenue, so the crew is on site by 8 and nobody bills you for drive time.
Naperville · Aurora · Lisle · Warrenville · Wheaton · Winfield · Glen Ellyn · Downers Grove · Woodridge · Bolingbrook · Plainfield · Oswego
Neighborhoods we are in most: Ashbury, Tall Grass, White Eagle, Cress Creek, Brookdale and Old Farm.
Still unsure about something? Call Simone at (630) 555-0162. She knows the schedule and most of the answers.
Sometimes, if it is flat, bonded and the extra height clears doors and the dishwasher. In bathrooms we almost always take it up, because we want to see the subfloor under a toilet.
Socks the next morning after setting. Normal use after grout cures, usually 24 hours. Heavy furniture and the fridge after 72 hours.
In a bathroom with a slab or a cold crawl space, yes. It costs about 10 to 20 cents a day to run on a timer. We wire it to a GFCI circuit with a licensed electrician.
Either way. You can buy your own, or we order from two local suppliers in Naperville and Lombard at our cost plus 10% for handling and delivery.
A 24-inch tile shows every bump in the floor. Big tiles need a flatter floor and leveling clips, so we spend more time on prep before setting.
Cracks usually mean the floor moves. We stiffen the subfloor and use an uncoupling membrane, and our work is covered for five years.