Custom Touch Interiors handles tile services in Bellevue from both ends: a 6,000 square foot showroom off NE 20th Street where you choose the material, and in-house project managers and installers who set it. Anything we sell, we can install — or buy material only and bring your own contractor.
By Chellaigne Vert, owner· Last updated October 2026
Three things, and you can use any one of them without the others.
Selection. The showroom at 13029 NE 20th St holds porcelain, ceramic, natural stone, glass and mosaic in person — full displays, under real light, with samples you can take home. One customer put it plainly in a review: they came in for help choosing tile and left understanding parts of the design and tile process they hadn’t known to ask about. That’s what a physical floor is for.
Installation. Our own project managers and installers do the work — demo, substrate prep, waterproofing, setting, grout, trim and transitions. That matters more than it sounds, and the next section explains why.
Material only. Plenty of Bellevue homeowners already have a GC or a tile sub they trust. Buy the tile from us, pick it up or have it delivered, and we stay out of the way. You still get the showroom and the specification help.
The same service runs for trade customers through our builder and designer program — same floor, same team, whether it’s one guest bath or a run of spec homes.
Because the most common tile failure on the Eastside isn’t bad tile. It’s a mismatch between what got specified and what the substrate could take.
A 24×48 porcelain plank sold over the counter with nobody asking about floor flatness. A glass mosaic specified for a steam shower with the wrong setting material. Honed marble picked for a mudroom in a region where it rains most of the year. All three are selection decisions that only surface later as installation problems.
When one company owns both ends, that question gets asked at the sample table instead of on site. We’ve been the design showroom in Bellevue since 2005, which is long enough to know which specs come back.
For walls and floors inside a wet area, porcelain is the default and for good reason: near-impervious, no sealing required, and indifferent to how long the hot water runs. Ceramic works on walls. Glass mosaic works too, but it’s less forgiving — it needs the right setting material and a genuinely flat substrate behind it.
Natural stone is the one that deserves honesty up front. Marble, travertine and limestone can be beautiful in a shower, and they’re porous. They need sealing on a schedule, and in a Pacific Northwest bathroom that rarely dries out fully between uses, that maintenance isn’t optional. We’ll sell you the stone. We’ll also tell you what owning it looks like in year three.
Shower floors are a separate decision. Small-format mosaic is standard there because the extra grout joints give traction and the small pieces conform to the slope toward the drain. A 12×24 on a shower floor is a slip problem and a slope problem at the same time.
Tile is not waterproofing. The membrane behind it is.
Shower assemblies have to be built to a recognised waterproofing standard — ANSI A118.10 governs bonded waterproof membranes, and the TCNA Handbook is where the assembly details come from. In practice that means one of two approaches: a sheet membrane bonded over the substrate, or a liquid-applied membrane rolled on in coats to a specified thickness.
Both work. Both fail the same way when they’re rushed — unsealed seams, thin coverage in corners, or a curb-and-drain connection treated as an afterthought. Grout is not a water barrier, and any shower depending on it will leak at the corners first.
Yes, and the difficulty is almost entirely in what’s underneath. Large format tile — anything with a side over 15 inches — can’t bridge a dip in the floor the way a 6×6 can. The substrate tolerance for large format is roughly 1/8″ of variation over 10 feet, which is tighter than most existing floors arrive at.
So a large format job is really a floor prep job with a tile finish on top: self-levelling compound where it’s needed, back-buttering every piece, a leveling clip system to control lippage, and a slower pace. Done properly you get what people actually want from the format — long uninterrupted planes and very few grout lines.
Skipped, you get lippage you can feel barefoot and hollow spots that crack the first time something heavy lands. If a large format quote comes in at the same square-foot rate as standard tile, the prep isn’t in it.
For a single Bellevue bathroom, plan on roughly a week to ten days of tile work once demo is done — working days with cure time built in, not calendar optimism.
The sequence doesn’t compress much. Substrate prep and any levelling, then the waterproofing membrane with its own cure, then setting walls and floor, then thinset cure before grout, then grout cure before the space gets used. Large format and intricate patterns add days at the prep stage. Natural stone adds sealing.
A kitchen backsplash on its own is typically two days. A full floor across a main level runs longer and depends almost entirely on what’s being torn out and how flat the subfloor turns out to be underneath.
If the project moves or adds plumbing, permitting is a separate clock. Bellevue issues a single-family remodel permit with no plan review for non-structural kitchen and bathroom remodels — often same day — but inspections are still required, and a field inspector can push the project into full plan review if it turns out to exceed that scope.
The showroom sits just off SR-520 and I-405 in the Bel-Red corridor, which puts most of the Eastside within a short drive. We work across Bellevue — Somerset, Bridle Trails, Crossroads, Lake Hills, Newport Hills, Factoria and West Bellevue — and out through Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah, Mercer Island and Newcastle.
Finished work is in the tile gallery, and if the project also involves countertops, the slab selection is on the same floor — one trip, one set of decisions that have to agree with each other. Our designers do this daily; one customer described working through a kitchen countertop and backsplash with Chiara on our team and getting real options instead of an overwhelming wall of choice.
What does tile installation cost in Bellevue?
Tile is quoted in two parts: material per square foot, and labor per square foot. Material swings the widest — a basic porcelain and a book-matched marble aren’t in the same conversation. Labor depends on format, pattern, how much floor prep the substrate needs, and whether a shower waterproofing assembly is involved. The honest answer is that a flat per-foot number quoted before anyone has seen the space is a guess. Bring your measurements to the showroom and you’ll leave with a real one.
Which tile actually holds up in a wet shower?
Porcelain first, on walls and floors. Ceramic on walls. Glass mosaic works with the right setting material and a flat substrate. Natural stone is viable but porous — it needs sealing on an ongoing schedule, which is a real commitment in a Pacific Northwest bathroom. For shower floors specifically, small-format mosaic is the standard because it slopes to the drain properly and gives traction.
What goes in behind the tile to stop water getting through?
A bonded waterproof membrane meeting ANSI A118.10, installed over a suitable substrate and detailed per the TCNA Handbook — either a sheet membrane or a liquid-applied membrane built up to a specified thickness. Tile and grout are the wear surface, not the water barrier. Grout is not waterproof, and any system that relies on it fails at the corners and the curb first.
Is large format tile harder to install well?
Harder, and the difficulty is in the prep. Large format needs a substrate flat to roughly 1/8″ over 10 feet, full back-buttering, and a leveling system to control lippage. Expect added days and added cost for floor preparation. The payoff is a near-seamless surface with minimal grout.
How long does a fully tiled bathroom take?
Roughly a week to ten days of tile work after demo, driven by cure times that can’t be shortened: levelling, membrane, setting, thinset cure, grout, grout cure. Large format, intricate patterns or natural stone push it longer. If plumbing moves, permitting through Bellevue Development Services runs on its own timeline.
Do I have to use your installers?
No. Material-only sales are available, and plenty of Bellevue builders and GCs buy from the showroom and install themselves. You get the same specification help either way.
Bring floor plans, measurements, a cabinet door, a paint chip — or nothing at all. Plan a showroom visit and we’ll walk the tile floor with you.
Custom Touch Interiors
Adress:13029 NE 20th St Bellevue, WA 98005
Phone: (425) 883-0555
Hours: Monday & Friday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM · Tuesday–Thursday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM · Saturday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM · Sunday closed
Serving Bellevue and the surrounding Eastside, including Somerset, Bridle Trails, Crossroads, Newport Hills, Factoria, and nearby Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah, Mercer Island and Newcastle.
Walk-ins are accepted, but appointments are appreciated. Share a few details and we’ll contact you to confirm.