Fingers Crossed!

11 years ago

So the tile in our powder room is finally going in. I understand the issues with large format tile - both from my own prior experiences and from reading this forum. BUT, I fell in love with a 13 x 42 tile from Porcelanosa. And it needs to be installed with very thin (if any) grout lines to look right.

I found a tile guy who came highly recommended by a local tile store to do the install. I was concerend when he came with two workers and it was clear that he was not dressed to work and planned to leave them to do the actual work. But he did stay to go over all of the details and assured me that I was in good hands.

But as soon as he left, right off the bat, the senior "worker" said - "we have a BIG problem!". He had pulled out a tile and laid it on the floor and it was bowed. He started to explain to me the issues with large format tile. I told him I was well aware and that we had checked a sample tile with the owner when he came to quote and it looked good. And Porcelanosa was supposed to be very high quality stuff! But then he proceeded to pull out one tile at a time, check its flatness, and put aside those that were the worst. Now this job should only require 16 tiles and so we had very few 'extras'. He took the best ones and laid the whole wall out on my family room floor. We found one tile that seemed to be darker than rest so we swapped that out too. And it looked fine. After they had a few tiles up very slow process), the owner came back to check on the job and make sure I was happy so far. They are definitely very detail oriented and eager to please!

I have been stressing over this install ever since we bought the tile. Now I think/hope "everything will be fine". Will keep you all updated!

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numbersjunkie
Original Author

11 years ago

Very slow process since they are being meticulous. They got here at 8:15 and at 12:30 they have 12 tiles up - only the 2 top tiles to go. One of them had to have a hole cut out of the center for the flush receptacle. And the cut had to be very accurate to butt right up to the edge of the box since the cover plate has no overhang (who thought that was a good idea?). It looks good to me! Starting to breathe normally again!

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Comments (11)

Errant_gw
11 years ago
I can't wait to see them installed :)
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sjhockeyfan325
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
This is on the walls? or floor? We have large format Porcelanosa tiles on our shower walls and they are beautiful. Which one did you get?
numbersjunkie
Original Author
11 years ago
This is the Porcellanosa wall tile
Nara Beige · More Info

They are also putting tile down on the floor 12 x 24 that we had left from our kitchen and family room remdodel a while back.
PRO
Mint tile Minneapolis
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
have them use a lippage system. Your walls must be prepped absolutely flat and plumb. Shower tiles need 95% coverage.

very tough install .... . you can always slow down and contact porcelenosa or your vendor w/quality issues.

these 18 porcelenosa tiles took me 2+days to get rght!!!!
Porcelanosa Oxo Blanco shower bench · More Info
sjhockeyfan325
11 years ago
My tile setter did a much better job on my large format Porcelanosa than he did on the 8X16 tile in the other bathroom. (I think he left that to an apprentice, who used a blade that wasn't sharp enough, and also mixed the grout with too much water, whereas he did the Porcelanosa walls himself, and beautifully)
PRO
Mint tile Minneapolis
11 years ago
Well sjhockey now you have another question in your arsenal.

"Who will actually be onsite and installing the tile"

You likely payed the same price for the helper as you did for the experienced installer. he made a few bucks on cheap labor and your install suffered, all too common......
numbersjunkie
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Yes Tundra, that was my fear - that the guy's who actually ended up doing the install would not be as good as the "professional" that I thought I had hired. But this time there was a happy ending. They finished both the wall and the floor tile (except for the bottom row of the wall tile which currently rests on a board nailed to the wall), and it looks perfect to me. They did not use a leveling system on the walls or the floor BTW.

Tomorrow they will be back to grout/caulk and hopefully finish. I hope I'm still has happy when all is done, but right now I can't see a single flaw. And I think I'm pretty picky.

Edited to add a funny little story - I think the guys knew I was stressing and concerned about how experienced they were. I heard the one guy say to the other "So yesterday was your first day on the job?" and then he added "I've only been working for (Owner) for a week myself". I was in the kitchen and not standing over them when I heard this. Anyway I walked over to where they were working and said "I heard that and you'd both better be pulling my leg!". They cracked up.
PRO
Mint tile Minneapolis
11 years ago
Numbers, Great news and good for you its worked out... Now you can get back to sleeping at night!
daisychain01
11 years ago
pictures!
numbersjunkie
Original Author
11 years ago
Waiting to see if dh plans to install toilet and vanity today. Then I could post a finished pic!