Would you consider this quality work? - Tile Advice

[Toni]

I'm really not, I really can't believe it to be honest. Knowing the issues we'd already had is have thought this tiler would have done his best to make it perfect for us. Im absolutely gutted as we love the tiles but I can't live with these issues.

I've spent two years renovating our house from a total derelict state and everything else is perfect now so I need this floor to be right otherwise what's the point of making such a nice job of everything else?

Even if this was free I wouldnt be happy to live with it. I'll have to fix it even if that means starting again

I guess the best I can hope for is he can fix it some way. Or he refunds the fitting cost and I'll just have to put it down to experience and start again.

I'm really not, I really can't believe it to be honest. Knowing the issues we'd already had is have thought this tiler would have done his best to make it perfect for us. Im absolutely gutted as we love the tiles but I can't live with these issues.

I've spent two years renovating our house from a total derelict state and everything else is perfect now so I need this floor to be right otherwise what's the point of making such a nice job of everything else?

Even if this was free I wouldnt be happy to live with it. I'll have to fix it even if that means starting again

I guess the best I can hope for is he can fix it some way. Or he refunds the fitting cost and I'll just have to put it down to experience and start again.

Ps... I don't think I'd expect him to pay to replace the whole floor. It's a mess but that would be a huge undertaking for any one man band. I'm gutted that my floors a mess but I wouldn't want to half ruin the guy to fix it unless he'd done it maliciously - which he won't have.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Yeah - it's always the tilers fault!
I don't agree it's a mess - I agree there are issues but not wholly with the tiler!
You haven't explained the first floor tile problem and perhaps your expectations were too high.
65sq mts and 4 photos of joint variation doesn't make a mess -IMHO.
There are many factors to consider, floor preparation, tile quality, 5mm joints for 800x800 tiles - and we are only seeing photos!

 

[Ttt1601]

I'd be interested to see 2 joints in sequence next to each other in one photo, if the tiles are sized wrong then you can have 1 joint looking wrong and the next 1 looking right, still fixer should be oddsing out the differences, and you say they are are 80x 80 when you check them but how exact are you beong, I rarely find tiles are exactly 800 x 800 or 600 x 600 etc. Don't get me wrong there is some workmanship there that needs addressing but sometimes the tiles can dictate the level of quality that can be achievex. If that is the case he should certainly of spoken to about it right from the off and even more so because it's clear the level of quality you are expecting.

 

[Toni]

Yeah - it's always the tilers fault!
I don't agree it's a mess - I agree there are issues but not wholly with the tiler!
You haven't explained the first floor tile problem and perhaps your expectations were too high.
65sq mts and 4 photos of joint variation doesn't make a mess -IMHO.
There are many factors to consider, floor preparation, tile quality, 5mm joints for 800x800 tiles - and we are only seeing photos!

The first issue with the original floor was that the tiles weren't polished correctly down one side. About 1cm down one whole side on every tile was effected but it wasn't something you could notice even when looking very closely. Nobody including myself, the tiler or the boss at tile choice who came to see the finished job at the time noticed. It only became apparent a few months later when one side of every tile started to gradually discolour and we couldn't get the stains off.

That was a tile fault - these things happen and this job was supposed to fix the issue. We couldn't get the same tiles again so we had to go with new ones and I picked the tiler that came with the highest recommendation - and he's got paid exactly his going rate for this. It wasn't done cheaply.

He removed the old tiles and prepped the floor to re tile as part of the job so I can't say anything about the floor prep but it should be right if he did it.

The tiles look ok size wise but I will remeasure tomorrow and I will stand them up together to check. If they were all different sizes though shouldn't he have told me he was having issues with them? And if there were issues I believe expert tilers can normally make a good job of it anyway by eye?

The 5mm joints were needed to allow some movement with the ufh as the room is fairly long. 5mm aren't pretty at the best of times so the 6 and 7mm ones look awful.

I agree you've only seen a few pics but I'd say probably 30% of the floor has issues like those in the photos if not more because if one tiles out by 2mm the whole row follows that. So every joint is then staggered and every grout line is on that row is then 20-40% wider than the one next to it. Nothing is uniform.

I'm not saying 100% it's his fault. I'm just wondering if I should be complaining heavily or not and posted the photos to exactly for that reason - to see if my expectations are too high and what is reasonable?

While the tiler was doing our job he was happy to critique our bathroom tiling saying it's poor as a couple or tiles in there sit ever so slightly higher than the rest. When someone talks like that it raises your expectations too.

If this was free then I wouldn't complain but I've paid him thousands.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Thank you - a fuller understanding has now been achieved .
However to repeat - from these photos for 65 mts I don't think it's a mess!
Good luck and thanks for posting.

 

[Dan]

I think tile size variations and shape etc might have stipulated some of those joint widths.

Get 5 tiles butted up together out of the spares and see if any of those seem to be out of shape or square etc

 

[widler]

How how this gone on , interested to know ?

 

[Time's Ran Out]

I think he's also stuttering with a reply reply.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

That was out of order!

 

[Toni]

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for the replys. That's a good idea about getting a few loose tiles down to check they are straight. I'll give that a go and see.

Unfortunately though, now I've raised my concerns the tiler is ignoring me. Not very professional at all. I'm going to ring him again on Monday - after being ignored for a week I'm feeling far less forgiving.

Funnily enough I've just noticed how easy it is to see exactly how up and down the tiles are. The skirting board gives it away massively. 2mm steps in places - it looks crap.

 

[Stustunz]

Take a pic from ceiling height so we can see at least 8 corners to see if there is size variation.
Those look like glazed porcelain or ceramic tiles not rectified porcelain.Often one corner will curl up or down when made with that type of tile.(pain the butt to get flat)and not been rectified means they are normally out of square also.
Put 2 tiles face to face and see if they rock or can see light.
Also measure on the diagonal each way to see if tiles are square.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

If there's a 2mm gap at the skirting, up and down, then it may be bent tiles - not your Tilers fault!

 

[JMC tiling]

If there's a 2mm gap at the skirting, up and down, then it may be bent tiles - not your Tilers fault!

agree with this, and a nice neat silicone bead will tidy it up nicely

 

[Time's Ran Out]

agree with this, and a nice neat silicone bead will tidy it up nicely

Perhaps decorators chaulk as its paintable.

 

[average]

I'd be interested to see 2 joints in sequence next to each other in one photo, if the tiles are sized wrong then you can have 1 joint looking wrong and the next 1 looking right, still fixer should be oddsing out the differences, and you say they are are 80x 80 when you check them but how exact are you beong, I rarely find tiles are exactly 800 x 800 or 600 x 600 etc. Don't get me wrong there is some workmanship there that needs addressing but sometimes the tiles can dictate the level of quality that can be achievex. If that is the case he should certainly of spoken to about it right from the off and even more so because it's clear the level of quality you are expecting.

This is why i always use bigger spacers on floor tiles.