Tiling
How to choose a tiling company in Cyprus
How to check a tiling company in Cyprus before signing: which registrations are real, what a complete quote covers, and what recorded rates look like.
8 min read
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Stavros covers the rooms that carry the most cost per square metre and the finishes that go into them. He tracks the order trades have to arrive in, which moves a Cypriot renovation bill further than any hourly rate does.
Published
Tiling is not a licensed trade in Cyprus. No state register separates a competent tiler from an incompetent one, so the checks that work are commercial rather than professional: the company registration, the VAT position, the insurance, and — more informative than any of those — whether the written quote names a substrate, a movement joint layout and an adhesive class. A tiled floor almost never fails at the tile. It fails at what is underneath it, and the quote is the only place that becomes visible before the money is spent.
What can actually be verified
Three things, all of them checkable before a single tile is ordered.
That the company exists as a company. A trading name on a quote is not a registration. The registration number is searchable against the Registrar of Companies at no cost. A sole trader is not disqualified by this — a large share of the island's tiling is done by two-person teams working that way — but the distinction changes who would be pursued if a floor lifted a year later.
That the business is registered for VAT. A business trading above the registration threshold must issue VAT invoices. An offer to work without one removes the paper trail and usually the warranty on the labour with it. On a tanked and tiled bathroom, the invoice is what establishes who did the waterproofing.
That someone has physically seen the substrate. This is the check no register can supply. A quote produced from photographs, or from a room measurement given over the phone, has not seen the screed, the falls on the balcony or the state of the existing tiles. The site visit is not a courtesy; it is the survey.
What cannot be verified is reputation. This directory publishes no ratings, stars or testimonials, because there are none it could stand behind. The tiling pages carry registration status, district coverage, and the record of what was checked against source and when.
Registrations that matter
Company registration
Ask for the number, then search it rather than accepting a logo. Check that the name on the registration matches the name on the quote and on the bank details. Where those three differ, ask why before paying anything.
VAT registration
Relevant to the invoice, the warranty and the rate quoted. A quote silent on VAT is not a complete quote, and the difference between inclusive and exclusive on a whole-apartment floor is not a rounding error.
Public liability insurance
Certificate, insurer and expiry date. Wet trades above occupied property are what make this worth the two minutes it takes to ask, because the risk is not the tiling but the water that reaches the flat below.
ETEK registration, where a design signature is needed
Tiling needs no engineer. The work around it sometimes does — a cracked terrace slab, or a property in the parts of Pissouri where ground movement makes a structural survey standard before major work. The Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber holds the searchable register of engineers.
Waste disposal
A strip-out generates rubble by the tonne. Ask who removes it and whether the skip is in the price.
Questions to ask
Ask these on site, standing in the room. Each of them has a wrong answer.
"What is under this floor, and how flat is it?" The substrate decides the job. Most Cypriot floors are a sand and cement screed over a concrete slab, and in the 1970s to 1990s blocks that dominate Strovolos and equivalent suburbs elsewhere, that screed is older than everything about to be bonded to it. A tiler who has not tapped the floor for hollow areas has not priced the levelling.
"Are the existing tiles coming up, or are we tiling over them?" Tiling over an existing floor is legitimate in some cases and a guarantee of failure in others. What decides it is whether the existing tiles are firmly bonded, whether the extra build-up clears the doors, and whether it ruins the fall to the drain in a wet room. An answer that skips all three is not an answer.
"Where do the movement joints go?" Perimeter and intermediate joints are what stop a large tiled area tenting, and Cyprus makes this more acute than northern Europe does. A terrace in full sun, or an inland property in Nicosia where the annual temperature range is the widest on the island, moves enough to lift a rigidly fixed floor. A tiler who does not raise joints on a large or external area is the most expensive person available to hire.
"Which adhesive, and which class?" The class and the deformability are printed on the bag and belong in the quote rather than in a conversation. External areas, underfloor heating and large formats each raise the requirement, and the difference in cost is small next to lifting the floor again.
"What is the waterproofing, and does it go up the wall?" In wet rooms and on balconies, the tanking layer under the tile is what works. Tiles and grout are a surface, not a barrier. Ask what product, how many coats, how far up the walls, and how corners and pipe penetrations are treated.
"Which trims and fixings, and what grade?" Anywhere with direct coastal exposure — Kato Paphos is the clearest case, but any seafront balcony qualifies — salt-laden air makes galvanised and marine-grade fixings standard rather than an upgrade. Cheap trims corrode along the tile edge, and replacing them means lifting tiles.
"How do the materials get to the room?" A pallet of porcelain is heavy, and access decides the price. On the hillside plots around Peyia, steep roads limit delivery vehicle size, and a hand-carry from the nearest turning point is real labour. In a block it is the lift size, and whether the committee allows its use.
What a good quote looks like
Those ranges are read from recorded quotes when the page loads, with a sample size attached, rather than written into this article to go stale. Tiling has been recorded at €22 to €70 per square metre supply and lay, and the width of that range is the point: it is not one price with noise around it, it is several different jobs sharing a name.
What moves a quote inside the range is predictable. Large formats need a flatter substrate and more hands. Diagonal and herringbone layouts mean more cuts and more waste. Small rooms cost more per square metre than large ones. A screed needing levelling is a separate operation, and tanking, falls and drainage are additional work.
Three quotes are worth having only if written to the same scope. Where one is materially cheaper, the difference is almost always the strip-out, the levelling or the tanking — the parts that are invisible once the floor is down.
Warning signs
A price per room with no area behind it. Square metres are the unit the trade works in.
Silence on the substrate, or on movement joints in a large or external area. A quote that begins at the adhesive assumes the floor below is sound and that nothing will move. That assumption is being made at the client's cost, and it shows up in the second summer rather than the first.
"Supply and lay" without naming the tile. Range, model and format, or the figure compares to nothing.
A deposit that covers most of the labour before anyone arrives. A deposit against materials is ordinary practice; one that leaves nothing due at the end removes the reason to come back and finish the silicone.
A refusal to give the registration number. It takes seconds to look up, which is exactly why refusing is informative.
The tiling category pages on this directory list companies by district with the credentials recorded per company, the services index shows the neighbouring trades a tiling job usually needs, and the areas section covers which firms travel where. Distance is priced even when it is not itemised, so quotes from companies already working in the district compare more cleanly.
Common questions
Does a tiler in Cyprus need a licence?
No. Tiling is not a regulated trade, so there is no professional register to check and no licence number to ask for. That is precisely why the commercial checks matter more here than in trades where a licence does the filtering: company registration, VAT, insurance and a written scope are the available evidence.
Is it cheaper to supply the tiles separately?
Sometimes, and it changes who carries the risk. A company supplying the tiles carries breakage, shortfall and batch matching; a client supplying them carries all three, and a shade difference found halfway across a floor is expensive. Agree the wastage allowance in writing before ordering.
How long should a tiled bathroom take?
Count the drying stages rather than the days. Strip-out, substrate preparation, waterproofing with its cure time, tiling, grouting, then silicone — each waits on the one before it. A programme that compresses them into a continuous run has removed a cure time, and the tanking is usually the one removed.
What makes tiles lift or tent?
Almost always movement with nowhere to go: missing or bridged movement joints, a rigid perimeter, or a bond that failed because the substrate was dusty, damp or hollow. Tile quality is rarely the cause. In parts of Pissouri, where ground movement is a known feature of the village, cracked floor tiles can be a symptom of the structure rather than the tiling — which is why a survey comes before the repair.
Should the same company do the waterproofing?
It is simpler when it does, because it removes the argument about whose layer failed. Where a separate specialist tanks the area, get the handover in writing.
Tiling companies listed by district
5 companies covering this area.
Prastitis Marbles Ltd
Mouttagiaka, Limassol
Prastitis Marbles Ltd is a tiler business in Mouttagiaka, in the Limassol district.
Sof Bath & Tiles
Larnaca Centre, Larnaca
Sof Bath & Tiles is a bathroom furnishing in Larnaca Centre, in the Larnaca district.
Elnia
Strovolos Iii, Nicosia
Elnia is a flooring supplier in Strovolos Iii, in the Nicosia district.
Yiopuis Ceramics Ltd
Tsiflikoudia, Limassol
Yiopuis Ceramics Ltd is a bathroom furnishing in Tsiflikoudia, in the Limassol district.
Kirillou Ceramics
Moutallos, Paphos
Kirillou Ceramics is a houseware shop in Moutallos, in the Paphos district.
Sources
- Registrar of Companies — company and trading name search — retrieved 2026-07-28
- Tax Department — VAT registration — retrieved 2026-07-28
- Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) — register of engineers — retrieved 2026-07-28
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