Floor Has Tile Lippage, Wall Tiles Going Up In The Morning! Help Please!

[actionjackson]

Good evening.

I have had a tiler in for the last two days to tile my bathroom with Porcelonosa rectified tiles - 440x660 on the floor (6.5m) & 330x1000 on the walls (10m).

When the tiler quoted for the work i stressed beforehand that i was looking for an A1 job, minimal-zero lippage etc etc and was prepared to pay that little extra so he could take his time.

So....

Day 1

Tiler arrives at 0715 and we discus the floor setting out and agree on a layout. I received a call @ 1500 and the tiler tells me that we are one floor tile short! The tiler calculated the amount of tiles required and asked for 10% extra. Because of the size of the tiles i said to the tiler that i felt 10% wasn't enough but he dissagreed. In any case i ordered 20% on top but we are still one short. Porecelonossa can't deliver this until Monday! I asked if this was the last tile left to be laid (its 3pm) and he told me was having troubles cutting the tiles with his diamond blade so went away to get a water cutter. The tiler then said he will lay & grout the floor the next day and return on Monday to fit the tile. Sounds fair to me but concerned with these problems.

Day 2


Tiler arrives at 0800 when i set off for work. I arrive back home at 1900 having already spoken to the tiler. The floor is almost laid (4 tiles to lay) with no other work completed.

The first thing i noticed was the height of the floor. The bed of adhesive is 12mm height! The subfloor has electric UFH with a SLC ontop and was very flat (my father has a resin driveway business and uses SLC all the time). Is this usual? The adhesive being used is BAL SPF Rapid Set.

On inspection the floor looks ok overall but i have 2 x tiles marked as poor (2mm lippage) but thankfully they are located in a corner of the room and under the toilet so i will live with them.

However there is 3 x tiles marked out as unacceptable.

1 x tile has a 5mm grout line when it should be 2mm. Unfortunately the whole floor fluctuates between 2mm-3.5mm grout lines but i have no choice but to live with it unless we start again. This tile is at the end where the bath meets the floor so should come up ok.

2 x tiles have 2mm lippage which i can't live with. Is this understandable? One of the tiles should be easy to lift as its at the end where he hasn't finished but the other is in the middle of the room. Given i have no spares (tiler said i would have a few spares) i would like it pulled up without damage. Is this possible?

My next big question.... should i cut the job short and get someone else in to do the walls and grout?

 

[kendo1]

?
Someone has been removed.
Here's a pic anyway.

 

[bobbynz]

Nice profile pic Jay..... Thats if you dont mind being lunch:41:

 

[kendo1]

It was hard to find a pic of the missus without her make-up.

 

[AliGage]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. A lot has been going on whilst i've been away for a few days. I've just read 4 pages i think since my last post!
Couple of things i just want to mention, if i can remember it all:

Looks like the starting point over the bath is relative to the window sill? Have no idea why he would start it like this. I don't fancy shaving what looks like about 10mm off the tiles cutting down to the bath. Whilst i think about it, what is the height of the bath? It might be the perspective of the photo but it looks awlfully high. Average bath panel is 20"-21". For sanity purposes just check the height mate.
Think the wall tiles around the bath are going to have to be removed really. Asthetically your going to have, what looks like around 1/3rd of a til to cut to the ceiling (100mm) and your cut to the floor looks about double this. This alone, and as others have stated, doesn't look like a pro has done it. Add about 2" to the height of the top cut and it'll be about right top and bottom. This will however leave a cut under your window sill of the same. Good solid porcelain like you've purchased should cut and fix nice of that size though and won't look out of place.

Someone else has referenced how easy they've come up as well. I've mentioned this on about page 4 prehaps? It is very very surprising to me how you are manahing to lift these so easily and in one piece!

I really hope you get on with your next tiler, if you don't action' i'm going to drive out and do the tiling myself for you (seriously!)

Good luck

 

[widler]

i remember a site agent running a coin over a floor i did years ago,he slid it along the top and said if it stops so do you:yikes:it did'nt ,thank the gods,i do the test every time i tile now,keeps me on my toes:smilewinkgrin:

 

[White Room]

i remember a site agent running a coin over a floor i did years ago,he slid it along the top and said if it stops so do you:yikes:it did'nt ,thank the gods,i do the test every time i tile now,keeps me on my toes:smilewinkgrin:

Heard of a site agent rolling a coin and if it takes off so did the tiler..

 

[Rich]

I have had a customer use a ping pong ball to make sure the floor was level... I had to cover every tile in glue to stop that ball rolling!

Seriously tho, what is the latest action?

 

[jay]

Any update on this one

 

[AMtek]

This really REMOVED off, all trades need to be regulated along the lines of gas safe, no ticket no work!

 

[jay]

Any update or news on this one

 

[actionjackson]

Sorry for not updating this sooner. I have been flat out at work and its never a simple update.

Potentially tiler number 3 viewed the floor a couple of weekends ago and agreed the floor was of a very poor standard. He also agreed that 3 x wall tiles were unacceptable. What alarmed him was that he had been in the trade for nearly 40 yrs and there was only 2 tilers in the area he recommended, and the guy to create this mess was one of them! He told me he was committed to a long job but may be able to free up a few days to get me out of my dilemma. I was confident i had found a good guy at long last and he would let me know on Monday if he could fit the work in. We agreed for me to pull up the very poor floor tiles and 3 x wall tiles.

Problem is, i found that when pulling up the odd tile to try and make the best of a bad job, you seem to be chasing your tail and before long i decided to pull them all up AGAIN! At the time i thought i was fortunate not to break any but i will come to that later..

As expected two of the three wall tiles did break so and another £150 was spent re-ordering replacements along with another 3 bags of BAL SPF.

I spent two full days preparing the floor for re-tiling. I was in no position to self level again to the floor height, so rather than attack it with hammer and bolster, i used a heavy duty scrapper with replaceable blades to scrape the old adhesive of the floor. I wouldn't wish this job on anyone!

Going back to the tiler, unfortunately he was unable to fit me in for over a month so this was a non-starter. He did however recommend another tiler in the area who worked for him for many years but has now gone self-employed. Given the other person he usually recommends was the last tiler to hash my floor i was unsure but decided to give him a call and see for myself. It turns out he has a half decent website with lots of pictures which gave me a good overall feeling. I called the guy up, explained my situation and he was very keen to help me out. He visited last sat and although the floor was up and the "bad" tiles were removed from the walls, from my description and pictures shown to him he confirmed it was sub-standard and assured me he would not deliver the same standards. We agreed on a maximum acceptable lippage tolerance and he expressed that the aim is always for zero lippage but it was comforting to know that my expectations are the same as his!

So you guys are thinking that this will have a good ending yes? Not just yet...

I work away sometimes and unfortunately the tiler started today whilst i'm away. I received a call this morning from the tiler and he told me that the tiles have all been laid out and we have 6 x tiles with serious chips! I couldn't believe it, as i was the one who cleaned them all up and didn't notice any damage! To be fair i was doing this at 9pm and had been working on the floor since 8am so i was hardly in the best frame of mind. The tiler sent me some pictures of the damaged tiles and they simply cant be laid so i have ordered yet more tiles! The tiler has packed up and will come back on sat morning to do the floor as luckily i can collect the tiles during my work trip and bring home Friday night. The problem however is the tiler will only do the floor first, doesn't work Sunday's and is booked up for the next 2 weeks so looks like i won't get this finished by the end of the month.

I don't think these cowboy tilers understand the implications of their sub-standard work. I have now spend an additional £500 on materials and labour and 2 days of my own time just to get back to the tiling stage. Not to mention all the phone calls, aranging for new tilers etc etc.

 

[actionjackson]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. A lot has been going on whilst i've been away for a few days. I've just read 4 pages i think since my last post!
Couple of things i just want to mention, if i can remember it all:

Looks like the starting point over the bath is relative to the window sill? Have no idea why he would start it like this. I don't fancy shaving what looks like about 10mm off the tiles cutting down to the bath. Whilst i think about it, what is the height of the bath? It might be the perspective of the photo but it looks awlfully high. Average bath panel is 20"-21". For sanity purposes just check the height mate.
Think the wall tiles around the bath are going to have to be removed really. Asthetically your going to have, what looks like around 1/3rd of a til to cut to the ceiling (100mm) and your cut to the floor looks about double this. This alone, and as others have stated, doesn't look like a pro has done it. Add about 2" to the height of the top cut and it'll be about right top and bottom. This will however leave a cut under your window sill of the same. Good solid porcelain like you've purchased should cut and fix nice of that size though and won't look out of place.

Someone else has referenced how easy they've come up as well. I've mentioned this on about page 4 prehaps? It is very very surprising to me how you are manahing to lift these so easily and in one piece!

I really hope you get on with your next tiler, if you don't action' i'm going to drive out and do the tiling myself for you (seriously!)

Good luck

Hopefully this pic will explain why the tiler laid out the wall tiles around the bath in this way. The plan is to raise the box section to accommodate a full tile at the top, then a chrome strip and then 2 x full tiles at the bottom to the floor. There are no windows in the bathroom and yes a 10cm strip will be seen at the top of the walls around the bath.

 

[Rich]

I honestly dont know what to say to all of that. It has to be the biggest dogs dinner of a small job I have every come across!

Im afraid that i disagree with you tho action,it is not a case that these cowboy tilers dont realise the implications of their sub-standard work, I just think that they dont care. They still get paid.

 

[dave l and l]

does that not leave a small cut down to bath ,
its a pity you are having such probs, i hope it gets sorted soon

 

[White Room]

I have to agree with Rich, just can't believe how this has rattled on....

 

[actionjackson]

does that not leave a small cut down to bath ,
its a pity you are having such probs, i hope it gets sorted soon

no a full tile will be fitted to the bottom row. I think its the angle i have taken the picture from.

 

[jay]

Action i have to take my hat off to you for standing for the standard you want (it should be a standard required to be a tiler) what i have read and viewed has left me in shock that this could happen more than once to you is just unbelievable , stick to your guns as what you require should be normal tiling standard

 

[jay]

Gone a bit quiet any update

 

[AliGage]

Hopefully this pic will explain why the tiler laid out the wall tiles around the bath in this way. The plan is to raise the box section to accommodate a full tile at the top, then a chrome strip and then 2 x full tiles at the bottom to the floor. There are no windows in the bathroom and yes a 10cm strip will be seen at the top of the walls around the bath.

View attachment 38825

From this picture it doesn't look like the tile over the box work will line up with those already fixed over the bath.

 

[Dan]

Re: Floor Has Tile Lippage, Wall Tiles Going Up In The Morning! Help P

Don't mind me while I bump some old but popular threads to see if the topic is still active in some way. Wondering if either the original idea or original issue still exists. I've done this with quite a few threads, so don't be offended if this is just jargon these days and not applicable. But I thought there might be a small chance a small percentage of the small number of threads might just be slightly applicable and the thread could get a new lease of life.

Reply to this if you've read a bit and have something to say.
There IS going to be a bigger chance when i do this, that the thread is dead. So don't worry if that's the case, just don't reply to it, and we'll all move on and let the thread drop out of view again.

 

[Dan]

Don't mind me while I bump up some older but good threads. If you can contribute to the thread, go ahead. But if it's nothing for you then don't reply and it'll soon drop off the What's New page etc.
Worth linking to our new forum structure while I'm doing stuff:-

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