Thank you for the information. None of these options were mentioned or offered to us. Obviously, we would've gone with something that didn't look quite like this.

Are the Schluter or Butech profiles still possible at this stage? I'm wondering what I can do about it NOW, if anything.

Tile, stone, or other edging material can still be added to give you a cleaner edge. The wall could also be built out in the concave spots and feathered out for a smooth result.

"yes" is the answer to all your questions. It is normal, and everything the tile guy said was correct and sufficient, and whatever you want to do to it will be fine. A bit of pure cement (no sand added into the mix) can go over top and smooth it out. Tell him to do this. He might say it will be sanded grout, which he will flatten to look good; this is OK too.

The corner, as you wrote, is almost never seen by anyone.

(About metal: any metal pieces added now will just complicate things, and not look good for other reasons; if you had wanted metal "profile" corners and "profile" edges you would have already shown interest in this long long ago; adding one now in one almost unseen corner will not create the effect you wish to have...)

Eyes can get used to anything, within 6 weeks. Panic not dear homeowner. Smooth it out. Later, paint over half of it. Whatever.

Wow, thank you sooo much for the reassurances. I was beginning to freak out thinking there was no fix to this. Now I know what to tell the tile guy when he comes back.

Thanks again!

I'm curious if you are paying the tile installer or the builder for the tile work.

These questions are so common place for me and my team. I need to know this info before starting out so we can line things up correctly.

Next project - once you recover from this one talk about transitions, mitered corners, Schluter profiles, Butech if you can splurge, Tile Layout, Inside corners, outside corners, flood tests, waterproofing measures and on and on...

I hope it makes you smile when you bathe.

I work by this motto up in Vancouver. "When it's perfect. It's good enough."

JW

JW--
The house is older (builder is long gone) and we did a complete renovation. I have a rather flexible schedule, so we thought we could save some money if I was the GC essentially. Only problem with that plan was that sometimes, regardless of how much you read up, you simply don't know the right questions to ask and you can't foresee any of the million things that could go wrong or not happen exactly as you planned.

The tile installer is a good guy. He did a lot of work for us--3 bathrooms (floors, 2 showers, 1 tub) and installed bamboo floor throughout the rest of the house (2800 sqft). Because of the amount of work, he brought in some extra guys. I'm not sure if those guys were quite as experienced, so some things had to be re-done. He's been good in that sense, so far.

This bit with the shower tile edge is just something we didn't really expect. He told us he had to "float the wall out" and we asked if it would "look okay." He said, "Sure." Maybe his aesthetics are different than mine. If we'd known more about tile setting, maybe we could have foreseen this result and come up with a solution prior to setting the tile.

It sounds like you certainly know what you're doing and, as someone who's had to work with so many different craftsmen and tradesmen in this process, I commend you for taking a proactive approach. It seems like far too often tradesmen want to get started on the job, don't bother to ask any questions, and when something goes wrong the homeowner is to blame. I'm not saying the homeowner is blameless, but sometimes we just don't know what questions need to be asked. We have the answers, we know what we want; we just don't always know the question that needs an answer, especially when it comes to specific trades.

Thank you.

Knowing what you want and getting what you want rarely happen unless there is a very clear and precise plan. Often many of the finer details are not discused for a number of reasons.

Cost.

Time Line.

Skill set of staff.

Availability of materials.

And on and on. I'm a salesman at heart and I love the "Up-sell". Much of what I pitch is left on the cutting room floor but many of the finer details get worked into our plans and our bathroom builds.

I allow for 2-4 hours of layout with a client and meet with the plumber once we start demo to see what we can do and what we are dealing with. Then we start the process of layout.

This extra time in many cases an average crew is not getting paid for. Spending hours on layout not part of $x.xx per square foot price. I'm working a lot with Powerhouse Tile here in Vancouver and Kip and Tracey have a wonderful "Check List" that covers just about everything you can think of. This allows them to price the extra's as line items and allows the client to decide on what they can and can't live with.

I'll see if they will let me share it online so you can see another approach to covering your bases.

JW

Here is a closer look at "Floating Out The Wall" with drywall mud. This is some work I did yesterday (sorry for the picture quality Antss I took it with my 4G IPhone).

On this project we designed all the tile layout from the ceiling down. The space outside the wet zone received 5/8" FireBoard and the wet zone received 1/2" concrete board. The place where the two met I used the factory bevel so they would line up nicely.

To ensure we didn't need to look at a Schluter Profile up top everyday I had the tile setter leave the grouting (as you should with large format tile over waterproof products) and let me touch up the ceilings with my finish polish coats of drywall.

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Tile to Dry Wall - No Schluter Edge

This is a steam shower and the glass panels will be set with a U Channel and this is as much chrome accents as we wanted for the look.

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Flush transition from drywall to tile

Here in this picture you see a stunning look. Peter from Mountainview Tile had his GC strap out the non wet zone walls of this Steam Shower BAthroom with 1/2" strapping before the dry wall was installed. The end look. A seem less transition from tile to drywall. I love this look.

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Here is this detail again before the tile goes in. You can see on the back wall that the drywall is boarded and taped out. The drywall at this transition gets either a "J" Bead or an "L" bead to leave a nice straight edge to tile to. insure you check with your tile guy and insure that the walls are plumb. An out of plumb wall can affect the look at you may need to do some wall prep or perhaps fur the wall out a touch more than 1/2" so your setter can fix it from his side.

Hope this helps.

John Whipple
info@byanydesign.com

I took a few more pictures yesterday of the prep for sanding.

You do not want to load up a new bathroom with drywall dust. You do not want to scratch the tile with the sanding sponge.

A couple of Zip Poles, lightweight poly and some painters tape and your good to go.

The ceiling in this Vancouver bathroom is getting a Level 5 Dry Wall finish and we even used L Bead around the new Panasonic Fan install. You never know who will inspect the finer details.... LOL

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Prep

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tapping off tile with painter's tape

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sanding sponge used with vaccum

John Whipple
North Vancouver, BC
info@byanydesign.com

Thank you! This is so helpful.

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Progress pictures.

The tile in my hand is only there to show that the tile meets the drywall.