Independent Tiling Consultant needed - Tile Advice

[Nick Jones]

I am not inferring anything I ask a question or two that if we had a certain answer maybe relevant . Don't think you won't be asked these questions if it goes legal .

What I am after is an impartial, independent report.
I would expect the report to state what must be done to rectify matters.
For this contractor to carry out remedial work, I would have to be assured that he was capable of doing it. I'm sorry, but I do not believe that he can show this. If, for instance, he was able to show tiling work that he had completed in, say, the previous 6 months and that the client was happy with the work, then I would reluctantly be forced (against my better judgement) to allow him to carry out remedial work. However, I do not believe that he has done any tiling work for over 3 years. Or if he has, then it's only a splashback behind a kitchen sink or handbasin.
If nothing else, he would have to accept that he was out of practice, that he had miscalculated the timing (but that I had never pressured him to finish on time - as a work colleague I gave him a lot of leeway) and that unless he was able to provide evidence of recent good workmanship, then he would owe it to the client(me!) to get somebody good in.
There are ins and outs which space and time prevent me from going into - suffice to say that there is no conspiracy on my part to cover up anything. His work is as can be seen. As has been suggested, there may be underlying problems - voids, or whatever.
But when an explanation for the cavities and appalling state of the grouting of a 2.38 Metre section of vertical tiling trim is that water would have run down (!) - well, I ask you! The cavities, etc on this trim run from floor to ceiling. At least he and his mate didn't try to say it was my fault because of the materials I'd supplied or that it was because of the width of joint I had specified!

 

[AOS TIling]

I’d suggest that you advise him of your intention to use the TTA Service and use their report in any subsequent legal action you might take, including the fees for the report. I’m not commenting on your photos or opinion on this work, enough has been said already. I’m not justifying the TTA charges either but I’ve encouraged a domestic client to take this route before and the contractor immediately crumbled. I had viewed the previous contractors work and came up with a similiar conclusion as to the pending TTA report but was not prepared to offer a written report or get involved in any court action. I prefer to use my time Tiling, not offering witness services in any dispute. I’d imagine the majority of tilers would share my view on that. Contractor refunded all charges, replaced all materials and covered the charges I made to refit the bathroom.

That said, I would say this particular client was lucky to get that outcome as in most cases, with or without a report, they may have been left to whistle for it.

 

[Nick Jones]

I’d suggest that you advise him of your intention to use the TTA Service and use their report in any subsequent legal action you might take, including the fees for the report. I’m not commenting on your photos or opinion on this work, enough has been said already. I’m not justifying the TTA charges either but I’ve encouraged a domestic client to take this route before and the contractor immediately crumbled. I had viewed the previous contractors work and came up with a similiar conclusion as to the pending TTA report but was not prepared to offer a written report or get involved in any court action. I prefer to use my time Tiling, not offering witness services in any dispute. I’d imagine the majority of tilers would share my view on that. Contractor refunded all charges, replaced all materials and covered the charges I made to refit the bathroom.

That said, I would say this particular client was lucky to get that outcome as in most cases, with or without a report, they may have been left to whistle for it.

While I may use the TTA for a report, but at the cost of £ 980 + VAT, I am also trying to find out if their "desktop" report would be of use as it would be cheaper. If I was to go down the legal action route, then I need to assure myself that in the event of winning, that I would see settlement of the costs. As he operates under the umbrella of a limited company, with only a balance sheet (without any detailed analysis) then I need to know that his company can afford to pay out.
Additionally, within the company that I work for (for whom he does loads of work (which does not include tiling) then my taking him to court would, I am certain, cause problems.
I do not want to cause problems for my employer.
So I am in a difficult position. And that is why I asked the Tilers Forum if there was an independent, impartial consultant who could do a report.
But it looks like there .isn't

 

[AOS TIling]

I personally wouldn’t get involved in such a dispute, £980 + VAT wouldn’t be worth the hassle it would bring in my opinion. I’d guess that’s why you will struggle to find a professional fixer who has seen this area as a business opportunity. Unlike the Ambulance Chaser firms, most good independent fixers that I know do what we do because we enjoy the Tiling aspect .... plus it pays the bills with little stress, provided you undertake your work with integrity

 

[Dumbo]

What you may find if you go to court is that they appoint a professional witness . Who at the outset you would both pay for . Maybe the winner then may be able to claim costs . One such person who as acted as a professional witness on construction related issues is somebody called Shaun Bradley he used to live in houghton which is north of romsey he may well be interested . He is on the internet .

 

[Andy Tiler]

That's not a professional Tilers work!!
Handyman or DIY ??

 

[Nick Jones]

That's not a professional Tilers work!!
Handyman or DIY ??

This is the problem. Although I think you do both Handymen and DIYers a disservice, as they could easily have produced a much better finish.
He has put himself in the position of being a professional Tiler, and expects to receive a commensurate reward.
Even with my duff leg and bad back, I could have done better work myself.
I expected, and was entitled to receive, a professional result.
I have not.
I had planned this wet room - I think the layout and colour scheme was pretty good, even if I do say so myself. I was really looking forward to it.
What I have ended up with is pure dross.
I am not a happy bunny.

 

[AOS TIling]

Ignore my previous advise about using a TTA report so. It’ll almost certainly be a waste of money. I wouldn’t hold out much hope that you can get anything other than a goodwill gesture having selected a handyman to undertake a wetroom installation.

 

[Sean Kelly]

OMG now you tell us it's a wetroom!
You will have a wet room, but it will be the room directly underneath your recently tiled room.
You have not done your homework and you have employed an odd job man to do the work of a highly skilled person. We are trying to help you, but you are drip feeding us information. You are also telling us a lot of unnecessary information about work colleagues etc.

I find it hard to believe that you do not have pictures of the bathroom/wetroom (taken from a distance so that we can see the whole room).

You say that the work is not good enough standard for a tiler, but the bloke who tiled it is not a tiler!!

I just don't know what to think or say now.

Good luck.

 

[Dumbo]

OMG now you tell us it's a wetroom!
You will have a wet room, but it will be the room directly underneath your recently tiled room.
You have not done your homework and you have employed an odd job man to do the work of a highly skilled person. We are trying to help you, but you are drip feeding us information. You are also telling us a lot of unnecessary information about work colleagues etc.

I find it hard to believe that you do not have pictures of the bathroom/wetroom (taken from a distance so that we can see the whole room).

You say that the work is not good enough standard for a tiler, but the bloke who tiled it is not a tiler!!

I just don't know what to think or say now.

Good luck.

As I said earlier more truths to come out .

 

[On one]

They were misaligned because the joints are of different sizes. This contractor said that you don't use spacers when laying mosaic tiles, which is completely the opposite of what the educational videos on You Tube show. So I am not going to complain to the manufacturers because it is not a manufacturing fault but a tiling contractors installation fault. Inspection of the photographs would show you the varying joint widths where the mosaic pattern goes out of register and it is because the joint widths were different that the "out of register" occurred. This "out of registration" effect occurs both horizontally and vertically because the contractor didn't lay the mosaic sheets properly. A little time and care on his part would have worked wonders - but he completely miscalculated the time that he was going to need to do the job - and because he had another job scheduled (not a tiling job) he rushed it. Also, the fact is that I do not believe he had done any tiling for several years because he had been employed in fitting fitted furniture in school, laboratories, etc and so when he came to do my job (both building work and then the tiling) he was "rusty" - and that is being extremely kind to him. I was not aware that he was going to do the tiling - I thought that he was going to hire a tiling professional (just as he hired plumbers and an electrician).

There is very little point in using spacers on mosaics,because they are never perfectly aligned on the backing mat.

 

[Bill]

So my cynicism was not unfounded then?

 

[Nick Jones]

OMG now you tell us it's a wetroom!
You will have a wet room, but it will be the room directly underneath your recently tiled room.
You have not done your homework and you have employed an odd job man to do the work of a highly skilled person. We are trying to help you, but you are drip feeding us information. You are also telling us a lot of unnecessary information about work colleagues etc.

I find it hard to believe that you do not have pictures of the bathroom/wetroom (taken from a distance so that we can see the whole room).

You say that the work is not good enough standard for a tiler, but the bloke who tiled it is not a tiler!!

I just don't know what to think or say now.

Good luck.

 

[Nick Jones]

What I had wanted was the room to be completely tanked. What he did, was to have the plumbers fit an "Impey level deck floor sheet" in the shower area and when I queried the fact that the entire room was to be tanked he said that you just do the shower area. The trouble was that the work was too far along at the time to allow for the floor area to be redone to be completely tanked, so I ended up having to accept that I would just have the walk-in shower area "tanked". So "wet room" may not appear to be the correct description, although it apparently can also mean an area of the floor (and not the whole floor) is tanked.
So it's not a question of more truths to come out.
So my apologies if you misunderstand the sobriquet "wet room", but I am reporting it as it is. My original hope was to get an impartial & independent report, I did not type out an exceedingly long letter going into all the "ins and outs" of what had occurred because it was not germane nor would anyone bother to read umpteen pages of what did or did not occur. What I can say is that work was supposed to be done - I'm assuming that his building work was OK in knocking down a couple of small walls - with him using I believe a plasterer, a painter and presumably a labourer that he paid for and included in his bill with a plumbing firm and an electrical firm to do their respective work (with separate bills raised by them) and then he did the tiling. I had wrongly assumed that he would have used a tiling contractor, whereas he did the work himself.

 

[Simon Dale]

Ive always grouted and sent mastic man after. If tile is 10mm thick there would be a gap between silicone and glue ?