Custom tile & stone
Porcelain, ceramic, marble and slate. Curbless showers, niches, herringbone and mud-set pans — waterproofed to spec, not to the minimum.
Home / Service Areas / Somerville, NJ
Tile, floors and baths built for Somerville, NJ
Somerville's older blocks are full of narrow lots, tall staircases and second-floor bathrooms that were carved out of bedrooms a century ago. Getting material in is half the job.
- Town
- Somerville
- Zip
- 08876
- Estimates
- Free, in-home
- Travel
- No charge
Somerville, New Jersey
Who installs flooring and tile in Somerville, NJ?
DeMarco Flooring, Tile & Renovations is a family-run flooring and tile contractor working in Somerville, NJ (08876) and across Somerset County. We install porcelain and natural-stone tile, hardwood, luxury vinyl plank and heated floors, and we handle full bathroom, kitchen and basement renovations. We don't have a showroom — samples come to your house so you're choosing tile in the room it's going into, and there is never a charge for travel to Somerville. Estimates are free and in person.
The borough's housing is mostly pre-war and it shows in the bathrooms. Many of Somerville's second-floor baths were converted out of bedroom or closet space in the 1920s and 30s, which means undersized joists, a drain that was routed wherever it could go, and original hex or square wall tile set directly in mortar. That mortar bed is genuinely well built — often better than what replaced it in the 1970s — and where it's sound, we'd rather repair it than tear it out. Where it isn't, removing a full mortar bed is a heavier demo than most people expect, and we say so before we start.
Get a Somerville estimateWhat we install
Six things we get called for most in Somerville
Every line below is work we've done in and around Somerville Borough. Pricing is per job, quoted after we've stood in the room and put a level on the floor.
Flooring installation
Solid and engineered hardwood, LVP, laminate. On older floors we sister and shim the joists first so the finish floor doesn't telegraph the dip.
Bathroom renovations
Full gut to finish trim: vanities, tile surrounds, glass, lighting and heated floor mats under the tile for the cold months.
Kitchen remodeling
Backsplashes, floors, cabinet and counter coordination. We sequence around your appliance delivery so the kitchen isn't down longer than it needs to be.
Basement finishing
Below-grade slabs get a moisture read before anything is laid. Framing, drywall, paint and a floor system rated for the humidity swings we get here.
Tile repair & restoration
Cracked field tile, failed grout, loose shower pans and hollow spots. Often a half-day fix instead of the full tear-out someone else quoted you.
Local conditions
What's different about working on a Somerville home
Can original 1920s bathroom tile be repaired instead of replaced?
Often, yes, and in Somerville it's worth asking before you commit to a gut. Pre-war wall tile was set in a full mortar bed, and a mortar bed that's still bonded will outlast anything installed since. If the failure is limited to loose field tile, blown grout or a cracked cove base, we can cut out the damaged area, rebuild the bed locally and source period-correct replacements. If the bed has separated from the wall — you'll hear it as a hollow drum when you tap it — then it's coming out, and it's a bigger demo than a modern bathroom.
How do you handle parking and dumpsters on a narrow Somerville street?
We plan it before the first day rather than discovering it. Many blocks near downtown have no driveway and permit-only street parking, so we stage material for one room at a time instead of dropping a full job's worth on the sidewalk. Where a job needs a dumpster we check the borough's requirements for a street placement permit; on smaller bathrooms we usually haul debris out in trailer loads instead, which avoids the permit and the neighbours entirely.
Do second-floor bathrooms in Somerville need floor reinforcement?
Frequently. A bathroom carved out of a 1920s bedroom is typically sitting on joists sized for a bedroom load, sometimes already notched by whoever ran the drain. Add a tile floor, a mortar bed and a filled tub and the deflection shows up as cracked grout within a year. We check the framing from below where there's access, sister or block what needs it, and build up the substrate before tiling. On a mosaic floor like an arabesque or hex, that prep matters even more, because there's a grout joint every few inches to telegraph movement.
Service boundary
Where we go from Somerville
Our regular route runs east–west along I-78 and Route 22, from Stewartsville in Warren County through Hunterdon and out to Somerville. We work in these towns most weeks, and we never charge for travel to any of them.
Warren County
Stewartsville08886
Greenwich Township08886
New Village08886
Phillipsburg08865
Alpha08865
Lopatcong08865
Pohatcong08865
Harmony08865
Broadway08808
Washington07882
Asbury08802
Hunterdon County
Bloomsbury08804
Hampton08827
Pittstown08867
Lebanon08833
Whitehouse Station08889
Whitehouse08888
Clinton08809
Annandale08801
High Bridge08829
Glen Gardner08826
Flemington08822
Milford08848
Frenchtown08825
Somerset County
Job log
Recent work in Somerville
Walk-in shower and arabesque tile floor
Photographed during installation
A walk-in shower tiled in grey marble-look plank set in a running bond, with the courses carried around the inset window and returned into the reveal so there's no interruption in the pattern. Corner shelves are solid stone rather than plastic inserts. The floor is a grey and white arabesque lantern mosaic, and the shower pan picks up a smaller square mosaic in the same tone so the two read as related without matching. A second bath in the same house is in white subway with dark grout and a double niche backed in black penny round.
Questions
Permits, timelines and the things people ask on the first call
Do I need a permit to remodel a bathroom in Somerville, NJ?
Generally yes. Somerville Borough enforces the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code, and permits are required for plumbing, electrical and structural work. In older borough homes this comes up more than people expect, because a remodel often involves replacing galvanised supply lines or updating wiring that predates grounding. We file the permits and meet the inspector; if your home is in a historic district, check with the borough about exterior work as well.
Is my Somerville house too old to tile a bathroom floor?
No. We've tiled floors in homes well over a century old. What matters is not the age of the house but the stiffness of the floor, and that's measurable. We check the framing, reinforce it where the numbers call for it, and build the substrate to suit. Plenty of pre-war Somerville homes have tile floors from the 1920s that are still tight — they were simply built with the right structure underneath.
Can you match the tile in an original Somerville bathroom?
Sometimes exactly, more often closely. Square and hexagon wall tile from the 1920s and 30s is still made in similar sizes and glazes, and for small repairs we can often find a match that reads correctly from standing height. Exact colour matching on an eighty-year-old glaze is rarely possible, so where the repair would be conspicuous we'll suggest a deliberate accent instead of a near-miss.
Do you charge extra to travel to Somerville?
No. We never charge for travel time or mileage, to Somerville or anywhere else on our route. The estimate is free too, and it's done in person: we don't quote flooring off a phone call, because the subfloor is the part that decides the price.
Do you have a showroom I can visit?
No — we run out of a home office in Bloomsbury and there's nothing to walk through there. We bring the showroom to you instead: samples come to your building, so you're choosing tile and plank in the actual room, under your own light, next to your cabinets and trim. If you'd rather meet at your office, that works too.
Are you licensed and insured to work in New Jersey?
Yes. DeMarco Flooring, Tile & Renovations is a fully insured New Jersey home improvement contractor. We'll provide our NJ HIC registration number and a current certificate of insurance with your written estimate — ask any contractor for both before work starts.
We'll come walk the room with you
Free estimate, usually within a week. We measure, check the subfloor, bring samples to look at in the room itself, and send a written number — no travel charge, no deposit to get a quote.