Independent Tiling Consultant needed

[Nick Jones]

Hi
I've just had work completed to my bathroom, and to say the least I am extremely disappointed with the tiling work carried out by my contractor. He says he's done a good job, his mate says he's done a good job, but the manager at my local Topps Tiles grimaced at the photographs of the work, and other people have said it's not at all good.
I want a report that is unbiased and will look at the work and tell me whether it's good, bad, or whatever as I believe there will be legal action involved.
Is there anyone local to me (in North Dorset) who can carry out such work please.

 

[Bill]

@Plan Tec Tiling is near Dorset I think. Give him a message.

 

[GoneGuy]

Might be worth posting an ad on the find a tiler part of the forum?

 

[WetSaw]

I know the TTA offer such a service but having just looked at the cost you could have the room retiled for less!!

 

[Martyn Leeds]

Pictures would help..
Obviously for feedback purposes.. and for our own nosiness...

 

[Nick Jones]

Pictures would help..
Obviously for feedback purposes.. and for our own nosiness...

 

[Nick Jones]

I've got more photos. I've also got a lot of plaster, grout and what have you that I've cleaned out of my kitchen sink waste pipe and the drain outside.

 

[Bill]

Jeeeeshh..

Don't post anymore photos

 

[Nick Jones]

Jeeeeshh..

Don't post anymore photos

Thye're not all of the tiling - I've got 2 of the non-vertically aligned door handle on the inside of the bathroom door, plus pictures of the contents of the drain pipes.

 

[Martyn Leeds]

yep, its rough.
Lazy grouting and no silicone to tidy-up the corners..

 

[Tile seller]

When I see grouting like that, I often wonder how they've managed to do it that badly.
Thats an awful job they've done and I can't see that anyone would be satisfied with it.

 

[Nick Jones]

yep, its rough.
Lazy grouting and no silicone to tidy-up the corners..

The silicone hadn't been done when I called a stop to it. From the instruction videos on YouTube there shouldn't be any grout in the joint between the wall and the floor, but it's full of it. He's not cleaned up in preparation for silicone, and his attitude seemed to be that the silicone would cover up any shortcomings. I paid Topps Tiles £ 3,000 for wall tiles, floor tiles, mosaic tiles adhesive, grout and sealant. Frankly I expect to see value to the tune of that £ 3,000 plus professional finishing. If I wanted a poor, I could have done it myself (although I believe the result would have been superior, even though it would have taken longer).

 

[Nick Jones]

It's not just that I'm not happy with the result - the contractor thinks he's done a good job.

 

[macten]

Was he grouting in the dark or something?!

 

[peteablard]

Whilst it's not great and far from acceptable we've certainly seen a lot worse on here. A decent tiler could sort a lot of those problems out in a couple of hours either re grouting or with silicone.

 

[Nick Jones]

It's not just the grouting. It is appalling, but I don't rate the tiling either. There are 2 sections of mosaic wall in the shower area. There are lots of "out of register" sections of mosaic. They aren't in line - some are out of alignment horizontally, some vertically. I've spotted several tiles with chips out of them - both wall tiles and floor tiles. I think it needs to be ripped out and re-done. I had drawn up the "design", selected the colour scheme on the Topps Tile visualiser, and this contractor has ruined it. I am bitterly disappointed with what he has done. It is unforgiveable.

 

[Bill]

Mosaic sheets, in their construction, are sometimes misaligned when being formed by the manufacturer - are you going to complain to them too?

 

[Nick Jones]

They were misaligned because the joints are of different sizes. This contractor said that you don't use spacers when laying mosaic tiles, which is completely the opposite of what the educational videos on You Tube show. So I am not going to complain to the manufacturers because it is not a manufacturing fault but a tiling contractors installation fault. Inspection of the photographs would show you the varying joint widths where the mosaic pattern goes out of register and it is because the joint widths were different that the "out of register" occurred. This "out of registration" effect occurs both horizontally and vertically because the contractor didn't lay the mosaic sheets properly. A little time and care on his part would have worked wonders - but he completely miscalculated the time that he was going to need to do the job - and because he had another job scheduled (not a tiling job) he rushed it. Also, the fact is that I do not believe he had done any tiling for several years because he had been employed in fitting fitted furniture in school, laboratories, etc and so when he came to do my job (both building work and then the tiling) he was "rusty" - and that is being extremely kind to him. I was not aware that he was going to do the tiling - I thought that he was going to hire a tiling professional (just as he hired plumbers and an electrician).

 

[Bill]

You make a lot of assumptions there^

 

[Bill]

I have never used spacers on mosaics ... ever.

 

[Bill]

Youtube is not the bible of tiling.

 

[Bill]

Paying Topps £3000 doesn't mean anything as you probably could have paid a lot less with another tile supplier for the same materials and spend the extra on higher rated professional tiler.

Incidentally, what was your budget for the tile fixing?

 

[WetSaw]

"Educational videos on YouTube" don't always educate you in the correct techniques. I very rarely use spacers with mosaic tiles and even when I do it's only to keep the odd tile in place that hasn't been fitted to the backing correctly.

 

[Nick Jones]

Paying Topps £3000 doesn't mean anything as you probably could have paid a lot less with another tile supplier for the same materials and spend the extra on higher rated professional tiler.

Incidentally, what was your budget for the tile fixing?

I had received a quote from the builder which included the labour element for tiling, as I paid for the materials. So I don't know what his figure for tiling was. Just like I don't know what he included for a painter, a plasterer and a labourer (for when a couple of walls were removed. Plumber and electricians provided separate quotes to him. I would reckon though, now that he has stated how much he paid to other trades and since I know his normal daily rate, that he had included £ 2,000 for 1 weeks work in tiling.

 

[Nick Jones]

You make a lot of assumptions there^

No assumptions. It happens to be all facts.

 

[Nick Jones]

Youtube is not the bible of tiling.

I don't say it is, however I consider it a reasonable source of information and as it contains a load of experience then I have to give due weight to it. For instance, I could see the consistency of the grout that they used - and I compare it with the consistency of the grout that the contractor used - his grout was too sloppy - and I believe that this has led to a lot of shrinkage on drying and the pitting on the vertical tile trim in the photos.

 

[Andy Allen]

Mosaic sheets, in their construction, are sometimes misaligned when being formed by the manufacturer - are you going to complain to them too?

But you would never leave them misaligned, would you Tom ?
Any tiler worth his salt would cut the mesh round the offending piece and re aline it.....a common problem that I've no doubt we have all come across..

 

[Bill]

But you would never leave them misaligned, would you Tom ?
Any tiler worth his salt would cut the mesh round the offending piece and re aline it.....a common problem that I've no doubt we have all come across..

What if they are paper faced sheets?

 

[Dumbo]

But you would never leave them misaligned, would you Tom ?
Any tiler worth his salt would cut the mesh round the offending piece and re aline it.....a common problem that I've no doubt we have all come across..

At what point do you start taking the hit for straightening out poor quality mosaics or turning around to your customer and telling them you need extra money or walking of the job .

 

[Sean Kelly]

Nick, I feel for you.


However, do you have some pics of the overall bathroom? (I’m sure you have!). Close up pics are fine, but we need to see the overall picture.


I think we can all agree that the quality of the finish is unacceptable. All areas of the work need a good washdown to remove excess grout and grout haze. Some areas need re-grouting. Some areas need grouting. All internal joints need siliconing.


You will need a professional tiler to visit, as the problems may not just be on the surface. Do you know how the builder fixed (stuck down) the tiles? There may be hollow voids under the tiles.


You may be lucky and get a good tiler to come in for a day and sort out these issues.


Have you paid this bloke?


p.s. I know what you mean about the mosaics. They ARE misaligned. This IS the fault of the person who stuck them to the wall.