My contractor, who has been extremely awesome, had the tile guy come back and fix the tiles which had major lippage.

I'm not sure if I'm being too picky but I keep going down looking at the tile. I think that no one notices but me.

Reason number one is that the substrate isn't flat enough. This is by far the most common reason and the least addressed by either the contractor or homeowner. You can run into this a lot of backsplashes because the drywall wasn't done with tile in mind, and you get some "waves" where the seams butt. And it's the rare slab of concrete that is truly flat. The cure for that is better prep before install. A 4' level should be used to assess the flatness of the substrate, and then if there are any issues, that can be addressed before the tile goes up. That may mean grinding down a high spot in a slab, or it might mean addressing a deficiency in the joists that causes a hump, etc. (The wider the grout line, the more forgiving any installation is of an unlevel substrate. This can be especially important when people want natural stone, or very small grout lines. And that's just one of the reasons that such an install is much higher priced. Or should be if an actual tile pro is doing the work instead of just a "tile guy".)

Number two is the tile itself isn't quite flat. This happens most often with handmade tile, but it also happens with very large format tile. It just tends to bow from gravity affecting it during construction. Yes, even rectified porcelain can have this problem when you start getting 36" long tiles. That's why TCNA recommends a 1/3 running bond pattern rather than a 1/2 one, or else a stacked installation.

Number three is a sloppy installation by someone who just doesn't have the capability to do the job correctly. That's the #1 suspect in most homeowner's mind, but it's usually the least common cause if you've hired a true tile professional. Unfortunately, whether you're hiring a hack or a pro can be difficult to know up front. There really isn't a lot of oversight on tile contractors out there. Your best bet to get a good installer is to read up on what needs to be done yourself so that you can ask the right questions that will let you assess the knowledge base of the contractor. (Read up on tileusa.com or the John Bridge Tile Forum) A true tile professional will charge what he's worth though, even though you may think that high. In the case of Beagles, they made all the right noises and charged more than enough, but were still hacks, so also write a mutual dissolution clause into the contract so you can fire them if you aren't happy with the work they've done. (You can't just fire a contractor that you have a contract with, there are certain procedures to follow or you can have a lien put on your house.)

I DO HAVE the BEST contractor. He called the tile guy back out and had him make repairs. There are two tiles that bother me... but... I went to take pictures to post here and it looks like those areas have been fixed!!!

My floor had ups and downs everywhere I looked before the install. It was a hard job and I know it. I'm 98% happy with the floor.