Coat your tile or tear it out? The actual numbers
The question we get most, and the answer depends less on the price per square foot than on what's underneath your tile.
Nearly every call starts the same way: "I've got 1990s tile in the bathroom, I hate it, but I don't want to live in dust for three weeks." That's precisely the situation microcement exists for. It isn't always the right answer though, and it's better to know that before you pay for a quote.
What demolition actually costs
The tile itself is the small part of the bill. Tearing out a tile floor in a 60 sq ft bathroom means: the demolition, a dumpster rental, repairing whatever subfloor you find underneath, a new membrane, setting, grouting, then the paint and baseboard touch-ups the demolition damaged. In Quebec a full tile bathroom rebuild lands around $22–32 per square foot once everything's added up, and takes two to three weeks with the room out of service.
There's also the cost nobody puts in a quote: the subfloor. No one knows its condition until the tile is off. In a pre-1930 Montreal plex that's the line item that blows up budgets — and once demolition has started, paying for it isn't optional.
What microcement does instead
The tile stays and becomes the substrate. It gets degreased, the grout lines filled, a bonding primer applied, then two base coats and two finish coats of microcement, each one sanded. Total added thickness: 2–3 mm. Thin enough that doors, baseboards and thresholds stay exactly where they are.
- Floors$16/sq ft
- Walls$20/sq ft
- Showers$30/sq ft
- Ceilings$28/sq ft
- Counters$150/lin ft
- Stairs$200/step
The work runs three to four days for a bathroom, two of which the room is unusable. No dumpster in the driveway, no demolition, no subfloor surprises — because we never open it.
When you should demolish anyway
We turn down work for these reasons, and it's better said publicly than discovered on site:
- Tiles sounding hollow across a large part of the floor. If the tile has debonded from its substrate, microcement debonds with it. A few isolated tiles get re-bonded first; half the floor doesn't.
- An active leak or failed membrane in a shower. Microcement is a coating, not waterproofing. Fix the source first, or you seal the problem inside.
- Moisture rising through a basement slab with no vapour barrier. We test before applying; if the slab transmits moisture it needs a barrier, otherwise the coating eventually blisters.
- A wood floor with visible deflection. Microcement is flexible but not elastic. A floor that moves underfoot has to be stiffened first.
- Wanting to change the room's layout. If the tub moves, demolition is happening regardless — may as well use it.
How to decide in two minutes
Tap your tiles with a screwdriver handle in several places. A solid, dull sound means well bonded. A hollow ring means debonded. If it sounds solid throughout, the shower doesn't leak and the layout suits you, coating is almost always the better math. If not, call us anyway: we'll say so plainly, and a free "no" beats a failed job.