Home » Tiling Services Upper North Shore » Tiling Services St Ives
Updated July 2026
NHK Tiling is a licensed tiling contractor serving St Ives, about 20 kilometres from the NHK Tiling base in Kellyville. St Ives developed largely after the Second World War on generous blocks without a railway line, which produced a suburb of detached family homes with substantial outdoor space. Pool surrounds, alfresco areas and large internal floors make up more of the tiling work here than in the station suburbs nearby.
Yes. Swimming pool tiling is one of the more common St Ives jobs, and it uses different materials to any internal work. Pool tiles must tolerate constant submersion, chlorine or salt, and daily temperature swings.
NHK Tiling uses ceramic, porcelain, stone or glass tiles rated for submerged use, set with epoxy grout. Epoxy grout matters in a pool because cement-based grout degrades under continuous water and pool chemistry. The waterline band, the coping edge and the step markings each need separate consideration, since those are the surfaces that take the most wear and are seen most often.
Outdoor tiling in St Ives has to handle full weather exposure and bare feet, so slip resistance and water absorption drive the tile choice more than appearance does.
Slip rating. External tiles carry a slip rating, commonly expressed as an R value. Pool surrounds and alfresco areas take a higher rating than an internal floor, because those surfaces are walked on wet.
Water absorption and frost. Porcelain with low water absorption handles Sydney’s wet and dry cycles without the surface damage that more porous tiles develop over years outdoors.
Falls and drainage. An outdoor tiled area needs a consistent fall to a drainage point. Getting the fall right at setout prevents pooling, which is the most common complaint about outdoor tiling done poorly.
Non-combustible surfaces. Parts of St Ives sit near bushland, and tile is a non-combustible surface, which is generally favourable around homes in bush-adjacent areas. NHK Tiling installs tiles and does not assess or certify bushfire attack level ratings, which is work for a qualified bushfire consultant.
St Ives homes are predominantly post-war detached houses, so more of them sit on a concrete slab than the Federation and interwar stock in Pymble and Turramurra. Slab-on-ground floors need levelling and priming instead of the structural sheeting an older timber subfloor requires, which usually makes the preparation component of a St Ives quote smaller.
Floor areas are the offsetting factor. St Ives living areas and open-plan kitchens are often large, and long tile runs need properly placed movement joints and a carefully planned setout. Across a big floor a small setout error at the start becomes visible by the far wall.
Bathrooms in post-war St Ives homes are also worth assessing before work begins. Many have been renovated at least once since they were built, and earlier work was not always done to the waterproofing standards that apply now. Once the old tiles come off, the three problems that turn up most often are a shower with no compliant membrane, a floor without a fall to the waste, and water damage behind the wall sheeting. NHK Tiling identifies these at strip-out and prices the remediation before tiling starts.
Larger St Ives homes frequently have two or three bathrooms, and doing them in sequence rather than at once keeps a working bathroom available throughout. That is a scheduling decision worth making at quote stage.
NHK Tiling also tiles in Pymble, Gordon and Turramurra. See the full Upper North Shore tiling service area.
Insured and licensed tilers are accredited to handle most types of tiling projects. At NHK we specialise in bathroom, kitchen, outdoor space tiling. We can also handle all types of tiling jobs – anywhere you are in Sydney.
Safety is our #1 priority. And to ensure everything is safe and secure, we use high-quality tools, keep training our crew, and acquire a $20M Public Liability Cover. Public Liability insurance can protect us, our workforce and our clients in case injuries or damages happen on the job site.
We use a customer-centric approach which means, clients, come first. Regardless of your needs, with our combined knowledge and expertise, we’d be able to give you the right advice about the type of tiles suited to your space.
We’re professional and we genuinely care for our workers, and we have prepared a required statutory form of insurance for them.
We only use high-quality materials & work with a wide range of products for indoor and outdoor tiling, such as ceramic, granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, natural stones, porcelain, cobblestone and more.
Backed by 30 years’ experience, there is no tiling job that we cannot undertake. Offering you 100% attention to details & quick turn-around – you will be amazed at our work’s quality.
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