The Charleston Lowcountry and York County on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte metro, across Charleston and York counties. Each town below has its own permit authority and its own housing stock, and both change what the work involves.
Tile is the most forgiving surface in a humid climate and the least forgiving of poor substrate work. Almost everything that goes wrong with it is hidden before the first tile is set.
In a shower, tile is the finish and the waterproofing is the building. A membrane or a correctly built pan is what keeps water out of the framing, and in this climate a marginal one does not fail dramatically — it fails slowly into a subfloor and appears two years later as a soft spot or a stain on a ceiling below.
Large-format tile has become the default look and it is unforgiving of flat. A floor that was acceptable for small tile will telegraph every dip through a large panel, which is why the substrate work and the mortar coverage matter more than the tile selection does.
Movement is the third factor. Slabs move, wood-framed floors deflect, and both need movement joints where the tile meets a wall or changes plane. Tile hard against a wall with no room to move is how a perfect floor develops a crack across it in the second year.
This is worth stating on a page about where we work, because it changes what you can verify in any of these towns. The state's residential specialty classifications include floor covering installers — defined specifically as asphalt, vinyl, rubber, linoleum and carpet — and masons, covering concrete, brick and block. Tile setting is on neither list. There is no residential tile registration to look up, so on any tile job of size the credential that can actually be checked is the residential builder or general contractor licence of the firm holding the contract.
What tile does need in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston and Rock Hill alike is a substrate that is flat, sound and correctly waterproofed. In a shower the tile is the finish and the membrane beneath it is the barrier; grout is porous by design. That decision is made before the first tile is set and is invisible afterwards, which is exactly why it belongs in a written scope.
Tile itself is not permitted work in any of these towns.
In the Lowcountry, permits come from the City of Charleston for Charleston, the Town of Mount Pleasant for Mount Pleasant and the City of North Charleston for North Charleston.
In York and Lancaster counties, from the City of Rock Hill for Rock Hill.
On a tile job it matters through the plumbing. Relocating a shower drain is permitted work, and the office covering the address decides when it can be covered up.
A shower rebuild usually is, because relocating a drain or altering supply is plumbing — and that permit is pulled by the licensed plumbing contractor in their own name, from the building department with jurisdiction over the address.
Not by looking for a tile licence, because South Carolina does not issue one. Check the residential builder or general contractor licence of the firm signing the contract.
Then read the scope for the waterproofing system by name.
It is the most forgiving surface you can put in a humid climate, and the least forgiving of poor substrate work.
Both halves of that are true in Charleston and in Rock Hill.
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what is underneath and how much height you can afford at the thresholds.
Over an existing floor with any movement or moisture, it invites the same fault back through new tile.