Rock Steady Tile Co.

Rock Steady Tile Co. 🇺🇸 American Craftsmen
⚒️ Kitchen and Bathroom Contractor
📍 Hopkinsville, KY
🖥️ www.rocksteadytile.com
🍊 - Sponsored
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09/04/2026

Have you seen the new Schluter-Systems North America drain grate options?

09/03/2026

Throughout the years I have tried my best to develop some footage formula to make bidding jobs faster and more efficient, but I gave up because I just couldn’t find a way for the calculation to benefit both parties.

In custom residential tiling, the variables are plentiful and the skills required to execute some of the installs are high, so understanding how to price a job is critical.

The last thing you want to do is throw a dart at the board and hope it works out.

When it was just me working alone, it was much easier to absorb a pricing mistake, although I wasn’t able to take on jobs of any scale without a team.

Back then, I would just figure how long I thought it would take me, base an hourly rate, and go from there.

I would often times hear of other guys pricing by the square ft and I would compare how that would work with my pricing and it would either be way below my rate or astronomical comparatively speaking, so I just couldnt wrap my head around it.

Once I decided to hire and build a team so that I could expand my job scope capabilities, I then began to learn and understand how some of those competitors were pricing and why.

Some of them were (and are) operating illegally in a sense that they pay their guys cash (1099) so they avoid payroll taxes, workers comp, employee burden, and overhead. That strategy certainly gives them a leg up on the pricing as their overall costs are much lower. (MUCH LOWER) but from my perspective, a very dangerous way of operating.

I knew I couldn’t do anything about that, but at least I understood why they were lower. That model typically served much lower quality as well (my opinion)

The others that were astronomical, I never could figure out, so I just didn’t worry about it. lol.

I wanted to operate my business in a clean manner. Professional, proper, by the book…a real business. So with that in mind, my pricing needed to match that.

For me, the metrics are simple.

Men (Cost) +
Burden (all the proper expenses for an employee) +
Overhead (The cost of doing business) +
Profit (The reason a business operates)
=
Price

This is what works for me

09/02/2026

With large format tile, layout is key when preparing for a shopping trip to Floor & Decor

Understand your vision, have your room measurements, and go chat with one of their dedicated designers to get the perfect amount of tile for your project.

09/01/2026

This shower is turning out pretty awesome, if I say so myself. Stoked to finish this bathroom and show you the end result.

Some of the footage of tiling this shower has gone pretty viral with a ton of comments talking about little trash about how long it’s taking, but I’ll tell you what, it’s been nice to be able to take my time and get into a flow state of working, even if it’s just a couple of hours per week. lol.

These miters turned out pretty slick and I’m finishing them off with the sanding disc (it’s a matte tile so I’m safe)

I’ll make a full video on the epoxy prep and install and talk about it in detail, but here’s a little update anyways!

08/31/2026

Waterproofing a mud pan in a Schluter-Systems North America shower.

In a traditional Water in / Water out system, the “waterproofing” is below the mud pan, between a pre slope and a finished mud pan but in a sealed system such as this, the water proofing goes on top of the mud pan.

Yes…I’m still tiling in my wife’s bathroom.
08/30/2026

Yes…I’m still tiling in my wife’s bathroom.

08/30/2026

Giving back is the best feeling in the world!

DECKED takes care of us well, so we decided to pass some of that along to someone else.

We had an extra Decked drawer system for a ‘16-‘19 Chevrolet with a 6.5’ bed so on a hot Saturday morning, we went hunting in our town to find someone with that make and model truck to see if they wanted it.

The kicker was that they had to have a few extra minutes to come hang at the shop while I installed it for them.

It took a while to find one, but it’s a small town and there are plenty of pickup trucks here, so I figured we would be able to make it happen!

Thank you all for watching and thanks again DECKED for being such cool sponsors!

Hey Kipp, what do you use those L Block things for?Well, there are many use cases for a 90° clamp block, but I primarily...
08/29/2026

Hey Kipp, what do you use those L Block things for?

Well, there are many use cases for a 90° clamp block, but I primarily use them for supporting pieces at a perfect 90° angle, or in cases where support is needed in odd spaces such as the top of a window casing that would otherwise require some retrofitted ledger of some sort of a board wedged in place to hold things up.

You just hot glue them in place, and BAM! You’ve got a perfect hold.

I’m just a nerd who likes to build things and to build things that make building things easier to build.

These are lightweight and plastic, so if they fall, they won’t damage anything.

You can get clamp blocks many different places, there’s nothing special about them. They’ve been around for ages, but these will be for sale on the crownetools site soon. 😉

Finding creative solutions to common problems is one of my favorite parts of working with my hands and building things. ...
08/29/2026

Finding creative solutions to common problems is one of my favorite parts of working with my hands and building things.

This is a fairly Niche problem (yes…NICHE). Kerdi banding causes build up when lapping the fabric over the inside corners and banding.

When you’re setting small tile on a shower floor, it’s a real pain to get a nice flat finish if there’s build up.

The common solution is to float the gap with thinset to flatten it out, but my solution was to create a tamp that would recess the kerdi corner, allowing the banding to sit flush with the pan.

Once I set my final fabric membrane over the banding, I have a nice flat finish.

These are not for sale, I just thought I would show you one creative solution to this problem.

This is also another reason that I prefer mud pans. I always mention versatility of a mud pan, and this is one of those things.

Address

Hopkinsville, KY

Telephone

+12704981845

Website

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