I also have critical eye, and those chips would bother me. I don't think the grout will cover them because the grout lines will be crooked due to the chips. If you have enough extra tile and the time/patience to switch out the chipped tiles, I would definitely do so. The only reason I would hesitate is if you are afraid it will be too hard to put the replacement tiles in exactly the right place -- off center tiles might look even worse than chipped tiles.

Another option would be to go back to wherever you bought the tile and complain that the defect rate is too high. That may not be feasible, though, because the replacement tile might have the same defect rate and you may not have enough time for a replacement order.

You know your pickiness level. Maybe there are people who wouldn't care or wouldn't notice those chips. If it were me, my eyes would go right to them every time I walked into the room.

If this is something that's going to bother you, I'd strongly suggest you pick another material. THIS is something I'd consider (and did) unaccaptable:

As for the chipping, especially with ceramic mosaics, that's the nature of the beast. If there were big chunks missing out of the tiles, then I'd have a problem with it

If you have a lot extra, why don't you take a test piece with some bad chips in it and grout it and see what it looks like? I would think how noticeable the chips would be would depend on how contrasting the grout is. I would probably examine it from a normal vantage point too and not from an inch away unless you plan to regularly crawl on your hands and knees on the floor.

Bill, you're right, I think this kind of damage is just the nature of the product and a new lot isn't going to be any better. Generally speaking, the sheets are properly set and I didn't have any alignment problems laying out this block. There are just a small number of crooked tiles. As for switching materials, at this point, I think I'd rather hand set every other tile individually. I don't have the emotional fortitude to go material hunting again.

I'm definitely going to grout up one of the worse sheets and see how it looks. I need to test a few grout colors anyway. Thanks for the idea, kgwlisa. I'm also going to lay out as much material as I can in the space and see how many of these defects are really going to bother me in the actual light conditions. I have a feeling a good number of them are not really an issue from a reasonable distance. Whatever is left, I'm happy to cut out and replace.

Thanks

I'm sorry but I'd say you are being too picky. Out of the ones you showed I would say Maybe 1 is unacceptable. I can't imagine you could see any of those flaws even looking for them once it is grouted.

The project I just did, almost every single sheet looked alot like the ones you pictured above, with the chipped and ragged edges. You tell ME:

Once it's up and grouted, unless you go over it with a magnifying glass, you'll never see it.

funnycide, no apology necessary, you're right, I am probably being too picky. My guess is that after I grout up a test sheet, I'll be able to get rid of well over half my blue stickies. We'll see...

Bill, you sure do like showing off that bathroom, and I don't blame you a bit. If it were my project, I'd be slingin' it all over the net. Great job, as usual.

Joe

Bill,
What is the story behind that bathroom? The thought would never cross my mind to cover the entire floor, ceiling and walls of an entire bathroom with the same tile. I can't imagine the cost. Have you ever done that before?

That was my first time for a bathroom. I did a couple of steam rooms last summer with 2x2 tiles like that, though. Here's the story, copied and pasted from an email I sent to someone a few days ago:

Okay. Time to do some splainin!! The job I just finished was for a man by the name of Alan Lapidus. He and his father, Morris, were both very high profile architects. His dad designed things like Grand Central Station and the Vanderbilt mansion on Long Island. Alan's big claim to fame is being Donald Trump's architect, in addition to designing alot of high profile resorts, which was his forte. His favorite design was doing a space completely all with one material, and he loves 1" hex tile, so when it came time to do his master bathroom, he wanted the entire thing, floor to 10' high ceiling, all 1" white hex!! In addition, he's a big one for natural light, and he lives in a very private area, complete with wild game feeders, so there are big windows over his tub, as well as in his octagon shaped shower, there are 8 24" walls, four of which have 18"x6' high windows in it!! Let me tell you, it was a whole lot of fun, going up the three inch strip on either side of each of those windows, especially considering that neither the windows, nor the seams between each of the walls was plumb, so on either side of that three inch strip, it had to be slightly graduated cuts, measured off a plumbline drawn up each side of the window, to make sure the tile came back together over the tops of the windows!! MAJOR pain in the butt!!.

codnuggets: How close did you have to put your face to those tiles to see the chips? How often will you (or others) be putting your (their) face that close to your finished tile? These photos above are blown up to 5x. I think just replacing the few more visible (from a distance) ones would be more than sufficient. At least for me.

Bill, I love that tile! But I have a complaint about all your pictures - we never get to see the finished bathrooms! It's like your shots of the perfect tilework are just teasers. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to stop the shots of the amazing tilework, but I would sooooo love to see some of these obviously going to be amazing rooms complete. I think I 've been watching to much HGTV and have gotten used to the complete deal at the end.

Sorry for the hijack.

Budge-- funny you should mention that. You know how I've mentioned from time to time that I know people at Laticrete? The man that founded the company was very close friends with my father and grandfather. Matter of fact, my grandfather was the very first person to place an order with Laticrete the day they opened their doors back in 1956. My grandfather's house was even the "testing grounds" for their first thinset additives, before they even started selling their products. His two sons, Henry and David, run the company today, both of whom I pretty much grew up with. I sent Henry pics of the job last week, and he asked me exactly the same thing. He wants to put together a brochure using pics from the finished bathroom, so yesterday, when I was over to Alan's house, I got permission to come back once it's finished-- all accessories and fixtures in place and trimmed out, and I'm going to get finished pics of this one, so you're going to get your wish!

Bill, I wish you were in NJ! You really do great work, even with 1" hex tiles, which I assume were on 12" square sheets and I hear are harder to install evenly than it looks to a non-tiler.

Close-- the sheets were 12x24, but thank you. :-)

Not sure where exactly in New Jersey you are, but I do know a few people down that way. :-)

The job site is in W. Orange - can you recommend some installers experienced with installing mosaics on mesh (and subway tiles with evenly space grout lines, etc., etc.)?

BTW, OP, I would return them and find another product, but I'm picky. If they're chipped already, what will happen if you drop something on the floor?

For some gorgeous hex tiles in very limited solid colors, check out tile-shop.com in CA. I'm using their matte black and matte white tiles in my kids' bathrooms (in fact just had to reorder b/c my GC's tiler was the opposite of Bill and both floors had to be ripped up!!!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Tileshop Inc - Excellent quality tiles!

If they're chipped already, what will happen if you drop something on the floor?

Actually, once they're set, the thinset and grout will dtengthen the tiles exponentially. As for getting a recommendation, shot me an email, and I'll get in touch with a couple of people to see if they're busy right now.