Acceptable lippage in large format floor tiles

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That’s why your other tiler suggested a decoupling mat so these cracks didn't transfer through to the tile surface.
If he gave a 10 year guarantee was this in writing, verbal or on the back of a *** packet?
 
timeless john said:
That’s why your other tiler suggested a decoupling mat so these cracks didn't transfer through to the tile surface.
If he gave a 10 year guarantee was this in writing, verbal or on the back of a *** packet?
Click to expand...
Supposedly in writing, but this hasn’t materialised, funnily enough.

Yes, that’s why they suggested decoupling mats. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford the quotes so when this other guy said it was no problem at all, the tiles would hold it all together and he had prior experience of tiling over these systems we went for it. We were just so keen to get the building work back on track and it was the right price with the right timescales. We should have waited
 
Ok - thanks for being up front with the background reason for tiler choice.
It’s now a difficult situation with regard to the way forward and his so called guarantee. Unfortunately everything needs to be in writing before, during and after, so write to him with your concerns. Keep all notes of your recollections and correspondence and be ready to go down the citizen advice or small claims. You do need to offer him the opportunity to put right his work, so again make that offer.
No tradesman want a bad reputation and at this stage it’s not irreparable.
Hope today’s regrouting helps your situation.
 
timeless john said:
Ok - thanks for being up front with the background reason for tiler choice.
It’s now a difficult situation with regard to the way forward and his so called guarantee. Unfortunately everything needs to be in writing before, during and after, so write to him with your concerns. Keep all notes of your recollections and correspondence and be ready to go down the citizen advice or small claims. You do need to offer him the opportunity to put right his work, so again make that offer.
No tradesman want a bad reputation and at this stage it’s not irreparable.
Hope today’s regrouting helps your situation.
Click to expand...
He isn’t responding to texts, and phone appears to be off. No show from his guy that was supposed to fix the grout and the light is beginning to fade. It’s a Sunday so il wait until tomorrow to pick this up again but will also be working on a timeline plus drafting up a letter of ‘concern’ to get the ball rolling and, like you say @timeless john, give him a chance to give some sort of resolution. Wish I’d given it a go myself, would have saved a considerable amount of cash plus I’d take more care, since I need to live with the finish!
 
Hi,

From the pictures the lippage is hard to judge because the grouting has been done so poorly and also with cheap tiles sometimes you can find that the edges will curl up/down slightly and be bowed, if this was the case then the tiler should have flagged this up and put the onus on you to decide if you wanted to carry on with it. The grouting needs rectifying then you'll be able to assess how bad the lipping is. When 2 tilers out of 3 have advised you to spec. a De-coup membrane, I have to question the wisdom behind ignoring that advise and going with the cheapest quote. That being said, there is still no excuse for anyone to produce shoddy work like the grouting I can see.
 
JMC tiling said:
Hi,

From the pictures the lippage is hard to judge because the grouting has been done so poorly and also with cheap tiles sometimes you can find that the edges will curl up/down slightly and be bowed, if this was the case then the tiler should have flagged this up and put the onus on you to decide if you wanted to carry on with it. The grouting needs rectifying then you'll be able to assess how bad the lipping is. When 2 tilers out of 3 have advised you to spec. a De-coup membrane, I have to question the wisdom behind ignoring that advise and going with the cheapest quote. That being said, there is still no excuse for anyone to produce shoddy work like the grouting I can see.
Click to expand...
I disagree a couple of those pictures there i no way that grouting is going to hide the degree of lippage .
 
Last edited by a moderator:
not saying its going to hide it, I'm saying there is a chance that the tiles are badly made/bowed/curling at edges and that it is difficult to judge on them pictures especially with the grouting being so bad.
 
JMC tiling said:
not saying its going to hide it, I'm saying there is a chance that the tiles are badly made/bowed/curling at edges and that it is difficult to judge on them pictures especially with the grouting being so bad.
Click to expand...
First three lines of what you said .
I disagree
 
There should be no excuse for lippage in this day and age with the use of levelling clips it should be avoided. However if the tiles vary in width by 2mm then they could also be bowed.
The point the OP was making is he asked if a levelling system was being used, was it ok to tile over the cracks, and were the tiles ok to use. All assured replies from his tiler of choice. In the end he chose the ‘tiler’ within his budget but unfortunately it looks as though corners are cut to turn out a below standard job. When getting estimates it’s only fair to try and get like for like and in this case it was outside of budget, so the ‘I’ve done it this way for years’ won the job.
We see it a lot on here and really sometimes you have to ask, why do people pay for this standard of work.
I get a deposit, but balance on completion. The customer only pays when they are happy. Why pay if you don’t like what’s been done!!
 
timeless john said:
There should be no excuse for lippage in this day and age with the use of levelling clips it should be avoided. However if the tiles vary in width by 2mm then they could also be bowed.
The point the OP was making is he asked if a levelling system was being used, was it ok to tile over the cracks, and were the tiles ok to use. All assured replies from his tiler of choice. In the end he chose the ‘tiler’ within his budget but unfortunately it looks as though corners are cut to turn out a below standard job. When getting estimates it’s only fair to try and get like for like and in this case it was outside of budget, so the ‘I’ve done it this way for years’ won the job.
We see it a lot on here and really sometimes you have to ask, why do people pay for this standard of work.
I get a deposit, but balance on completion. The customer only pays when they are happy. Why pay if you don’t like what’s been done!!
Click to expand...
The last sentence is a question?
or an exclamation?
 
No cheap tiles can be rubbish . You said lippage is hard to judge because of poor grouting . That I disagree with you can clearly see from a couple of the pictures the lippage is bad no matter what the cause.
 
They only tiled half the ground floor (thank god) so there are plenty of tiles left to assess for bowing etc. We’ll be doing the other half, will be interesting to see whether or not we do a better job with zero experience and a tile levelling system .

As I said, I don’t know WHY I paid this guy, I never do that, i just wasn’t thinking clearly and was so relieved to be on the Home run to moving out of a single bedroom upstairs and back into our house. It’s cramped with 4!

Another tiler is coming out tomorrow to assess and advise. Will ask him to look at the tiles as you have all suggested all possibilities for such a lax looking job.
 
Whenever I’m going to have a job done or buy something or go somewhere new, i do a bit of homework first to make sure it’s what I want and expect, I wish all customers would do the same, it would save so much of this situation.
 
Localtiler said:
Whenever I’m going to have a job done or buy something or go somewhere new, i do a bit of homework first to make sure it’s what I want and expect, I wish all customers would do the same, it would save so much of this situation.
Click to expand...
@Localtiler I wish I had, really but (and I don’t want to XFactor sob story you with this) we’ve been living, four of us, in one room for months, someone offered a chance to escape it at a reasonable price and timescale and we jumped at it.

ANYWAY, the decision was poor but it’s done and paid for and now I need to try and find out the way forward and put this down to momentary stupidity.
 
have you reported him to trading standards if he says he guarantees his work trading standards are cracking down on rogue traders as its practically theft.
 
Shinyshiny054 said:
They only tiled half the ground floor (thank god) so there are plenty of tiles left to assess for bowing etc. We’ll be doing the other half, will be interesting to see whether or not we do a better job with zero experience and a tile levelling system .

As I said, I don’t know WHY I paid this guy, I never do that, i just wasn’t thinking clearly and was so relieved to be on the Home run to moving out of a single bedroom upstairs and back into our house. It’s cramped with 4!

Another tiler is coming out tomorrow to assess and advise. Will ask him to look at the tiles as you have all suggested all possibilities for such a lax looking job.
Click to expand...
Could you post a picture of two tiles face to face to show if there is any bowing of the tiles. Just to help clarify the issues of the tile?
 
Adey1980 said:
Could you post a picture of two tiles face to face to show if there is any bowing of the tiles. Just to help clarify the issues of the tile?
Click to expand...
Im not saying the tile is to blame, just to show in pictures the quality of the tiles
 
@RayTheTiler no, I’ve contacted him, he promised a repair today, it hasn’t happened so next step is to send an email then take it from there. Hoping the tiler coming tomorrow can advise in person on the quality of the job. Will take it to trading standards if he refuses to cooperate, based on the second opinion

@Adey1980 will look some out tomorrow and get some photos of them in the daylight. Will pop a spirit level on too, bit dark and snowy now!
 
Does the grout vary in colour at all?
Images 4,5,&6 appears to show grout being far too wet, image 5 in particular.
Those raised areas of grout are caused when grout is pushed in and the high water content pushes back out, causing bubble effect.
 
3_fall said:
Does the grout vary in colour at all?
Images 4,5,&6 appears to show grout being far too wet, image 5 in particular.
Those raised areas of grout are caused when grout is pushed in and the high water content pushes back out, causing bubble effect.
Click to expand...
@3_fall doesn’t seem to vary in colour from what I can see. There only seems to be one instance of that bubbly looking bit, it’s mainly lack of grout that is the issue (and lippage).

I will mark all the areas later with a felt tip so I know how many are needing attention, it’s a large area so hard to guage exactly. Looks at its worst in the daylight - the tiler tonight will be coming when it’s dark. If I can get a decent photo il post it here too
 
@Adey1980 photo of two tiles picked at random

0269060C-C207-482E-84D6-D52462695037.jpeg EB1AA78F-1DCC-459F-AA6D-E3FDB76ADE4A.jpeg
 

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