Public Thread!: Poor Tiling Workmanship by DIY and Rogue Traders

[Dan]

Public Thread!: Poor Tiling Workmanship by DIY and Rogue Traders

This is a public thread. So please do NOT include personal information of who's done the job, where it's been done, etc. Only include information related to the workmanship. What's been done wrong, what should have been done, how the repair has gone on, etc.
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Upload pictures of poor workmanship by DIYers and rogue "tradesmen" to this thread. We have another thread in the arms which we will move posts to here by request. If you have pictures uploaded to the thread in the arms and would like the pictures added to here, please let one of the staff know.

 

[Old Mod]

Excellent well done.
Thanks for your patience.

 

[snackeroo]

Did you reply to original email when confirming acc?
Your profile says we’re still awaiting email confirmation.

Unfortunately, I have not recieved a confirmation of account email. I checked 'spam' and that was empty, so did a resend confirmation email, and nothing arrived. Tricky one this .

 

[Boggs]

Been having bathroom installed. Have posted some photos of the standard of tiling, where I have notice some problems. Wavy tiles, spacing seems to be different from one tile to another, trim doesn't seem flush and the walls are not flat with tiles bulging.

It is quite poor to be honest, mainly due to the wrong sized trim being used for the tiles and poor prep work, ie getting the walls flat and level before tiling.
The cutting of tiles into the trim could be neater.
It’s not a total disaster, and could be fairly easily rectified.
Have a chat with your installer, highlight your issues and see what they are willing to do to rectify.

 

[Old Mod]

Unfortunately, I have not recieved a confirmation of account email. I checked 'spam' and that was empty, so did a resend confirmation email, and nothing arrived. Tricky one this .

I’ve changed it to valid manually, see if there are any differences. Maybe you signed up right in middle of change over. We were offline for several hours.

 

[snackeroo]

I’ve changed it to valid manually, see if there are any differences. Maybe you signed up right in middle of change over. We were offline for several hours.

Attach files has appeared. Thanks
I bet it is because I signed up during the change over.

 

[snackeroo]

It is quite poor to be honest, mainly due to the wrong sized trim being used for the tiles and poor prep work, ie getting the walls flat and level before tiling.
The cutting of tiles into the trim could be neater.
It’s not a total disaster, and could be fairly easily rectified.
Have a chat with your installer, highlight your issues and see what they are willing to do to rectify.

Thanks @Boggs - Response from fitter is 'plastering wouldn't of achieved anything in the room apart from extend the job'.
It was in the contract and I had said beforehand that the room was to be plastered. Lo and behold, many tiles are all over the place.

 

[Boggs]

To be honest replastering a room would not get bad walls flat enough for successful tiling.
90% of jobs I complete solid walls are overboarded with plasterboard or tilebacker, the extra time taken to achieve flat and level walls is easily caught up at the tiling stage.

 

[Andy Rhodes]

Thanks @Boggs - Response from fitter is 'plastering wouldn't of achieved anything in the room apart from extend the job'.
It was in the contract and I had said beforehand that the room was to be plastered. Lo and behold, many tiles are all over the place.

sorry but did you say to the fitter that it needed plastering before hand or did the fitter say this to you

 

[snackeroo]

sorry but did you say to the fitter that it needed plastering before hand or did the fitter say this to you

It was written in the contract that walls had to be plastered. Did the ceiling but not the walls. I said it was written in the job spec and forms part of the contract, but he said they did not need doing. He tiled over part blown skim, skim which was not blown and old adhesive. Sprayed with bonding first.

 

[Dumbo]

Don't know if it's been said but you can't tile on bonding

 

[snackeroo]

Don't know if it's been said but you can't tile on bonding

He actually told me that the tiles would not bond as good on new plaster, so better without. Strange one, that. Yet he goes ahead and tiles on plaster. (new or old, plaster is the same to me )

 

[snackeroo]

These are photo's of the tiling done onto aquaboard.

 

[Andy Rhodes]

Unfortunately your a victim of the 5 P's poor preparation pi** poor performance.
Have you told him your concerns regarding the workmanship & requested that he rectify them

 

[Tile Shop]

I thought it was the 6 P's?
Proper
Preperation
Prevents
Pi...
Poor
Performance

Could be wrong though. Usually am

 

[Tony_C]

This should be an easy rip out

 

[Tony_C]

Less than half an hour later...

 

[snackeroo]

Unfortunately your a victim of the 5 P's poor preparation pi** poor performance.
Have you told him your concerns regarding the workmanship & requested that he rectify them

He knows Andy. I gave him a test area to redo to see how his work panned out and it was still poor. I could not honestly expect to believe he is capable of fixing the whole room if he cannot fix a small area which needed doing. It was all I could do to see how he handles a small area before I would consider letting him loose on the rest of it. So he is pretty much kicked off. Inspectors will be visiting to see his work and I am sure things will be rectified in the right way.

 

[acaciaguy]

Inspectors? Does the tiler work for a firm?

 

[snackeroo]

Inspectors? Does the tiler work for a firm?

Yes. He is a subbie.

 

[Dumbo]

Yes. He is a subbie.

When the guys come around from the tiling company keep it on point . Dont start saying he was ten minutes late one day or he didnt shave before he cane to work ir he is a messy worker it just dilutes the fact you are not happy with the work . Keep it on the tiling everything else doesn't matter .

 

[snackeroo]

When the guys come around from the tiling company keep it on point . Dont start saying he was ten minutes late one day or he didnt shave before he cane to work ir he is a messy worker it just dilutes the fact you are not happy with the work . Keep it on the tiling everything else doesn't matter .

Oh, I agree. I could not care one iota if it was done by Carol Vorderman dressed in leather brandishing a whip and handcuffs (she would never have completed the work after a year ) or atilla the hun in drag. As long as the job is done correctly, that is all that matters. Only the standard of work done matters, nothing else.

 

[acaciaguy]

When the guys come around from the tiling company keep it on point . Dont start saying he was ten minutes late one day or he didnt shave before he cane to work ir he is a messy worker it just dilutes the fact you are not happy with the work . Keep it on the tiling everything else doesn't matter .

Also if you have a schedule of works or contract the raise what wasn’t done they should have been done etc

 

[Andy Rhodes]

Jesus,Mary & Joseph If he's a tiler I'm prince charming not shriek , if those pictures are anything to go by shocking is being kind. also like JCR point out above stick to the facts nothing else ,but I might ask the question of why they have somebody employed has produced that standard of work.As for Carol Vonderman in leather would prefer Charlize Theron personally, As for Attila the Hun he'd have probably made a beter job & he was cross eyed according to Charlize in Hancock
Paul it could be 6 ,I was always told it was 5 P's, but what's 1 digit amongst amigos.

 

[Boggs]

I’m with Paul, 6 P’s.

 

[Tile Shop]

Customer, 60x60 porcelain, complained that the grout joints were cracking and when the tiler went back to do repairs, reckoned he could lift the tiles off the floor with his fingers. He said the tiles were loose as they were too dusty and that there was no written instruction telling him to clean the backs of the tiles before fixing (yeah, I laughed too). Yet when I was there, even though they were fairly easy to lift, still took a hammer and chisel to get them up. Although there was no back-spread, he had used a unique method of fixing...

So who has heard of the "union-jack" fixing method? Tiler of 42 years experience said it as if it was a well known and commonly used method!!! Todd from Ultra went to take a look. First glance after the tiles were lifted "What the..... what on earth is that?"

Other than the fixing method, the problem was that the floor was chipboard, no overlay other than Durabase, then this lot of adhesive. Couldn't see where it had been screwed down, but there was so much deflection in the floor, the adhesive was cracking, you could see it see-sawing as you walked on it and there was no chance it was ever going to survive. I recommended lifting the chipboard, adding noggins, laying a new subfloor such as 22mm NMP, or if 22m timber overboard it with Hardie.... but as I was leaving, the tiler said all he was going to do was self-level over the old adhesive and refit the tiles... He's going to try persuading the customer to take us to court for supplying faulty tiles. I wished him the best of luck.

 

[Spare Tool]

Union jack method...that's a new one, must be a new Great British Standard we haven't heard of sounds like it could be floating chipboard

 

[Italy]

Customer, 60x60 porcelain, complained that the grout joints were cracking and when the tiler went back to do repairs, reckoned he could lift the tiles off the floor with his fingers. He said the tiles were loose as they were too dusty and that there was no written instruction telling him to clean the backs of the tiles before fixing (yeah, I laughed too). Yet when I was there, even though they were fairly easy to lift, still took a hammer and chisel to get them up. Although there was no back-spread, he had used a unique method of fixing...

So who has heard of the "union-jack" fixing method? Tiler of 42 years experience said it as if it was a well known and commonly used method!!! Todd from Ultra went to take a look. First glance after the tiles were lifted "What the..... what on earth is that?"

Other than the fixing method, the problem was that the floor was chipboard, no overlay other than Durabase, then this lot of adhesive. Couldn't see where it had been screwed down, but there was so much deflection in the floor, the adhesive was cracking, you could see it see-sawing as you walked on it and there was no chance it was ever going to survive. I recommended lifting the chipboard, adding noggins, laying a new subfloor such as 22mm NMP, or if 22m timber overboard it with Hardie.... but as I was leaving, the tiler said all he was going to do was self-level over the old adhesive and refit the tiles... He's going to try persuading the customer to take us to court for supplying faulty tiles. I wished him the best of luck.
View attachment 108043 View attachment 108044 View attachment 108045 View attachment 108046

what laying pattern is it?

 

[Tile Shop]

what laying pattern is it?

Tiles laid square. Adhesive he made up the layout as he went along!

 

[WetSaw]

what laying pattern is it?

 

[On one]

By the looks of it, it has been tiled before(under the units)
Did they fail as well?