help! our wood look tile was not laid in a random pattern!

10 years ago

I am out of town with our 3 young kids while our kitchen and back room are being remodeled (I know, I know never leave during a reno) and my husband sent me pics of our new wood look tile floor. I am horribly disappointed! The tile installer laid the tiles in a pattern that I feel makes the floor look choppy and much more like tile than wood. I had assumed (I know, mistake #2) that the tiles would be laid randomly to look like a true hardwood floor as this is what seems to be the standard way of doing things based on all that I have read. I called our contractor (who I really like) to tell him about it and he said that he would go over and take a look. Before I talk to him I would like more opinions on how this should be handeled. For those of you out there who have installed wood look tiles, have or would you ever consider laying them in a pattern like this?
I know I am being picky but we spent a lot of money on the reno and I know that the opportunity to improve this part of our house won't come again for a very long time (my husband hates this kind of stuff).

Thank you in advance for any input you can offer!

Featured Answer

rach4136
Original Author

10 years ago

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback! Our GC saw the job and agreed that it was not the standard way that they do it. He said that it was due to a miscommunication between the tile layer and another guy on the job so he has agreed to rip the floor out and redo it. I can't tell you how relieved I am that this is going to be resolved. Thank you again for all of your helpful opinions and tips that I will use the next time around!!

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Comments (11)

User
10 years ago
The manufacturer recommended pattern for such a long tile is a 1/3 lap to keep lippage at a minimum as long tile like that can have a "droop" with a height difference between the ends and middle. I'm kinda lost as to what he thought he was doing here. That's maybe a 1/10 lap? That's not recommended by anyone.

That's a tear out for sure.
glennsfc
10 years ago
Looks like a 1/5 th lap to me. Doesn't look bad actually.
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weedyacres
10 years ago
With hardwood, boards are all different lengths, so it's easy to get a random pattern. With tile, every tile is exactly the same length, so you're never going to achieve anything near the randomness of wood. You can start each row off with a randomly different length tile, but whatever the pattern is of seams nearest the wall where you start will be exactly replicated every 3 feet, or however long your tiles are.

I wouldn't have picked that pattern. I thought brick pattern was the standard way to do it. But I just did a quick houzz search on "wood look tile" and there are lots of ways to do it.

In retrospect, the tiler should have consulted with you on what pattern you wanted. And you should have specified your expectation. But you know that now. :-/
StoneTech
10 years ago
A 1/3 tile offset would have looked WORLDS better and still taken care of the lippage problem. Even a random set would have been better, and they could have done it easily by simply cutting the ends at different lengths.

I wouldn't accept (or do) it.
User
10 years ago
I think your tile is beautiful...but I agree, I don't like the looks of the pattern at all!

Good luck getting it resolved.
User
10 years ago
It's not to my liking but if you didn't specify what pattern to lay the tiles in, I'd say you're stuck with it.
debbie1000
10 years ago
They should be laid in thirds, or randomly, not like bricks or so "perfect."

We are having the same thing done in two weeks finally!

Also, we are having our flooring guy do the skinniest grout like they can and match it to the tiles so that it does not look like grout.
MelissaRDH
10 years ago
Id LOVE to see your redo! Very nice tile, should look great in random pattern :)
PRO
Karens Design Concepts
8 years ago
Happy to hear your contractor stands behind his work, that's a forever and everytime you looked at it you would of been disappointed..tile setter hopefully wont try to reinvent the wheel again.
Liz Madigan
8 years ago
I agree your contractor should fix this. I have never seen this pattern before having been walking on earth a long time.