Poor laying of Victorian tiles?

[Dave79]

Hi,
I’m having somevictorian tiles laid down our front path and up the front door and have seen that the tiles don’t go flush with the wall. I would say there between a 10 to 20mm gap between wall and tiles. The builder says that the wall isn’t straight which it probably isn’t but I’ve raised the point that even if it isn’t straight, why is there such a gap (>10mm) between the wall and tiles when against the opposite wall, the tiles are fully butted up. Am I complaining about nothing? The spacer is probably 20mm in length for scale. They haven’t started grouting but he’s said it will look better when grouted and that it can’t be perfect as it’s an old house.

Thanks!

 

[Time's Ran Out]

What’s happening under the mat?

 

[Dave79]

Nothing it was there to clean my feet

 

[Balloo]

From what i can see the tiler has to make a silk purse of a sowrs ear.
What is the problem you can see

 

[Dave79]

ah I see your question... it’s a step and there was a tile under it. Here you go. Mat removed.

 

[Dave79]

The problem is the gap between the white wall and the tiles. It’s 10mm minimum. I would have liked 5mm at least. He butted up on the other side no problem so assumed he could cut tiles to fit better?

 

[Bill]

A couple of things .... victorian path tiling is not an inexpensive job.

That said - the tiler could have set it out differently and cut the field tiles larger.

Out of square walls do not look good with the design that has been chosen/fitted - which you have got.

 

[One Day]

Usually with this type of tiling, the tiles and border dictate everything.
To scribe a larger field tile into the rather uneven brickwork would take as long, maybe longer than the actual main tiling.

Lack of communication and your expectations possibly not being fully explained or understood.
Victorian geometric tiling is not usually carried out by a builder. It's a specialism and usually the specialist tiler will as a matter of course, check everything - including your expectations.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

But he’s lost the pattern and the line!!

 

[Dave79]

Hi,
I don’t expect it to be perfect against a slightly bent wall, however the 10mm gaps seems larger than I would expect? Is my expectation too big. If tiles were cut 5mm larger the gap would be reduced and there would no issue. Is my expectation unreasonable? If so then that’s fine, but when I raised it with the tiler, the response was that the walls aren’t straight. That being said they are fine on the other side, presumably where the tile laying started.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

@Dave79 - you seem he’ll bent on this gap on one side, yet you’ve not shown a distance view of the whole path!
He has been lazy in not cutting to the shape of the wall but if the cut on the other side is the same size I can understand why he has left it short.
My points are - a distance picture from the gate up the path will show just how bad this job is.

 

[Dave79]

The other side is set against a new concrete border alongside the path and the other side of the porch wall. That gap is consistently 2mm as defined by the tile spacers.

 

[Bill]

Your border tile is not helping matters in the set out. Because of the out of square walls, you should have used a wider fill-in piece set next to the perimeter walls.


A bit like this......

 

[Bill]

View attachment 106158
But he’s lost the pattern and the line!!

Is that an optical illusion because of the step?

 

[Andy Rhodes]

in your last picture Dave is that of the overall panoramic of your pathway,because if it is so wheres the border tile on the right hand side or is it just the picture

 

[Dave79]

Hi, there is no border til in the right, it goes up to the boundary wall. The issue is more the 10mm to 20mm gap between the porch wall and the tiles here. If this is fitted as it it should be, that’s great but if you think it could be fitted tighter, I can speak to the tiler

 

[Bill]

Take a photo from the gate to your front door so that there is a full view of the path.

 

[Andy Rhodes]

Sorry Dave but the person who's done that job for you must be auditioning for a the role of the joker in the next Batman movie because it's a disgrace what they have done. I've got a 6 yr old nephew who could have set it out better just a very poor attempt at tiling

 

[Dave79]

What is the best way to fix it? Recut the last square tile?

 

[Andy Rhodes]

Personal I have them take it up & start again ,ensure the set it out correctly not some arse hearted attempt & ask them not to let Stevie Wonder near it either

 

[Bill]

No need to take them all up -

If the layout has been centred then you only need to take up the outer tiles including the last cut white tile. Then replace the last cut white tile with a half white tile then fill in to the wall with a cut from a 6inch black tile as in my example I posted earlier. (ignore the small border detail in my path)

You may have to purchase some 6 inch tiles to match from the same supplier.

 

[Andy Rhodes]

Tom saw the picture you posted earlier looks the dogs dangles m8 , Yes I agree with what you are saying,but I'd personal rip it all up and start from scratch because from what I seen in the picture provided they've used the edging on the left hand side of the picture as there starting point

 

[Bill]

Where the dark grey overlay is, this is where you should cut the 6 inch black tiles in. You can also put the 1 inch border in first to break the lines too.

 

[Dave79]

Wouldn’t it better to cut the triangular white tiles larger and continue with the smaller black border to fill in the extra 10mm. That way there’s a consistent 150mm border of black tiles. I guess my first question is is the way it’s been done acceptable? I don’t think so so I’ll get him back to refit. He’s very keen to do the grouting as he says it will look better and the grout is also black. I suspect he can’t be bothered to take the tiles up and relay hence his pushing to start grouting.

 

[Bill]

Wouldn’t it better to cut the triangular white tiles larger and continue with the smaller black border to fill in the extra 10mm. That way there’s a consistent 150mm border of black tiles. I guess my first question is is the way it’s been done acceptable? I don’t think so so I’ll get him back to refit. He’s very keen to do the grouting as he says it will look better and the grout is also black. I suspect he can’t be bothered to take the tiles up and relay hence his pushing to start grouting.

The answer to the 1st q is no ...in my opinion, the 2nd question it is not acceptable and for using black grout - well good luck.

I have given you the best advice on here how to remedy it quickly and neatly.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Would still like a picture from the gate to front door before I could give you my even better advice!

 

[Bill]

Would still like a picture from the gate to front door before I could give you my even better advice!

p.s. so far.............

 

[Dave79]

Here you go! Grouting hasn’t been started yet though (obviously )

 

[WetSaw]

There's people here who will give you the answer but to my untrained eye the border should have been much wider and cut to suit the shape of the wall.

 

[Bill]

So if you follow my advice about taking up the last white tiles around the edge and replace the half white.... it will look 10 times better. Also.... make the riser to the step all black.