Bad tiling job - or am I too picky?

15-04-2021 09:46PM #1

Hi folks,

Bathroom being renovated. Plumber working on it since monday, did a great job, got the place ready for the tilers, who arrived today. All my dealings are with the plumber, i had no interaction with the tilers until they arrived today.

Tilers are two lads. Genuinely nice chaps.

So to get to the (probable) issue:

Bathroom is a grey tile, same tile for floor and walls, and there's a "feature" vertical strip of tiles on one wall, on the right hand side. I asked that this be centered in the wall, which it (almost) is. All is good.

Here is a pic, looking in the door:

https://i.postimg.cc/QjWBMMyp/Tiles01.jpg

So here's my issue. On the left wall, I would have assumed the tiles would also be centered. That the first tile would be cut, to ensure that the gaps/cuts are the same on both sides. Instead, they started with a full tile on the left, meaning the tiles are off-centre:

Here's a pic:

https://i.postimg.cc/5xB6wR1y/Tiles03.jpg

Where this further annoys me, is that they also started with a full tile on the opposite side of the same wall, for the floor. Meaning that the cuts on the floor, don't match up with the walls, on any side of the room.

https://i.postimg.cc/x0DXNSw-B/Tiles02.jpg

As someone who has never tiled before in his life, this seems like really obvious stuff to do. To make sure that all the lines and joins match up as best as they can to make the whole place look clean and uniform.

The lads have been here for 1 day so far, and they got done what is done in the pics. They plan to come back tomorrow and finish off, with that they predict will be a half day.

Like i say, lovely lads, and I could well be being far too picky, but I just wanted to get some other people's opinions here. I'm spending the best part of 7k all in, and I'm a bit annoyed that I'd probably have a better tiling job if I DIY'ed it. Or at least, that's how I feel. I'm unsure if I'm just being a bit too OCD about it all and being unfair.

Bass Reeves · 15-04-2021 09:58PM

IMO the tiles are too large for the size of room involved. You need a larger room.for these size tiles to line up better. As well when tiling smaller rooms a different time on the floor helps. With large tiles like that you would have a large amount of waste depending on what way tiles are laid out.

You would have been better off with narrow line type features.in a small area like than rather than a feature so large. However you are where you are. At present it is not grouted. Grouting will change the complete look of the job. Having said that they could have lined up the floor tiles with the feature tiles

15-04-2021 10:30PM

Cheers for the reply, Bass.

Can I ask you, would it be, at least, expected, that the tile on the floor, should line up with the "feature" tile on the wall?

I would have assumed this as being an obvious thing to do? This is the first thing I noticed when I looked in after I got a chance to have a peek, and it stood out (to me, anyway) like a sore thumb.

Hillybilly4 · 15-04-2021 10:32PM

It's not great but as the poster above has said, those are monstrous tiles for a small room. To achieve "perfection" there would have been so much waste = cost. Maybe the tilers were doing the best they could with the number of tiles supplied?
I reckon once it's grouted you will learn to live with it.

15-04-2021 10:33PM

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

It's not great but as the poster above has said, those are monstrous tiles for a small room. To achieve "perfection" there would have been so much waste = cost. Maybe the tilers were doing the best they could with the number of tiles supplied?
I reckon once it's grouted you will learn to live with it.

I'm not trying to be deliberately awkward, but I can't grasp how the size of the tile has anything to do with lining up the floor tile and wall tile, where the "feature" meets the floor?

There would be no, or very little, extra waste? (as an aside, there are LOADS of tiles. bought way too many)

15-04-2021 10:50PM

Righty oh, so this is probably a more useful, wider photo, taken on an actual camera (rather than a phone).

On the left of the room, there's a shower tray, and what will be a sink/vanity unit, so the wall and floor meeting won't really be seen at all. Which further irriitates me, that the feature tile doesn't line up with the floor tile. Surely this is just laziness?

Big pic:

https://i.postimg.cc/LRvtGv7G/IMG-2522.jpg

Bass Reeves · 15-04-2021 10:55PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm not trying to be deliberately awkward, but I can't grasp how the size of the tile has anything to do with lining up the floor tile and wall tile, where the "feature" meets the floor?

There would be no, or very little, extra waste? (as an aside, there are LOADS of tiles. bought way too many)

Smaller tiles give a way more flexibility on layout especially in a smaller area. All these tiles look brilliant layed out in a big bright showroom. However in a small bathroom larger tiles shrink the room. Brighter tikes or paint expand a smaller room

If I am ever buying tiles I always try to include an excess returns on the deal. If you are unhappy with the floor and have enough tiles see if you can get floor redone. It's a pig of a job lifting tiles and redoing them.

charlesanto · 15-04-2021 11:11PM

The lack of wall to floor tile alignment wouldn't upset me.
The job looks good to me.

nibtrix · 15-04-2021 11:15PM

Might be just the camera angle but the feature tiles look wider than the standard tiles... is it just me?

mooz · 15-04-2021 11:18PM

Looking at the bathroom from the door, the job looks good. Trust me when it's grouted and cleaned up, and fitted out, it will look great

Alkers · 15-04-2021 11:20PM

We got our bathroom done about two years ago and spent at least an hour with the plumber (who was lead on the job) and the tiler, agreeing the layout of the joints etc before the tiler started.

awec · 15-04-2021 11:23PM

The tiles are way too big. This is most obvious on the wall with the window where that tiny run of tiles on the left is impossible to avoid. And on that wall, every tile is a different width to the one beside it!

Nigzcurran · 15-04-2021 11:24PM

Looks like a decent job, far more important things you could be complaining about so count yourself lucky!

James 007 · 15-04-2021 11:25PM

I dont believe you are picky, if the width of the feature tile is the same as the width of a non cut floor tile I too would of expected them to line up the floor & wall tile. Also on the non feature wall if they lined up the centre tile to centre on the wall first & then cut the other two tiles on either side then it too would look better.

Sometimes I think you need to state the obvious to them that you wanted all the floor & wall tiles to line up, but then you may be left with smaller width tiles are the floor edges. It seems to me that they just went with the one instruction & that was to centre the feature tile on the feature wall & it was free reign thereafter, in other words get the job done with less cutting etc. Thats how I see it.

Lmkrnr · 15-04-2021 11:31PM

Your worse then my wife. She's spots everything. It's looks fine to me but my wife would complain too lol.

So what would I do, id play the fool and ask the tiler are the floor tiles suppose to line up with the wall tiles. You'll get your answer then. Maybe he will say he can change it. Nothing to lose really. Atleast you will know his thought process.

15-04-2021 11:33PM

Actually looks like a fairly good job.
It looks like they know what they are doing and not a bunch of cowboys. It’s possible they considered your preferred way (as they look like they know what they are doing) but there was possibly an issue that they could see, one which I cant when trying to look at those pics on a mobile device (whatever way you’ve uploaded them, Jesus h Christ)

As others have said, when everything is grouted it’ll look great and you won’t care and nobody else will notice.

My tiler ruined all of our expensive tiles. I’d take your tiler any day of the week. Looks like they care.

15-04-2021 11:36PM

Righty oh folks. I'll accept defeat and say nothing.

I still feel like it would have been obvious and not necessarily something that needed to be pointed out, but I'm clearly in the minority there, so I'll accept that I'm in the wrong on it.

We had a different chap working on the house before. He did a bit of everything, and also did some tiling for us (he wasn't available for this job). He was very aesthetic-focused and made sure everything lined up with everything. He was really 'into' his work and made a really big effort to keep things right. He probably spoiled me, which is why I anticipated that the lines here would be something obvious, and you should never have a 2 inch stagger.

His thinking (and mine) was always either line it up properly, or deliberately line it so far off that it doesn't just look like a mistake (which this does, in my opinion).

Hopefully with a bit of grouting it'll be hidden away and I can move on and forget about it

nibtrix wrote: »

Might be just the camera angle but the feature tiles look wider than the standard tiles... is it just me?

On that wall, the tiles either side are cut down to fit the wall. The tiles are all the same size, same batch and part of the same collection (sold as "Sunset" and the feature tile is "Sunset Decor", both from same supplier/producer/etc).

hognef · 15-04-2021 11:36PM

James 007 wrote: »

I dont believe you are picky, if the width of the feature tile is the same as the width of a non cut floor tile I too would of expected them to line up the floor & wall tile. Also on the non feature wall if they lined up the centre tile to centre on the wall first & then cut the other two tiles on either side then it too would look better.

Sometimes I think you need to state the obvious to them that you wanted all the floor & wall tiles to line up, but then you may be left with smaller width tiles are the floor edges. It seems to me that they just went with the one instruction & that was to centre the feature tile on the feature wall & it was free reign thereafter, in other words get the job done with less cutting etc. Thats how I see it.

Totally agree this should've been done much better. Who is to blame is maybe a different question. Should the tilers be expected to do it 'right' without explicitly being told so? I'd say yes, and at the very least they should clarify before commencement the work. 'Legally' speaking, though, I guess it could be argued it's the customer's responsibility to give instructions.

Based on what's in the pictures, I certainly wouldn't recommend these guys to anyone.

That said, I had two bathrooms tiled a few years ago as part of a house refurb, and had prepared exact drawings of each wall and floor and how I wanted the tiles placed, precisely to make sure I didn't run into these issues.

Sharpyshoot · 15-04-2021 11:38PM

The tiler should have a meeting with you before tiling to discuss his precise work. The short cuts taken are not satisfactory in my opinion. Size of tiles are irrelevant here. Too many Dermot Bannon fans it seems.

mickdw · 15-04-2021 11:38PM

Id let it go at this stage.
You really do need to work out joints if you are fussy.
I mean looking at the pictures, it looks like they would have had to move floor joint to the centre of the feature to avoid a small tile at window.
That might not be to your liking either. Needs to be discussed at start.

15-04-2021 11:41PM

awec wrote: »

The tiles are way too big. This is most obvious on the wall with the window where that tiny run of tiles on the left is impossible to avoid. And on that wall, every tile is a different width to the one beside it!

See this is what I mean; to me, it's not impossible to avoid a run of small tiles there at all. They were working from right-to-left there, I believe, so when they got to the 2nd last tile, they would have realised they'd have a small last tile. So they should have just cut 4 inches off the 2nd last one. Then the next tile (which would be the small one) is 4 inches wider.

It's a small wall, with a few turns on it. Nobody would notice and the finish would look a lot better as a result. If it was a massive room, you'd probably not get away with it, but as the tiles are big, on small walls, the size of the tiles (especially on that particular wall) isn't obvious.

15-04-2021 11:48PM

Sharpyshoot wrote: »

Size of tiles are irrelevant here.

Yeah I've to be honest, I'm not sure why that keeps getting mentioned. I don't see how it matters if the tiles are huge or tiny, in relation to continuing the grout line onto the floor

I did laminate flooring for a while, and you made sure your first cuts always have a decent transition across thresholds from one room to another, and you didn't have any 'thin strips' of laminate against any walls or such.

Whereas the lads here seem to have taken the approach of "start in this corner and we'll deal with any issues as we encounter them".

the_pen_turner · 15-04-2021 11:57PM

the problem with tiling a small rom like that with sevral features like this room is that you fix one layout issue but create another somewhere else.
there is only so much you can do to get rid of narrow tiles or wierd alignments.
if they got rid of that narrow strip then there would be a grout join up along the boxing in the corner

the reason your floor tile grout line doesnt align with the wall is that the wall is centered in the alcove and if you moved the floor along to align with it you would have a narrow stip under the window or move the feature and have it off center

tiling looks good to me

Bass Reeves · 16-04-2021 12:13AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I've to be honest, I'm not sure why that keeps getting mentioned. I don't see how it matters if the tiles are huge or tiny, in relation to continuing the grout line onto the floor

I did laminate flooring for a while, and you made sure your first cuts always have a decent transition across thresholds from one room to another, and you didn't have any 'thin strips' of laminate against any walls or such.

Whereas the lads here seem to have taken the approach of "start in this corner and we'll deal with any issues as we encounter them".

The reason it matter is smaller tiles make a room look larger and larger tiles make a room smaller. It the same with paint, bright colour's open up a room, dark colours close it in. A white ceiling rises the height of a room painting it a dark colour pulls down the ceiling.

the_pen_turner wrote: »

the problem with tiling a small rom like that with sevral features like this room is that you fix one layout issue but create another somewhere else.
there is only so much you can do to get rid of narrow tiles or wierd alignments.
if they got rid of that narrow strip then there would be a grout join up along the boxing in the corner

the reason your floor tile grout line doesnt align with the wall is that the wall is centered in the alcove and if you moved the floor along to align with it you would have a narrow stip under the window or move the feature and have it off center

tiling looks good to me

If they had lined up with the feature they could have cut the tiles in a line with the corner sticking out in the room and then tiled in from that removing slip tiles

16-04-2021 12:15AM

the_pen_turner wrote: »

if they got rid of that narrow strip then there would be a grout join up along the boxing in the corner

They wouldn't, in fairness. I described above how you'd easily enough fix that, but if I'm honest, that's not something I'm particularly fussed about for some reason.

Dunno why, but, although avoidable, I expected that to occur a bit.

mickdw · 16-04-2021 12:19AM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

See this is what I mean; to me, it's not impossible to avoid a run of small tiles there at all. They were working from right-to-left there, I believe, so when they got to the 2nd last tile, they would have realised they'd have a small last tile. So they should have just cut 4 inches off the 2nd last one. Then the next tile (which would be the small one) is 4 inches wider

You dont put a cut tile in the middle of the work like that.
It needs to be set out from beginning not work it out when 2 tiles to go to the wall.

ozmo · 16-04-2021 12:22AM

dunno but - I think it would look like living in a rubix cube if all the joins aligned up - maybe its better this way?

But if you are not happy say so before everything fully sets and you may be able reuse many of the tiles...

the_pen_turner · 16-04-2021 12:23AM

Bass Reeves wrote: »

The reason it matter is smaller tiles make a room look larger and larger tiles make a room smaller. It the same with paint, bright colour's open up a room, dark colours close it in. A white ceiling rises the height of a room painting it a dark colour pulls down the ceiling.

If they had lined up with the feature they could have cut the tiles in a line with the corner sticking out in the room and then tiled in from that removing slip tiles

that would look odd too though . it would end up something like with 2 600mm tiles then a 450mm tile and 200mm cut to the wall.

Juwwi · 16-04-2021 12:32AM

I agree with those who think it will look great grouted you won't notice anything in a weeks time ,not much they can do now anyway , I'd probably say nothing and keep the good relationship with the plumber incase anything goes wrong .

Others might know this is the blue stuff around the shower tray from a tanking kit ?
I don't see any classi seal around the tray ,is that not recommended even with a tanking kit ?

Bass Reeves · 16-04-2021 12:40AM

the_pen_turner wrote: »

that would look odd too though . it would end up something like with 2 600mm tiles then a 450mm tile and 200mm cut to the wall.

It would be less noticeable than not lining up with feature tile. We had a shower room done with an 18'' wide tile and a single narrow feature strip on one wall to define the end of the shower enclosure. The tiler was left with a meter to cover. He have had 2 full tiles and a 3'' strip. He cut the tile coming onto the feature strip back to 15" then an 18'' tile and then 6" into the corner. You have to be inventive with large tiles.

same with the window on OP's wall. On the LHS of the window he could have cut the long tile back by 6" and balanced it to match the cut tile on RHS. You would be left with a tile either side of the window roughly the same size.

On the opposite wall where the shower tray is he could again have centered the large tile and had the two tiles either side approx the same size

SineadSpears · 16-04-2021 12:51AM

Just on the window wall.

The tiles both top and bottom of the window are cut to align to the width of the window.

Seems possible they may have used that as their starting point. Then worked out the cut of the rest of the tiles to go left and right of the window. Thinking they were doing the right thing.

Unfortunately that meant you were then going to be left with a mix of tile sizes on that wall.

Really, that is something they should have spoken to you about before cutting and laying the tiles if they seen the window may have been an issue. (also want to point out that you should have spoken to them too beforehand about what you expected)

Try image what it would be like had they started with a full tile from the left corner of that wall, and then what it would look like when they got under and over the window. They would not have aligned with the window then. maybe they felt that wouldn't look right.
I'm not sure which option would look better.

Tbh, the way it is now would do my head in too.

I'd definitely have a chat with them and ask their reasoning for going ahead and laying the tiles out when they could see that you would be left with three different measurments of tiles on the same wall. And so close to each other.

It's your money that has paid for that work. Obviously you don't need to go in guns blazing, but you don't need to hand over your money and keep quiet with a job you are not fully happy with.
You're just asking for an explanation. Both you and the tilers might learn something for in the future

Bad tiling job - or am I too picky?

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