Ohh I feel for you. Some of it looks really poor, some of it just looks like one of the inherent problems with laying herringbone. I can only speak from the experience of the kitchen we did last year. If it's not carefully layed out, there is a very real possibility of having small pieces in some places. I worked WITH our tiler in our kitchen. (He probably did two thirds, I did a third). I had already mathematically laid it all out and printed real size printouts, and stuck them to the wall to see if we liked it. That helped us NOT choose grey grout, but more importantly, it helped is 'shift' the layout, and VERY slightly creep the spacing to avoid dodgy small pieces. Ours looks great, and we are very happy. If it were me, I would get it re-done, and definately use white grout. Do a search for my post in the design dilemma forum, and have a look at the pic of our herringbone.

If you had asked me to set white tile with a grey grout I would have opened up the grout joint a little to allow setting them a little more uniform.

White grout does hide sins on white tile installs.

If you wanted grey grout from the beginning then much more care should have been taken.

I find window blinds make great tile shims for jobs like this. The old metal kind. I cut the strips and make these super thin shims that help set tile like you have.

I think the tiler actually did an alright job with the pattern chosen and the quality of the tile. A much more expensive (and thicker) subway tile would have been easier to install and cut. This kind (which we have installed many times) can chip easily. Also for anyone that hasn't worked with trying to cut smaller peices, you are risking your fingers everytime you cut them and it is difficult to cut. Don't blame the tiler, blame the tiles. And white grout will hide most of the minor imperfections. Stories like this make me feel really bad for both parties so try to be a good consumer as well and compromise so you can all live with it. If you hate the way the pattern looks do not have it ripped out and redone with the same tiles or the same pattern.

I'd love to do work for you Jennifer. If you think any part of that disaster is "alright" you'd think anything above a total disaster is acceptable. Herringbone pattern isn't all that tough and white grout wouldn't make that look even remotely respectable. It isn't the tile, it's 100% the setter. Not sure how you think cutting those pieces 3/8 to 1/2" too big is the somehow the tiles fault. An inside corner is as easy as it gets and they even messed that up. That niche would be enough for me to fix it with a sledge hammer.

custom_builder- this thread is over a year old and another dilemma gone to the land of naught;)