If you hadn't pointed that out, I would not have seen it. This looks beautiful to me. Let's see what others say.

I agree with Elaine. Overall, it looks fabulous, and I don't believe anyone will even come close to noticing the slight misalignment. Would love to see pics of the entire kitchen when you're done.

If it bothers you now it will always bother you!

You made a lovely tile choice!

It's fine for what you paid. You're not getting perfection unless you pay to have the wall completely reframed much flatter, and buy a higher grade of tile, and an expert tile mechanic. For wavy wall, inexpensive tile, and an average tile setter, it's pretty good actually.

When the tile are laid out dry on the counter top do they line up. Is this the tile that is off or is it the installer?

I don't even see the gap.

Thanks all for your comments. Just to clarify: the tile alone cost $1,200. Installation is in top of that. It is high quality tile and the wall was reframed and level.

Good to know this is difficult tile to install. I don't think we'll be able to accept the misalignment though. It is more visible in real life. Someone else also pointed out trowel lines are visible because he didn't use white mastic.

I hear ya, day in and day out, we may not be scrutinizing the wall, but man, we've invested so much in the renovation of the house, this is really disappointing.

The gap under the hood is unacceptable. Do not pay until it's fixed. A good professional would never leave a job like this.

Beautiful tile! Because of the wavy design, I didn't notice the misalignment at all until I really inspected the picture. The hood piece would bother me though. I'd ask them to come redo that or put a small chip of tile in there, do something, so you don't have that white patch glaring at you. If the misalignment is all over and drives you crazy, it drives you crazy and technically they didn't do it right. I'd invite the supervisor to come talk it over with you. We've been in a similar situation on two occasions and the supervisor/owner of the company was more shocked and displeased than we were and insisted on making it right.

Love the tile choice

$1200 for tile is hardly expensive tile. Look at the alignment. It's off. And $1200 would be very low for the labor to install from a good tile mechanic who specializes in glass--- who would have rejected the tile and demanded better quality. Double that price for the install and it would be low ballpark. Gutting to the studs completely, planning and sistering them, and reapplying the drywall doesn't jibe with the rest of the economy approach. You don't get to have 10K standards for a job without the 10K budget that goes with it. Perfection costs. And for what you paid, you got workmanlike and acceptable. Except for that one tiny chip that drilling for the hood caused.

You might want it more of a brick like substance. But overall I don't really see the "wow" factor of the room. I feel like you should go with more of a dramatic color

Every time I used the cook top I'd be looking at the misalignment and get pissed. I do like the tile. I think K.O.H. brings up a good point about possibly the tile not lining up. Do you have any left to make a small dry test yourself?

It's important to know of you laid the tiles out flat on the counter top, would they line up. This could be the tile itself and not the installer

Tile setter should have taken one look at that tile and run. It does not look easy.

Yes, the tiles line up perfectly if laid out on the counter.

Sorry, but take a look to the right of the range hood. The bottom aligns perfectly, but as you travel up the wall, the glass gets out of alignment because the glass pieces themselves are different sizes. The tile is off. Couple that irregularity with the typical wonky drywalled wall, and your tiler did a pretty good job making it look as good as he did.

pumpkin- are you going to leave me hanging? What is on the front of the hood??

Sorry! It's just the protective wrapping... We haven't taken it off yet. :-)

The fact that the tile line up dry is relevant and with your statement that the walls where true then this is not a good job. I ran into similar situations whereas the subs did not check, recheck then check again before installation. The price you paid for installation is only relevant when you're beating subs up or searching the allies for installers therefore you get what you deserve. Installing tile of this pattern takes experience and patience, it's not easy but it's been done many times before. You mentioned trowel marks, that happens when you don't back spread the tile before setting. Your main dilemma is what to do. Well the chances of the installer tearing this down and buying new tile is very slim if not none. I do wish you all the best and I'm sorry for your problems.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. They have been very helpful. We are going to talk with our general contractor and see if we can work something out. He recommended the tile guy to us and vouched for him. Too bad, we weren't looking for a discounted installation, we wanted a quality job at a fair price. I think this guy just got in over his head and instead of saying he couldn't do it, he constantly complained about how difficult it was but that he wanted to do it. Live and learn.
I'll let you know what the GC says. He's a stand up guy, very skilled and has been wonderful to work with so far (the GC, that is).

Sorry to say, but it'd be hard for us to accept this installation.

I wish more people had pride in their work. Sorry, I couldn't live with that either. It's a lot more tedious than most tile but you should still be able to line up the grout lines. He just didn't take the time and pride to do it. To bad, it would have been a great addition to his portfolio. Margo, I kept waiting to see if you thought someone shot the hood with a shotgun. The peeled paper kind of gives it that look. LOL.

Yeah, the tile isn't that forgiving, though it comes on 12x12 (or something like that) sheets, so they aren't individually placed. I imagine that makes a difference.

Thanks again for all your thoughts... Helps to know I'm not crazy. I want to be fair and make sure my expectations aren't off.

Pumpkin, if they were mesh mounted, then it's even more difficult to keep things lined up. if one tile on the mesh didn't get set perfectly, it's a snowball effect - and very challenging to back butter for installation without seeing voids from trowel marks.

I agree, it is more difficult. When I first looked at it I noticed it seemed that every other row at bottom was not lined up with adjacent. Typical of bad sheet/tile setter not paying attention or skilled enough. Sorry you have to go through this. Your kitchen will be beautiful when finished correctly.

I can say emphatically, "No!" Even before I saw the close-up showing how they don't line up, I saw grout lines of varying width. And the lack of attention to detail around the hood is inexcusable. We used a not inexpensive tile by Sonoma Tilemakers for our bksplsh, but we paid more for the labor than the mat'l. Our guys were true artisans, not just tile guys. Yours should make it right.

I would not accept the installation. Making sure the tile joints line up is installation basics 101. If the problem lies in the construction of the tile being mounted on the sheet crooked then this should have been noticed by the installer prior to installation, and brought to your attention. Also there is a serious amount of grout residue that has been left on the surface of the tile which should be removed, but I don't know if the photo was taken in between cleanings. Finally the thinset should not have any visible trowel marks that would show throught on face of the tile. I hope this info is helpful in your decision and your are able to have it corrected to your standards.

Old post! I wonder what the conclusion was....

Lovely tiles.