Tile flooring in Miami, done to survive the slab and the humidity

Installed cost is usually split roughly between material and labour, and the labour half moves more than people expect. Standard porcelain in a straightforward layout sits at the low end. Large format, natural stone, patterned layouts, and anything needing slab preparation or old floor removal all push it up. Removing an existing tile floor is genuine demolition and is priced separately, not absorbed.

Because Miami sits at sea level on concrete slab with no crawlspace. Moisture vapour moves up through that slab continuously, and if it is bonded over with the wrong material you get hollow spots, loose tile and white efflorescence at the grout lines later. The test is cheap. The failure is a whole new floor.

Most Miami buildings require hard flooring above the ground floor to sit on an acoustic underlayment meeting a minimum sound rating, usually expressed as IIC and STC numbers, with board approval before work starts. Your association will have a specific number in its rules. Get it before you get quotes, because the underlayment materially changes both the price and the finished floor height.

Sometimes, but it is rarely the right call in this market. Tiling over an existing floor hides the substrate you most need to inspect, adds height at doorways and thresholds, and inherits any problem underneath. Removal costs more up front and is usually the cheaper decision over the life of the floor.

Not at all, it just needs honest expectations. Marble is softer than porcelain and it etches when acids touch it, which includes lemon juice, wine and many household cleaners. Sealed and maintained it is beautiful and lasts generations. If you want the marble look in a kitchen with young children, a porcelain that imitates it is the sensible answer and nobody will know.

For a typical single-family home, expect roughly a week to two weeks depending on square footage, plus extra days if there is an old floor to remove or the slab needs levelling. Grouting and curing add time at the end, and the floor should not be loaded up with furniture the same day it is grouted.