This is Laufen rectified porcelain with a 1/16" grout joint:

You might let him know if he's not interested, or good enough, to install it the way you want that someone else WILL be.

I've never had a problem with rectified tile being non-uniform in size.

Do you notice any deviation in the tile? If you take a stack of them and stand them on edge, and square them up, do you notice and deviations?

And not to pick on your installer, but is he keeping the grout lines clean or getting them gobbed up with thinset? It takes skill and patience to set tiles tight, even rectified.

I'd be on the phone to the manufacturer and/or the supplier and give them an earful of what your installer is telling you.

If you really want tight joints, don't cave just yet.

Mongo

My husband and I checked five different boxes of the tile, and they are all straight and true with no deviations. I called our contractor and he talked to the installer who said he "might have had a bad box." Anyway, he said he would do the 1/16" grout now and it seems it is all taken care of! Thank you so much to Bill and Mongo and I would hug you both if I could for all the advice and time you give to people like me~I know I need the reassurance.

The truth comes out! He didn't have a "bad box", he had a bad attitude.

Tight joints can be difficult, make sure he is up to the task. Good layout, no lippage.

Mongo

The truth comes out! He didn't have a "bad box", he had a bad attitude.
Tight joints can be difficult, make sure he is up to the task. Good layout, no lippage.

Yes-I agree with that~it was interesting how quickly he changed his mind. I will watch as this progresses and hopefully it will be fine.

Check each day after he's done and make sure there's no lippage beween the tiles.

Bill,

I looked up what lippage means and I will do that~I am a little anxious whether or not this will be installed correctly but am crossing my fingers here.

Lippage is where the tiles are not even vertically, the edge of one tile sticks up higher than its neighbor.

Magnified to an extreme think of lippage as a toe stubber.

With 1/4" wide grout joints, a 16th inch in lippage can be sort of disguised by the width of the grout joint.

With thin grout joints, and with rectified tiles, you should be able to slide a playing card across the floor and not have it catch on the edge of a tile.

Mongo

Take a look at the walls above. That's how flat it should be. Matter of fact, I'll post even a better one to show your guy if he decides it's impossible:

Right in the middle of the pic, you're looking straight on at the plane of a marble tile wall. It even has a niche in it. Here's a pic where you can see the face of the wall a little better:

THAT'S how it should look when he's done

Bill,

One picture that you posted a long time ago I really liked. It was of a foyer floor, and there was a reflection off the floor of light coming through the window/door. The reflection was perfect. No "zig zags" in the reflection, just a spot-on mirror image. Dead-flat floor.

Nice.

May your beer be cold and the bass be hungry. Have a good weekend!