Backsplash Installation in Minneapolis

A backsplash is the tile wall between your countertop and your upper cabinets, and Top Notch Floors installs them in kitchens and bathrooms throughout Minneapolis. Most are a one to two day job. It is the cheapest change that makes a kitchen look new.

Material sets the tone. Subway tile is the safe classic and it is inexpensive. Mosaic sheets go up fast and add texture, and they work well behind a range. Glass tile bounces light around a dark kitchen and cuts slower, so it costs more in labor. Marble and travertine look rich and need sealing. A porcelain slab gives you a seamless wall with no grout lines at all.

The outlets and switches are where good work separates from bad. Every box needs to be extended forward to sit flush with the new tile face, and the cuts around it have to be tight enough that the plate covers them with nothing to spare. Sloppy tile shops cut a big square and hide it behind an oversized plate. We cut to the box and reset the covers so the plate sits flat on the tile.

Edges have to end on purpose. A run that dies at an open wall gets bullnose tile, a metal Schluter profile, or a mitered return. Which one depends on the tile. Field tile with a raw edge left showing is the fastest way to make a nice kitchen look unfinished.

Where the tile meets the countertop, we leave a small gap and fill it with color-matched caulk, not grout. The counter and the wall move at different rates, and grout in that joint cracks within a year. Same at the inside corners.

Grout color changes everything. White grout with white subway tile nearly disappears and reads soft. Gray or charcoal grout outlines every tile and makes the pattern the feature. Darker grout also hides cooking splatter behind the range. We hold samples against your counter before we mix anything.

Full-height tile behind the range is worth the extra material. It runs the wall all the way to the hood or the ceiling and turns the cooking wall into the focal point. It also wipes clean where grease actually lands.

The part people underestimate is cutting. Outlets, a window return, an angled hood, and the little slivers over the sink take more time than the wide open runs do. That detail work is most of day two.