Here's another pic.

Ummmm, I think they did not have enough material and pulled it off the mesh backing and spread it out. The sample you show has the stones nearly touching. The floor job you show appears to have greater than one inch gaps. Or else the put too heavy a coat of grout. Yours looks more like concrete with some stones. Not a stone floor. I am sorry about that. It does look nice though and certainly unique, just not what you wanted. i would have some of the sample pieces and ask the contractor about it. Regardless, it should be fixable if you are not happy.
lafdr

Wow. Well at least it looks like a small area to rip out.

So ... they built you a shower pan too? I would be more scared what's going on there based on what you can see of their work on the surface. Did you witness any of the underlying construction?

Thanks, guys. They definitely had enough material...they just chose to completely bury some of the stones which I don't understand at all.

They did build the shower pan and I saw it before the tile went on. It looked ok, but they've also done some structural work to the outside of the house so perhaps I'm just trying to convince myself that they know what they're doing!

Using a grout sealer could make it look darker, by the way.

There are only three possibilities here:

1) very likely: they didn't have enough stone, so they spread them out and filled the gaps

2) the stones were not appropriate for a shower base (i.e. the heights were not uniform). Therefore in order to keep the floor of the shower at a uniform level, the shorter stones are in there, but covered up.

3) They had enough stone, but didn't feel like taking the time to arrange them properly, so just dumped some in and filled the rest.

I'm betting on 1

Rip it out and do it again. It's not what you want and you will be reminded of this over and over again every time you take a shower. Figure out which of the issues above is in play, but personally that looks like a contractor screw up and should be redone on their dime unless the stones are not proper in which case it may be your fault.

OP says they had enough material, I bet they were just trying to make the floor flat enough to stand on without hurting one's feet, not understanding that lumpy floors in showers now seem to be fashionable. You're probably going to have to pull it out and try again.

No, look at the pictures of the stones and of the final project. There are clearly areas where 2 or 3 stones could fit and there are none seen. That either means the stones have tremendous variation in height or there are no stones in that space.

Either way, it's not right.

I would search google images and find the example that most pleases you, print out a few copies to hand them before going any further with them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pebble tile shower floor image search

That is a poor choice to begain with but contractor should have talked to you about it before installing.

Thank you for all of your comments. They are upstairs ripping it out right now.

I'm genuinely curious as to why some of you think this tile is a poor choice...we special ordered these as they are specifically recommended for shower bases and their consistent height is noted in the description. I'm happy to go with a more suitable option in the redo, but my husband had his heart set on this look (this is his shower-baby as I would have been happy with a tub/shower combo). We specifically raised the dormer and enlarged the bathroom by enough width to fit a shower for him so I want it to be worth the $$$.

...and their consistent height is noted in the description.

So did you determine that the installer actually removed the stones from the mesh and spaced it out purposely?

Because the only other option I can see is that there isn't a consistent height and the grout is covering the lower stones.

It's weird...I know for a fact that the stones WERE still on the mesh save for a few in between that we asked them to place individually because the grid was still clearly noticeable when I had a pre-grout look.

I can't say that the stones were 100% consistent in height, but they should have been consistent enough. Most of the river rock tiles I've looked at have 'some' height disparity which adds to the textured allure of this sort of base.

Here's a picture of the exact tile we bought...someone was able to pull it off. I think the issue is more that these contractors we're working with aren't familiar with this style, although they approved the tile when it arrived. They also didn't do a great job on the hex tile in the kitchen reno, but I let it go because it's only noticeable if you are really looking for it.

I'm not sure how this will play out. They are clearly unhappy about redoing it, and I can hear them upstairs complaining even though the head guy admitted that he wasn't happy with how they'd turned out (I guess he was waiting to see if we'd notice). This job is going on it's 6th month (two longer than they'd estimated), and I know they're itching to get out of here and onto another project. We're into the high 5 digits on this renovation, and I just want to see it turn out right. It doesn't help that I'm 6 months pregnant and would like a week or two to actually furnish the dang place before family comes /tmi.

{{gwi:2136690}}

Show them that picture and tell them that is how you expect it to look when it is all done.

Worry more about how they build the shower. This example of their work and intelligence level is pretty scarey.

Why would they expect you to accept such a poor job?
Nothing wrong with the pebble tile.
Suppose to give your feet gentle massage. I would insist on them to redo or if they are not capable, get someone who is. And they should replace what they ruined. Really, first-timer could do better job than that.
There is a reason they come on the mesh - to make installation easier. NOT one pebble at the time...covered with glue/grout - whatever).

Look at this thread: it is from deedles on kitchen forum. She used leftover pebble tile in her kit, on small bar counter. Here is the link, pls. look at the close-up of the bar in the kitchen. The bathroom floor photo is posted Jan 17, 15 at 16:47 (there are many photos, you have to scroll thru them)
great kitchen and pebble floor in bath from deedles

Yes, it could be done & it should be done right. That's what you are paying for. They approved the tile - so no complaining! If they aren't capable, they need to admit it & step away.
(Sorry for my tone, the ignorance just burns me. I know you don't need more stress!!!)

Hope your husband can put his foot down.
Rina

{{gwi:2136691}}

Most likely they just didn't wash enough of the grout back off when they grouted it. I've done many of these floors, and that's EXACTLY what it looks like if you just wipe it quick, and don't make an effort to show the stones. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it other than either live with it as is, or tear it out and redo it.

Not gonna lie, but a laborer that hasn't worked with that stone before could mess up the grout easily if they just spread it with a float. I think that is what happened. That is how you usually spread grout into a joint but with this stone you cant do that because it is not flat. It looks like they need to be artistic and push the grout in-between each little stone but not cover it too much. Real time consuming to get a nice finish, probably something a pro tile layer should be doing.

so post a photo of their "after" job

Doesn't matter whether it's spread with a float or not. What matters is how much they work to show the stone after. In this pic, this was a project I took over from another installer. They'd already done the stone outside of the shower. Not quite as bad as what I'm seeing at the top of this thread, but bad enough. Inside the shower, is the same stone, but washed properly, after being grouted with a float.

Personally I think the contrast between the two just highlights the poorer installation of the one in the foreground...

if I were the person paying I would want that redone at expense of the person who made the mistake

She could barely pay me to finish the shower and make it useable. I offered to take up the area outside the shower and replace it if she could buy the extra river rock, and she told me that it cost her almost 30.00 a foot, and couldn't afford to replace it at that time. So it stayed. As for the person who installed it in the first place, literally a fly by night. After he left hers and a couple of other customer's jobs half done, he took off, as in not in the area any more.