Is this right? Or am I seeing things? - Tile Advice

[Pistol]

Hi, hoping someone can help and this is the right place to post.
I’m refurbing my Ensuite and done most of the work myself, except plastering and now tiling. I’m only having the shower enclosure tiled. I built a false wall with a niche in it and the plasterer did a good job (I think) of getting everything as straight and smooth as possible.
Am having it tiled now and the chap is coming back Friday to grout it. However just now going up to inspect it I can’t help but see a ‘bulge’. My eye is just drawn to it. I’m sure it wasn’t on the original plaster work so my question is, what would be the reason for this? The tiler has a good reputation and good references. I haven’t spoken to him about it yet as I’ve only just noticed it. Also, would ANY amount of grout lessen the effect that I’m seeing or is that just wishful thinking.
Last question would be, if it’s just a screw up from the tiler, what is involved in ripping this section off and doing it again?
I’ve posted before and after pics to help explain.
Thanks in advance.

Before 2

• Pistol
• Jun 27, 2018
• 2

Before 1

• Pistol
• Jun 27, 2018

After 1

• Pistol
• Jun 27, 2018
• 2

After 2

• Pistol
• Jun 27, 2018

 

[Old Mod]

You’re not seeing things, it’s there, big and proud.
The only way to know for sure is to remove the pieces that side of the niche.
If they're tight to the wall, then it’s the build, and so on.
If it is the Tiling, it’s no big deal to re do, if it’s the build, it gets more complicated.

 

[Old Mod]

If I was to purely guess,
My money would be on the plastering, sorry, but it’s generally the case unfortunately.
They’re notorious for excessive build up on corners, which makes circumnavigating them tricky at times.
You’re a plasterer aren’t you Doug?
Praps I should re phrase that, proper plasterers don’t generally suffer this issue, it’s the newer ‘skimmers’ in my experience that struggle going round corners.

 

[jobdone]

Plaster beads round the niche proberly sit prouder than the rest of the plaster and the tiles are following this to a degree.

 

[Dougs Third Go]

If I was to purely guess,
My money would be on the plastering, sorry, but it’s generally the case unfortunately.
They’re notorious for excessive build up on corners, which makes circumnavigating them tricky at times.
You’re a plasterer aren’t you Doug?
Praps I should re phrase that, proper plasterers don’t generally suffer this issue, it’s the newer ‘skimmers’ in my experience that struggle going round corners.

always go into corners left handed Marc when I'm plastering, avoid the excess build up that way, tiler first, plasterer 2nd , but to OP it looks, and I'm only surmising here, take note, that it looks like a bulge leading into the back wall where the first niche cut runs into,,,could be the camera though, my go-pro was terrible for twisting images,,,,sure fire way of checking is to put a straight edge across it.

 

[Dougs Third Go]

1. Plaster beads round the niche proberly sit prouder than the rest of the plaster and the tiles are following this to a degree.

   tler will always take a datum from the proudest point and adjust accordingly, never take for granted that previous trades have gone belt and braces approach
   

 

[Flintstone]

It could well be the plastering, but even so that’s no excuse to leave a finish like that, poor job, specifically his mosaic work

 

[Pistol]

Thanks for all the responses so far, great to have other viewpoints. Cameras don’t always pick up what you need them to that’s for sure, but I was constantly looking for problems in the plaster that might affect the final finish, in fact the plasterer was very upfront with where might be an issue (old house, old walls) but the work he did on the enclosure I didn’t see any issues with. Maybe because I’m neither a plasterer or tiler that may be the reason but I can’t believe this wasn’t avoidable.
In case it’s in doubt, there is a definite convex bulge on the tiles on the left, if I put a straight edge over it, it rocks between the two angles.

I’ll speak to him today and see what he says.

 

[Pistol]

It could well be the plastering, but even so that’s no excuse to leave a finish like that, poor job, specifically his mosaic work

I hadn’t really picked up on the mosaics but looking further at it there are some gaps I’m not happy with. Can you detail what you’re seeing that you wouldn’t accept?
Cheers

 

[Flintstone]

All the mosaic in the niche are wavey and looked to have sagged, and all the joints between the sheets on the feature mosaics are far wider than they should be, also the gap to the ceiling is really unsightly, there’s no way to make that look good!

 

[Andy Allen]

Thanks for all the responses so far, great to have other viewpoints. Cameras don’t always pick up what you need them to that’s for sure, but I was constantly looking for problems in the plaster that might affect the final finish, in fact the plasterer was very upfront with where might be an issue (old house, old walls) but the work he did on the enclosure I didn’t see any issues with. Maybe because I’m neither a plasterer or tiler that may be the reason but I can’t believe this wasn’t avoidable.
In case it’s in doubt, there is a definite convex bulge on the tiles on the left, if I put a straight edge over it, it rocks between the two angles.

I’ll speak to him today and see what he says.

What a shame you never put a straight edge on the plaster before it was tiled and got him back to do his job properly....!!

 

[Old Mod]

What a shame you never put a straight edge on the plaster before it was tiled and got him back to do his job properly....!!

See, now I’d of said it’s a shame it was plastered in the first place.

 

[Old Mod]

, tiler first, plasterer 2nd ,

Sorry no offence meant Doug.

 

[Flintstone]

Plasterers can certainly make a good wall bad !

 

[Pistol]

So I just spoke to him about all the faults and he said the wall must have been bowed. Well, this wasn’t brought to my attention before, he didn’t say anything about it, I built the wall and checked it was straight (plus or minus a few small variances but nothing like this).
What bothers me is I asked about the gap at the top of the wall and he said well that’s because you’ve got two types of tile and you’d end up with a small bit of mosaic at the top - but wouldn’t that look better than a huge load of grout? Also asked about the alignment on the mosaics and he said these can be slightly off in measurement so you end up with these misalignment. That just seems like complete BS to me. Surely you put the spacers in at each level to line them up no? Will try and upload some pics of the alignments being out