There is no excuse for that poor workmanship. The guy was drunk or maybe he has a brain tumor. I have only done a little tiling in my life and none of it looked that bad, even my first attempt. I don't even see any way the tile could have moved that much on its own after placing it. It is just bad work. Make them redo it.
I was told to always use spacers. Pre-made plastic ones, wood strips, or toothpicks depending on the gap desired.

Thanks Kevin! I may be printing this thread out and showing it to my GC, so please keep the comments coming with honest and fair criticism.

Here's another pic of the same tiny shower. (BTW, this guest bath will get the most use of any of the 6 baths in our entire house, and there will be glass doors, so the tile will definitely be seen.

OH YEAH! And to top all this off with a great big cherry on top, these tilers are wet-cutting my tiles in my finished basement (the entire house is being redone, but still, it's a basement we did mold remediation on, etc.) and the asbestos tile floor that we plan to lay a floating floor on top of is constantly in puddles of water while they cut throughout the day. This fact had me annoyed enough, but it gets worse!

Guess what the moron tilers didn't do when they left this past Thursday night? They didn't shut the water off for the hose they had connected to my water MAIN (no other "live" plumbing in the house, so the entire house's pressure was on that stupid hose. )

Can you guess what happened to my newly sheetrocked basement?

Yes, their stupid hose burst and the entire basement was flooded with 3 inches of water when the plumber arrived at 8:15 the next morning.

It was a full 24 hours before our GC alerted us to the problem himself (I heard about it from the slate roofer, whose phone the frantic plumber had to borrow to contact the GC). He finally bought a dehumidifier to help dry out the basement after my DH sent him a rather nasty email complaining of the puddles he still saw at 9pm when he stopped by on the way home from work. He ALSO was complaining that the french doors to our family room were wide open and that our 4 zones of heat were cranking to heat Norther New Jersey in February!

It's one darn thing after another - I know renovations are supposed to be a headache, but our GC is starting to seem really negligent to us, and we're very worried!

Okay-- I already asked about that one gap in the other thread. There's absolutely no excuse for that. As for the cuts in the corner, that's horrendous. You probably wouldn't notice it once it was caulked but it does look bad right now. As for the pic where the bullnose has the wider joints, if you notice, he has no choice. The bullnose is just slightly smaller than the width of two pieces, and in order to line it all up, he has to open those bullnose up a hair. From what I've seen, I'd have him rework the corner, and as for that gap in the middle of the wall, there's no excuse for that. that's also got to be fixed, but other than those two things, I don't see where this is so terrible. Once this is grouted, you're not going to see alot of what you're seeing right now. Those joints will look alot more even. One other thing-- with tiles like these you don't use spacers. The tiles will have either lugs or ridges on the edges so that when the tiles are placed together, they'll be spaced apart. Now, the horizontal joints are a little tight, but unsanded grout will still be able to get in there no problem. It DOES sound, though, like this schmoe doesn't give a damn about his or anyone else's work, though.

I'd give the installer a choice. If he thinks he can make those joints look uniform once they're grouted, then go ahead and grout it up.... AFTER he fixes that one row and reworks the corner. If it's not all uniform, it comes out. I know personally, I could save that with a good grout job. I HAVE saved worse than that before. But he DOES need to fix that gap and that corner. No two ways about it. I'd also be looking to get his liability insurance certificate (of course, you should already have that, or at the very least, the GC should, and you should have the GC's) to take care of the damage he's caused to your home.

Thanks Bill. Seriously, though I really would greatly appreciate a quick check-list of what constitutes a decent tile job.

For instance, since you said you could save this tiling job with good grout application, what about the many tiles that touch and that I honesty can't get a fingernail between (I have really thin, bendy fingernails.)? I don't understand how any grout at all will fit between them. Don't tiles need grout all the way around them?

I see what you're saying about the bullnose pieces - is that a common problem, or do we just have poor quality tiles?

Maybe they're tighter than they look in the picture. If there's absolutely NO space whatsoever between tiles, then yes, you're right-- grout won't stay. The grout does need to get into the joint in order to anchor itself. As for the Bullnose, it's very common, and although it's not the most attractive thing, the alternative from before the companies started doing that (when the bullnose sometimes ended up being BIGGER, and throwing the coursing right out the window, or making it necessary to trim the edge of each piece) was alot worse.

As for what constitutes a good tile job:
>The tiles are laid level, flat, and plumb.

>Coursing is in a straight line. WIth reference to the brick joint, you should be able to put a straight edge up to the wall, and every other tile should line up vertically.

>Grout joints are uniform.

>Corner joints are uniform, and no bigger than the grout joints in the field of the tile.

>Cuts, when possible, are no less than 1/2 a tile (Obviously, this one goes out the window with brick joint) and are made with a nice smooth edge.

>Tiles are well adhered with a minimum of 85% coverage on each tile.

>With reference to the sheet tile you had removed, once grouted you shouldn't be able to see any sheet lines. The tile should flow with no interruption to its end.

One other thought on the bullnose: you could rearrange them so that the edges of the bullnose didn't line up with the standard pieces (i.e., edge of bullnose lines up with center of tile). Then you won't have different size gaps and it'll look like you meant to do it that way.

I am not a pro. When I tiled my bathroom I drove myself nuts aligning each tile perfectly and despaired at the corners because it was impossible to do. When the handyman who did the rest of the bathroom came in and saw my work, before the grout, he chuckled and said he never saw anything like my work. He told me it's never exactly perfect, the grout and caulk take care of a lot of imperfections.

I hired a pro to do the next br. I was ready to fire him because it looked so bad. I couldn't believe he'd have the nerve to call himself a pro. After the grout, it looks perfect! It took me three weeks to lay my tile, it took the pro two days, including a beautiful pattern with lots of cuts! And if he used spacers, I sure couldn't see them.

Don't despair - it will probably be gorgeous!

It may be the way the picture is taken but I don't think grout can fix the fact that the tiles look like they are on different planes. One tile looks more inset than the next one. Also, the lines are so uneven that I would notice that very quickly and I think grout will only draw your attention to it.

I hope you can get this redone Smarge. By the way, where did you get your crackle tiles? My local Waterworks has a bathroom done in this tile and they are absolutely beautiful!
Homepro01

Thanks to all for the terrific and helpful responses!!! It is hard to know what is too picky and what is reasonable, so the guidelines really help - we've never done such a massive and expensive renovation before and ending up with a poor result after all we've been through is a bit scary. That said, we also don't want to be the clients from h e double hocky sticks!

Homepro01 - the tile does look fantastic off the walls! The color we chose is called Light Aspen, although it looks like a shade of white to me. Our source is Artistic Tile in NYC - they have absolutely fantastic things! Don't know the brand, but Rachel is our contact. ($11.66 psf for the regular tiles)

We just finished our guest bath and my remodeler did an excellent job. Honestly,I'd be really upset if I were you and mine looked like that. I'm no pro,but anyone can see how horrible the corners are and I don't think all the grout and caulk in the world will make it look much better.
I know I'd be insisting it be redone. He didn't do it for free did he,so why should you have to live with something that makes you unhappy?

We used 9x12 porcelain for the tub/shower set in a brick pattern. My only request was that we not have any tiny pieces in the corners or sides,so to please do whatever math he had to (even if shifted slightly) so we didn't have any small tiles.We love how it turned out!

I really think you should be happy with the work and not settle for less than what you really want and what you paid for.

Just confirming what others have said. It looks like crap, don't accept it. I did a far better job on my first tile job too (subway tile with glass mosaic). I wouldn't let this guy fix it either but insist that it be redone by someone who does every job as if he were doing it in his own house. Either this guy just don't have the skill and eye required or he just doesn't care. Either way he's not the right person.

Bill, If you can fix that mess with grout, you are really good.
Here is that 3rd photo with straight lines added showing poor alignment and inconsistent grout joints. I don't see any indication that those tiles have lugs for spacing. Some of the tiles are so tight together they look like one piece.

Let me quote myself from above:

Maybe they're tighter than they look in the picture. If there's absolutely NO space whatsoever between tiles, then yes, you're right-- grout won't stay.

Any MORE questions??

Here's mine before grouting.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Bill, I'm sorry if anything I said bothered you. I thought I was helping out by showing the alignment and spaces per your recommendations.

Guys, I'm pretty sure that my picture is crooked. The lines are not that much out of plane! Sorry for the aggravation this seems to have caused! My point was the uneven grout lines and I included a photo that was taken with me holding the camera less than perfectly level.

Anyway, my DH, spoke to the tiler at length tonight. He had grouted a large section, including the corner and even though it IS still possible to see the major differences in grout size, the grout blends a lot and it isn't nearly as obvious as it is in the pics above. He swears that after caulk is applied on top of the grout in the corner that it will look like one straight line (with just grout it looks like an odd wavy line. He said he MEANT to "weave" every other tile like he did. What do I know?)

The tile has a tiny bevel at the edges and so a tiny amount of grout stays there, but imo is pasted onto a glazed portion of the tile. The tiler "guaranteed" the job to my DH and he swears that even though we can't see any space at all between many of the tiles, that grout will still get in there. He told my DH that he spent 4 days placing those tiles and he somehow gained the confidence of DH, so we're leaving it. (I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it for you in case anyone is curious.)

I told DH to be sure to get that guarantee in writing!

GC did say he'd have it redone if we insisted, but also said "there's nothing at all wrong with that tile job!"

I told him I wanted even grout lines on the yet to be done Master Bathroom shower, my two kids' bathtub surrounds ("Florida" subway tile that is not meant to be straight edges; I'm real scared of how this will now turn out!), and our basement shower.

Fingers are crossed! We sure don't want to have to reorder any more material and we want to move into the house in April, so the motto of the day is now "git 'er done!"

"He swears that after caulk is applied on top of the grout in the corner that it will look like one straight line"

That is a "no-no." Caulk never goes on top of grout. You need to properly instruct him on where and how to caulk. He will have to remove the grout in the corners now.

He said he MEANT to "weave" every other tile like he did. What do I know?

Is his stage name Pee Wee Herman? In addition, the caulking goes IN PLACE of grout, not OVER it. He needs to score that corner out or the caulking won't stay.

As for just grouting the bevels of the tile, If that's truly the case, the grout won't stay.

I'm curious-- what did he have to say about the time he spent "placing" that huge gap in the middle of the wall? And what is he doing about it?

As for your GC, I also question HIS judgement and expertise if he feels this is a good installation. It might be able to be made acceptable (and that's MAYBE), but BY NO MEANS, is this good work!!

You ought to copy just the parameters I gave above of what constitutes a good tile job and ask your GC what he thinks of it.

Can you give specifics of the job well done in regards to the tile floor of a shower? I am on my 4th shower redo in 20 years. The first one the guy chipped away to make the rounded corners for the drain? It was awful. Kept killing my toes on the jagged tile. Next guy cut beautiful semi circles with what I do not know but it was beautiful. Guy yesterday chipped away so now I have not jagged edges but not beautiful either. What is the correct way?

NSM-- I'm afraid I know the answer, but what size tile do you have in your shower floor?

dlm-- with reference to where the shower walls hit the floor, practically speaking, you're correct. Techn ically, though, you're wrong. ANYWHERE where there's an inside corner, even within the field of the tile, it should be caulked.

Bill...it is 6X6.The ceiling was tiled very closely together and looks great but on the floor he left , to me, huge grout line. Not what I would prefer with cleaning and all. Other than that, he did a fair job.

Kim

The tiles should be cut so as to have a uniform joint all the way around the drain, and the edges of the tile should be flush to the top of the drain, so no cut edges are exposed.

Bill maybe the difference is that all our baths are portland/lathe with Corner-Rites - we don't use cement board. Corners are monolith, grouted not caulked and they don't leak.

Could be. That DOES make a difference. Practically speaking. Technically, ANY inside corner requires caulking. Period.

Oh man! That's a horrible tile job. I tiled my mom's shower and with proper spacers it was perfect. I honestly would sue this guy if he didn't correct the issue. I know how expensive tile is.

I would guess that nothing this guy has done in your bath is correct. A slow leak in your shower could cause tens of thousands of $$$ down the road.

You shouldn't have to use caulk to "fix" or cover up your mistakes! Do not let him get away with this.

I'm sorry for your troubles.