Can a Tiler do Anymore???

[TilingLogistics]

I have recently been in contact with Mark from "Bling Tiling" He has fixed 42M2 of Jeurusalem stone brickbond for a client, sealed it and been paid.

The client then noticed in the bright sunlight some shadowing and called Mark back. He went back to the job and thinking it was his fault he bought some various products and tried to sort it. The things he tried failed so he rang me for some advice. I gave him a few other routes he could try all of which cost him in time and money and yet it failed to solve the problem.

Sunday evening he called me and said he would pay me to come and sort it he just wanted it dealt with. I agreed to go to Kent from a job in Bedfordshire yesterday with the intention of finding a resolution to his problems and then staying with him until the job was done.

When I arrived yesterday lunchtime we went to the clients house and I tried everything like stripping the sealer, deep cleaning etc and yet I could not resolve the problem.

I then resorted to honing a test area and lo and behold the problem disappeared. The result of this was the stone was not honed enough in the manufacturing stage there was absolutely nothing wrong with anything Mark had done.

Now to my point!!! Mark correctly laid 42M Jerusalem Stone to a very high standard well within British Standards. He sealed them correctly and got paid. Furthermore he arranged for the supply of the stone at cost to the client direct from the supplier without adding a penny on. He spent around £200 on products trying to correct a fault he thought was his own and in the end wasn't. He then paid my fee to get the problem resolved. Once I had given the customer the price and offered to do the job in 1 1/2 days at very short notice. He then without my knowledge offered to pay half of my charges with the customer. The result was the customer did not want to spend anymore money and continued to blame Mark because he gave them the name of the supplier.

I call that service at its best and a Tiling Company going to the ends of the earth to solve a problem to the customers satisfaction.

I have another sentence to describe the customer but it would only look like this!!"£$%^*&**&&&()****"!$£^&*() So there 's no point putting it on paper is there:lol:

What I will tell you is the customer has a very high position in a fairly big sporting club in London and is probably on a conservative guess salary of at least £2,000,000 plus bonuses. The house has 4 bathrooms and Mark has already done two of them to their complete satisfaction. Hew was supposed to do the other two as well.

If the next tiler they employ is half as good as Mark they will have hit the jackpot.

Kev

 

[Branty]

So what was the shadowing? What do you mean not honed enough?

 

[TilingLogistics]

So what was the shadowing? What do you mean not honed enough?

Because of the make up of natural stone and the different properties when you hone or hone and polish it different parts of the stone accept the honing or honing and polishing at different rates. This then appears to the customer as an uneven finish. In truth it is what it is "Natural Stone" asnd there is actually nothing wrong with it. However, the customers perception is they want to purchase a natural product for its beauty but at the same time they want no blemishes or shade variations

So in essence all I did was to hone it more and the end result is a better looking stone. The shade variations are still there its just not so visible to the naked eye.



Kev

 

[Branty]

This is not a pedantic question. Is honing where you make it a matt finish?
Thats what I always understood it to be.
If the stone was fully honed, then where would the shadowing come from?
A real puzzler.
I once was on a job. The customers had serious dosh. The had purchased some beautiful grey coloured limstone. The lady of the house was not happy with the natural blemishes. The tile supplier ended up going through a lorry load of tiles to get enough stone for her 30sqm kitchen floor.
Fortunately one of the fixers on site had worked in their London house, and the same thing happened, but they had already fixed the floor. On this occasion, she did blame the tile supplier, and they had to pay.

 

[White Room]

I blame mother nature it's her fault:yes:

 

[GazTech]

Well done Mark ( bling tiling) or your customer service, and Kev for sorting the manufacturers problem....

 

[CLAYS TILES]

glad you got it all sorted in the end!:hurray:

 

[LM Ceramics]

some people you just cant please you bend over backwards for them and they still whinge

 

[TilingLogistics]

This is not a pedantic question. Is honing where you make it a matt finish?
Thats what I always understood it to be.
If the stone was fully honed, then where would the shadowing come from?
A real puzzler.
I once was on a job. The customers had serious dosh. The had purchased some beautiful grey coloured limstone. The lady of the house was not happy with the natural blemishes. The tile supplier ended up going through a lorry load of tiles to get enough stone for her 30sqm kitchen floor.
Fortunately one of the fixers on site had worked in their London house, and the same thing happened, but they had already fixed the floor. On this occasion, she did blame the tile supplier, and they had to pay.

Danny,

You are not being pedantic you are looking for an explanation so I will try.

There are stone restorers like me who talk about Grinding and Honing in essence both things are the same.

The honing of something is to sharpen the image.

Lets take a piece of Wood as an analagy, We rub it down with a piece of rough sandpaper and as we all know you can see the sanding(Scratches) in the wood. We then take a finer piece of sandpaper and repeat the process the sanding in the wood on the surface becomes less noticable but is still visible you have just honed the wood. Now repeat the process with finer sandpaper and the scratches become less noticeable until as you move through the grades you eventually see no scratches. But now look at it under a microscope and the scratches are still there. Now if we add water to the process and start using fine wet & Dry paper the surface will improve even more until you eventually start to shine the wood. (Look at the Newell post at the bottom of your stairs! Why is it shiny ? because every person who comes down the stairs swings round it with the palm of their hand and that coupled with the sweat in their hand is honing it.)

Stone is exactly the same except it is not as visible as on wood but the principle is the same.

So all I did in esssence was to hone it slightly more than the factory had.

So in your case of the lady with the grey tiles the same thing could have been done

Kev

 

[TilingLogistics]

I blame mother nature it's her fault:yes:

You forgot the other factor "The Customer"

Kev

 

[Bling Tiling]

Hey Kev,

Thanks for popping down the other day, at least ypur journey has put my mind at rest as to the cause of the problem.
Clients like this seem to actively seek confrontation. It makes me mad!! :mad2:
I will keep you posted until the matter is fully resolved.

 

[TilingLogistics]

My report is in the post to you

Kev

 

[cjones]

big up the blingmeist marcus!!! :hurray:

 

[MTiler]

A very interesting post, something to keep an eye out for.
Though does make you wonder why bods want natural stone but at the same time dont want the natural quirks and blemishes etc. that go with it.:mad2:

missyT

 

[Perry]

A very interesting post, something to keep an eye out for.
Though does make you wonder why bods want natural stone but at the same time dont want the natural quirks and blemishes etc. that go with it.:mad2:

missyT

They like the name of it when they read magazines but it don't always look like the pictures dopey lot sometimes makes you wonder how they get their money 😛ete

 

[kilty55]

spoilt brats comes to mind

 

[Rad2474]

Tell the person involved your going to the sun newspaper about the grief he's giving you about something that's not your fault,he's been told the problem.

 

[TilingLogistics]

Mark

What was the outcome on this?

Kev

 

[craig t]

I think wicks do a travertine effect ceramic tile, if the customer wishes a more uniform finish or maybe padova from our friends at topps!:mad2:

I think as fixers we need to educate clients on natural stone explaining that funnily enough it will look natural rather than manufactured!

Good customer service Bling, I think you did everything you could have to find a solution!

 

[chrisroe]

if they want natural stone i always tell them to think of it like a wool carpet

you need to take care of it cause if you dont it will end up looking like a bag of nails

 

[doug boardley]

A very interesting post, something to keep an eye out for.
Though does make you wonder why bods want natural stone but at the same time dont want the natural quirks and blemishes etc. that go with it.:mad2:

missyT

my thoughts exactly Miss

 

[turnip]

what a nightmare, but it proves that one should always let the customer know exactly the consequences of a natural product are, after they have chosen it. then give them the opportunity to get a hi-quality large format porcelain instead!
stone will always treat you as it's "b*tch", i hope the man told them to be carefull with lemonade spillages too??? cos that'll be his fault too when they etch it up!!