Why did two 6 Year old Bathrooms in Mexico need to be Retiled?

This project was done in a cookie cutter or clone house in Mexico, they often have subpar workmanship which is often hard to see when new, after four years the original tiles were starting to crack and mis-align and two years later the owner had enough.

Many tile installers get regular work via large construction companies that finish these cookie cutter houses in a very short time frame, the tilers cut corners by not putting enough cement behind each tile among other errors.

These faults are done knowingly as the workers are nearly always paid by the amount of sq ft or m2 completed per day rather than a set fee per day. Laying 20-30% less cement means lots of weak spots with air but the tiler’s sq ft coverage increases so in turn they earn more money per week and those defects are hidden from the supervisors.

Finding a Trusted Building Contractor in Mexico

The project was completed by a master builder known as a “maestro” in Spanish with over 25 years of experience, he also had the help of one young apprentice.

The master builder was recommended to us via a friend who happens to be an architect and tends to know the best builders. Always try to get recommendations when hiring an independent contractor in Mexico via a neighbour, friend, co-worker, etc.

If the builder is a bit of an unknown you should start off hiring him for a small job, if the quality turns out to be bad you will minimise your frustration and losses.

Costs for Demolition, Reskimming, Retiling, Grouting and Materials per Sq Ft in Mexico

This retiling project comprised of two bathroom shower cubicles and each cubicle had three walls, shower basin and the step.

The area of each bathroom / shower cubicle to be retiled was 100 square feet (9.3 m2) the master builder charged $200 US dollars per bathroom which included the money for paying his apprentice and taking all the waste material off site, the material costs per bathroom came to $140 US dollars.

You should purchase construction materials yourself and have them delivered to the job site.

The work took just under three working days per bathroom, the prices quoted here are for 2023.

Average Cost for Building Contractor in Mexico

To give you a rough idea of pricing for work, an independent construction contractor (with one helper) in Mexico would normally charge at least 8 times more the minimum salary for one person per day as a construction worker (albañil in Spanish) employee.

This link has the minimum daily salary for different occupations in Mexico in 2023 (in Spanish)

Get a Building Quote and Recording Payments to a Contractor in Mexico

Get the independent contractor to give you a named, signed quote with the full job to be done and the date. Any money upfront should be minimal (25% or less).

Many contractors are very informal when it comes to paperwork so buy a receipt book form a stationary shop, any payments made to the contract worker can be verified by the signed and dated receipts with a short description.

Payment to the contractor should be made at the end of every week and the final payment should be made once the work is completed if you are satisfied.

Hopefully you can negotiate any errors to be fixed if you feel the work hasn’t been done correctly, a good or native Spanish speaker comes in handy at this point.

In addition to the normal working week Monday to Friday, many but not all contractors also work Saturdays 8am – 1pm .