R
Reggiethethird
Totally agree, I wish this was the colour we had for the rest of the floor, it's much whiter than we were expecting.
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What is the colour stated on the grout bag?
The problem with the whiter grout line is that your eye is drawn to it and away from the tile, whereas the darker grout blends in to the tile colour and then you see the beauty of the tile
The problem with the whiter grout line is that your eye is drawn to it and away from the tile, whereas the darker grout blends in to the tile colour and then you see the beauty of the tile
R
Reggiethethird
It's Grey and was the recommended by porcelnosa for the colour of tile we purchased.
It will state a colour on the label near the barcode
R
Reggiethethird
For anyone interested, here is the email I sent to our contractor yesterday. I'd say I've been fairly diplomatic.
Xxxxx tried his best to rectify the situation with the tiles over the last two days but I'm afraid we are now left with some big gaps to fill in the architraves. I did manage to stop him before he cut anymore this short and as you can see from the pics we managed to get it right on a couple of them after some guidence regarding how the tiles should be fitted and insisting the wood was cut to the correct length.
1. On the architraves that have been cut too short, we will need joiner to replace these please. I did have a chat to the joiner and even he agreed cutting the architrave to lay the tile was fairly standard practice to create a clean finish nowadays.
2. Where tiles have been removed the adjoining tiles edge has been damaged and quite a few tiles are sitting proud and are trip hazards.
3. Many of the grout lines are different widths and many tiles do not line up correctly as mentioned previously. I have attached one example but there are numerous.
4. The new tile that has been laid by the island has a completely different grout colour, in fact it's the colour grey we were originally expecting based on the colour suggested by porcelnosa for these a tiles (not white), which means the grout has not been mixed following the directions 1 part per 1 litre of water or mixed in a dirty bucket. I'd be interested to know how this was measured? Again not sure what we can do about this other than raking out and regrouting which means damaging the tiles either side even more than they are already. We will have to look at this everyday unfortunately.
I really don't think there is much we can do at this stage short of ripping up and starting again, so we will have to live with this now but as far as we are concerned this is far from perfect and will always be a disappointment in what was meant to be our dream kitchen and living room.
We need to have chat about the £36m2 cost of this job. This is what I was originally quoted by a professional tiler (they certainly do exist, and I think they would be offended if we suggested they were all generalists) not a general tradesman and I'm really sorry to say this but this is not an A1 professional tiling job in our honest opinion. I actually took yesterday off work so I could be close to what was being done, this isn't what I was expecting based on the standard of work from the rest of your team, which has been good.
Please keep this email between us, as I mean no disrespect to xxxx, he's obviously well respected in his field and has done good work for you for many years across a few trades by the sounds of it. For a floor costing over 6 grand we were looking for perfection from a dedicated tradesmen experienced in laying large format tiles and attention to detail we have not seen here. This is what we were paying for.
Xxxxx tried his best to rectify the situation with the tiles over the last two days but I'm afraid we are now left with some big gaps to fill in the architraves. I did manage to stop him before he cut anymore this short and as you can see from the pics we managed to get it right on a couple of them after some guidence regarding how the tiles should be fitted and insisting the wood was cut to the correct length.
1. On the architraves that have been cut too short, we will need joiner to replace these please. I did have a chat to the joiner and even he agreed cutting the architrave to lay the tile was fairly standard practice to create a clean finish nowadays.
2. Where tiles have been removed the adjoining tiles edge has been damaged and quite a few tiles are sitting proud and are trip hazards.
3. Many of the grout lines are different widths and many tiles do not line up correctly as mentioned previously. I have attached one example but there are numerous.
4. The new tile that has been laid by the island has a completely different grout colour, in fact it's the colour grey we were originally expecting based on the colour suggested by porcelnosa for these a tiles (not white), which means the grout has not been mixed following the directions 1 part per 1 litre of water or mixed in a dirty bucket. I'd be interested to know how this was measured? Again not sure what we can do about this other than raking out and regrouting which means damaging the tiles either side even more than they are already. We will have to look at this everyday unfortunately.
I really don't think there is much we can do at this stage short of ripping up and starting again, so we will have to live with this now but as far as we are concerned this is far from perfect and will always be a disappointment in what was meant to be our dream kitchen and living room.
We need to have chat about the £36m2 cost of this job. This is what I was originally quoted by a professional tiler (they certainly do exist, and I think they would be offended if we suggested they were all generalists) not a general tradesman and I'm really sorry to say this but this is not an A1 professional tiling job in our honest opinion. I actually took yesterday off work so I could be close to what was being done, this isn't what I was expecting based on the standard of work from the rest of your team, which has been good.
Please keep this email between us, as I mean no disrespect to xxxx, he's obviously well respected in his field and has done good work for you for many years across a few trades by the sounds of it. For a floor costing over 6 grand we were looking for perfection from a dedicated tradesmen experienced in laying large format tiles and attention to detail we have not seen here. This is what we were paying for.
R
Reggiethethird
Grey...
Well if that is the case then the second grout is the right colour it should be when it's dry. As stated before there was definitely too much water used originally.
F
Flintstone
Please let us see his reply to the email
W
WetSaw
Not a perfect solution but you may be able to use a colour enhancer on the original grout. Does it go darker if you dampen it?
W
WetSaw
Generally yes, you'll only really know when you try it.
D
dave l and l
its a shame you have been let down . i dont think i would be paying for any of this job until you are satisfied with the floor if its all from the same company and icertainly wouldnt be paying 36 per metre for that, did you see how he was fixing the tiles, by that i mean was he using a trowel on the floor or was he putting spots on adhesive on the back of the tile
R
Reggiethethird
From what I saw he was laying it thick on the floor and the back of the tile, hence using nearly double the amount of adhesive as was recommended.
R
Reggiethethird
Latest update, spoke with the 'tiler' this morning.
His words 'i mixed the grout based on consistency' so you didn't measure it and the water mix exactly as per instructions on the bag? 'no'. So now how do we ensure the other half of our floor is the same colour? 'well I'll mix to the right consistency and we'll have to hope for the best'
What a farce.
His words 'i mixed the grout based on consistency' so you didn't measure it and the water mix exactly as per instructions on the bag? 'no'. So now how do we ensure the other half of our floor is the same colour? 'well I'll mix to the right consistency and we'll have to hope for the best'
What a farce.
T
Time's Ran Out
Farce! Then I've been doing it wrong for 44 years because I mix it to the right consistency .
Me too....
It's called experience !!
It's called experience !!
R
Reggiethethird
Fair enough, your comment actually gives me some confidence. Speaking to porcelanosa they suggest it should be an exact measurement to ensure the grout colour is matched when using using more than one mix on the floor. I assumed they knew what they were talking about as it's their product we are using.
T
Time's Ran Out
But then again you are using Butech/Mapei - always a bit hit/miss for consistency as the whole bag should be mixed to even out the polymers.
Occasionally you get orange bits in the Jasmine etc.
Occasionally you get orange bits in the Jasmine etc.
R
Reggiethethird
That's interesting, in some cases he has used half a bag or even smaller amounts, depending on size of area.
T
Tommythetiler80
I'm only agreeing to right consistency bit , not the 44 years bit I've not been on this planet that long. 🙂
W
WetSaw
Also remember that no amount of accurate measuring can help when it comes to cleaning up after grouting. Too much water then can have just as much, if not more, effect on the final finish.
B
bobob
I dont consider myself an expert but i have done loads of tiling in 35yrs in the building trade and i would certainly do a better job than that.
R
Reggiethethird
Here's a nice view of how much adhesive has been used. You can also note just one example of the varying levels we have now against the skirting. Bear in mind this was a brand new floor that should have been level.
B
Blunt Tool
Is that OSB board in the last photo?
No excuses now, I would insist that it comes up, levelled correctly, and re-tiled. Far easier to do it correctly in the first place!!!
T
Time's Ran Out
Don't you just love post it notes!
B
Blunt Tool
Shouldn't be tiling directly onto osb boards! Will be loose and up in a few months
What's your record for post it notes TJ, mine is 6 on a job that was 3 days in
T
Time's Ran Out
Hundreds!! (Sellotape )
Pilkingtons penthouse range 1983.
Customer said over the phone (land line) that a couple of tiles had a pin prick in the glaze. I told him to put a piece of tape over the affected tile and I would change it tomorrow.
Got there to find literally hundreds of pieces of sellotape over the whole room.
Told him to get the rep out and he would confirm a fault/ or not and they would pay me to change them.
He just left it as it was when I told him it was in the nature of ceramics.
As a side note - that Pilkingtons rep is now the top man at CTD in this country.
Pilkingtons penthouse range 1983.
Customer said over the phone (land line) that a couple of tiles had a pin prick in the glaze. I told him to put a piece of tape over the affected tile and I would change it tomorrow.
Got there to find literally hundreds of pieces of sellotape over the whole room.
Told him to get the rep out and he would confirm a fault/ or not and they would pay me to change them.
He just left it as it was when I told him it was in the nature of ceramics.
As a side note - that Pilkingtons rep is now the top man at CTD in this country.
What's a land line?
R
Reggiethethird
The board was just to cover areas where tiles are yet to be replaced. He laid directly on to concrete screed. I suggested using Ditra matting and was swiftly told we didn't need to...
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