Discuss Botched job? Advice needed in the General Off-topic Chat (nothing tile) area at TilersForums. The USA and UK Tiling Forum (Also now Aus, Canada, ROI, and more)

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Afternoon all,

So we’ve just had our feature wall tiled and there’s a few areas we’re unhappy with. Me and my partner are looking for final confirmation before we seek legal advice because so far the tile manufacturer and relatives/ work colleagues have all advised us the job has been rushed with no pride in the job and not properly carried out.

Here are some of the photos;
Tile Job - https://www.flickr.com/photos/146605287@N04/albums/72157689154022163

I should point out the two photos showing the wall half finished we’re from the first day. My partner sent photos to me at my work because we were concerned about the vertical gaps. The tiler blamed it on the type of tiles so being non the wiser we contacted the manufacturer and another tiler; both of which said they’ve been set out wrongly and should have been staggered and laid out on the floor beforehand. At this point most of our £480 tiles were stuck to the wall and we were left with two options, tiler threatened to walk off as if he had done nothing wrong or we continued on the basis of there being only a few noticeable gaps. The tiler again blamed it on the tiles and said it’s how they end up.

On to day two and about half a days work finished the job. My partner sent me more photos and I don’t know if it’s up to contractors to fully clean up afterwards but our front door, windows, frames and mono blocks were caked in tile dust and adhesive. When I got home I found more issues. More gaps, bigger gaps, squint horizontal lines, chipped tile corners, adhesive left to dry over the tile face, adhesive over our window and stair. None of which were seen in the photos I was sent from day one. We have five left over unopened boxes of tiles that could have at least been used to replace the chipped panels. The only advice given to us from him was to grout between the gaps.

We’ve paid 2/3 of the quote. The tiler has been chasing for the rest and his argument being we told him to continue after half of the work was done (without us knowing about any of the other issues), he said the job was underpriced by about 150£ and he needed to provide equipment to get to the high point of the wall above our staircase. I said if it were up to his clients to provide safe access then that’s up to him to say to us when he seen the wall and quoted us, and if he felt the job was underpriced then again that’s on him to tell us. We also reminded him about the height issue well beforehand and was told it would be fine, and we sent him details of the type of tile we chose. Secondly, the underpriced comment suggests the job was rushed to avoid spending too much time on it, from a £/per hour perspective. The tiler had threatened to claim the rest of the money through a small claims court.

It’s my partner and I’s first bought house and it’s the first time we’ve had to deal with a contractor as part of home improvements. We’ve been in the house less than two months so I’m heavily considering ripping it off and starting again because I will never be able to fully accept and forget the issues I’ve found. Cut my loses and never trust Facebook reviews or angled photos of previous work ever again.

Could we please have your honest opinions and if you think it’s worth starting again?

If we are to take this further, do we go via citizens advice, trading standards or is there a better route?

Thank you in advance.
 
T

Time's Ran Out

Yes you have a few issues to resolve!
Apart from your obvious concerns did he prepare the walls before tiling or did he fix straight onto the emulsion/paint walls with tile adhesive?
 
J

J Sid

split faced, as manufacturer said, set out wrong.... As for tiling onto an emulsion wall :eek:
 
T

Time's Ran Out

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I took copies of them and uploaded.
 

Andy Allen

TF
Esteemed
Arms
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Colour matched grout could disguise some of the gaps...
As for the dust.....just needs a hose down, no biggy..
 
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Colour matched grout could disguise some of the gaps...
As for the dust.....just needs a hose down, no biggy..

So would you say it was a professionally done job regardless of the gaps, squint lines (no spirit level used), splodges of dry adhesive stuck to the exposed surface and unstaggered tiles?
 
D

Dumbo

As said above don't get concerned about dust and dirty threshold , just needs cleaning and will dilute what your problems are . I can't help but think there may be some issues with tile choice but at best some of the work can be described as lazy certainly next to the string of the stairs .
 
J

J Sid

Do you think the tiles will start to fall off or because they’re all held together would the tiles come off the wall in much larger panels?

Good job or not..... They need to all come of before they fall of due to being tiled onto a painted wall. (Christ, I even made my other half remove the paint on her kitchen splash back before I would tile it :eek:)

If the person fitting your tiles, wouldn't call them a tiler, says it OK to tile onto the painted wall find out what tile adhesive he has used and drop that company's tech department an email saying what your tiles are and what the wall is (plaster board / plaster/render) and that's its painted and ask what there fixing recommendations are.
Send him a copy and then asked him to do it correctly.
 
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nybor62

TF
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the set out could have been a lot better , I would have staggered the joints , tiling onto painted walls not good ,hope you can resolve this
 

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