My vote is for the gray grout. In my opinion it minimizes the title color.

oyster grey looks better than that dead grey, I think

no white

I agree with the no white, that's what my husband is leaning towards. I love the white with the floor tile, maybe I could only do the gray on the shower and white for the floor (I know it's a high traffic area and lots of people disagree with that though)

anxious for Monday to get some outside help. This has been quite the debacle to say the least and we are still looking into how far we are going to go with it to get it changed. In the meantime I'm mulling over all my options.

it's ok if it's a high traffic,,,just use the sealed grout such as Mapei or Laticrete,,,it will save you a lot of headaches

I like the grey. White will be a distraction and make it more busy. Do you mind telling who the builder is and location and if they have a web site. Have you closed escrow? Most developers like this take a deposit and you don't close until they get a final inspection. You may have more power than u think. I am very surprised at the builders stance. Bad business especially for how much you are spending. To me it is clear the tile manufacture sent you the wrong color in the right box. Your builder should be talking to the manufacture to correct the error. The staff at the tile store acknowledged it and it appears the contractor noticed it also by shaking his head. Bad word of mouth travels ten times faster than good. You might want to take u r contract and consult with an attorney. They could write a letter for you and help negotiate something much better. The best of luck to you. Please keep us all updated

Jerrykatz, we have not closed. I'm not going to share his name here. We have contacted the tile manufacturer Delconcausa tile and were told there should not be a drastic difference. I sent them photos Friday and they have not yet responded. I appreciate your input and well wishes.

This is natural stone, right? You are going to see variations of that much and more. If it is manufactured stone you might see a little color change just like with fabric. That's why they tell you to order enough to complete a job and then some extra because the next dye lot might not match exactly.

It's manufactured. Every other dye lot in the store is close in color to one another. Our tiles from our dye lot B50 appears to be the only one that has a noticeable variance. B54 is closer to A50 and A54 if not identical, then B50 is.

I just re-did my master bath. I chose the same stone but in either 12" squares or 3 x 6 subs or 4 x 4 squares on shower floor but the variation is huge. It goes from light creamy to dark gray to a white gray on shower floor. I do understand your frustration but when the project is complete you won't notice those tiny imperfections. The overall look and the fact that it's finally finished will be what you see. : )

One other idea on the grout--look for a taupe color--not gray-- just for comparison.

The response from Del Conca USA, for those keeping up...
"After review of the pictures it is clear that both of the tiles are Siena
gray however they are from different dye lots. A shade 50 will be
lighter than a shade 54. The lower the number the lighter the shade.
However both of these are within standards for Siena Gray. Please let me
know if there is anything else we can help you with."

My sample is A54, what was installed is B50.

The manufacturer should send a rep, as we have seen from all the comments everyone's screen shows it different. How can they give an absolute response, especially when you say they point of purchase agrees with you. Get the stores rep to come.

At this point my main focus would be on the master bath

Regarding the grout color samples -
oyster is not grey it leans towards beige / taupe
The grey grout looks too grey for the tile
So that backs up the color difference of the tile
You probably would choose a silver grey or moonlight if the tile was the right shade

Regarding acceptance after installation - if an electrician doesn't attach the wires to an outlet do you have to accept it and pay for it to be fixed because you weren't there? If the drywall is bowed, do you have to accept it because you weren't there. Ridiculous point that she needs to accept the tile because she wasn't there.

Make sure you do a thorough walk through & list everything. Look at the details.
Good luck

This is PORCELAIN tile. It should have been ordered as "must come from same dye lot" That said, even within a dye lot there will be a range.

It wasn't ordered that way. Grout will NOT fix the shade differences, and that is that, because they are as different as completely different tiles...

Fix it before grout, with new tile in the most important bath, and move on. Once it is grouted, you're done.

As states below.......within standards.

"After review of the pictures it is clear that both of the tiles are Siena gray however they are from different dye lots. A shade 50 will be lighter than a shade 54. The lower the number the lighter the shade. However both of these are within standards for Siena Gray. Please let me know if there is anything else we can help you with."

They aren't going to help you except with a NEW order.

Check to see what batch the tile is from. Different batches of tile or stone will have natural variations in tone, texture and color. The only way to check for consistency is to make sure they are from the same production batch.

Jan, I'm not under the impression grout will fix it. I was discussing what grout will work with it, not what will fix it.

I am working through the issue, I'm just posting updates as I go. I understand the tile company has said its within normal variation limits however; I saw several dye lots in the tile store and they all go together in color, the variation is not obvious, with the exception of the tile I received. Even a sample of B54 matches a A50 and A54, while the product I received is tan.

Somebody did something.

Got to love how these tile manufacturers make excuses. Same thing happened to me initially.

Evang83, I have been following this post since the beginning, and what you just said points out the heart of the problem. Is there anyway a tile representative from the company (not the store) can come to your house and see the actual variation on the wall, that all the tiles are in the beige family and not the gray? I think that is the only way around this. I do think you got a mis-marked box of tile. I would talk to your store and have them set up an appt. Go to the source of the problem.

I would accept what the tile rep. tells you and move forward. If the tile rep. thinks you got the wrong tile, I would step up to the plate and take partial responsibility. You should have been there to inspect the product, would have stopped a huge headache. My heart goes out to you, have been in your shoes. It is not fun, and really in perspective, just a small bubble along the road of life.

Who manufactured it, OP?

You may have said further upthread, but I don't see it...

I would like to know as I have three bathrooms to do myself and I don't want to bother with anyone with poor quality control, possibly bad packaging, and bad customer service...

It's not worth my time.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

I don't think you should accept this. If you have time to fight this, do so.

I have no idea what this cost, but you have 3+ rooms to correct.

If this happens a lot, we need to stop it happening.

this isn't just color variation

DelConca USA is the tile manufacturer.

Still following.

Just not sure what I would do in this case. I guess it depends on cost, time and my own sanity.

DelConca USA. Got it.

Thanks for the info evang83. (sorry, this site doesn't allow pm's to my knowledge..)

I hope they resolve this to your satisfaction...

I am sorry this happened to you. I just wanted to let you know that I totally understand your frustation and I would be beyond unhappy if that happened to me. I really hope this will be corrected and not costing you too much money. I feel you have been misled and under informed.

It may not make you feel better, but please know that sharing your frustrating experience is going to help a lot of other "non-pros" navigate their own remodel/construction projects. Good luck to you - I hope you get a satisfactory outcome.

Update...still waiting to hear from Del Conca USA. The discussion with the customer service rep was finally passed on to a manger and I have yet to hear from the manager. Was told he was in Italy last week.

In in the meantime, I hired a designer for an hour of her time to get her input. She suggested instead of ripping out the whole shower, take the floor tile up the front of the shower, thus softening the visual clash a bit and the tile that's supposed to be gray will fade more into the background. I personally think that's a great solution, albeit not perfect, it's better then what we have now. The builder agreed to do that, at no cost to us.

Also, checked out the guest bath tile today, and it only irritated me more :( the bullnose doesn't match the rest of the shower. Del Conca needs to at least send a rep out. Even if they deem nothing to be wrong, their customer service sucks right now and I would not recommend using them.

So there's an update for those who have graciously offered advice and have been following along this crazy tile debacle :)

Solution that's not perfect but much better. Still waiting to hear from Del Conca USA, I've sent numerous emails and no one has gotten in touch with me to follow up.

Final bathroom pic after all that mess. Moral of the story don't use Del Conca USA and check your dye lots for those in the DIY world! Order a specific dye lot if you can. And I went with the white grout despite suggestions not to...thought I'd live on the edge ;)

5.27 mins.

Thanks for the update. I hope you like it.

I will not be ordering from DEL CONCA USA for any of our three bathrooms. I listen to reviews and it's just not worth it to me...

Evang83, through this whole ordeal I have kept my fingers crossed for you. The designer's solution of running the floor tile up the outside shower wall was brilliant. Your space is beautiful. I hope you can shake off your frustration and really enjoy your bathroom that looks very functional and eye pleasing.

evang83. Looks very nice. The designer had a good alternative suggestion. Thanks for the update.

I had the same issue! But was told it was the dye lot! Apparently the store failed to tell me there was a variation on the color because of two different dye lots. I was supposed to check the boxes, despite the fact that the store admitted not telling me about this. Now I have to get an inspector so it can be determined if it was the store or the installers fault. In the mean time I have mismatch tile in my breakfast and kitchen.

@mmchave29 - Why do you need an inspector to determine who's fault it was? I've never heard of such a thing with tile dye lots.
There's issues with most sales associates not knowing about their products.
There's issues with consumers not asking enough questions or knowing what questions to ask.
There's issues during installation when the installers do not grab from many boxes and instead install one box at a time.

My opinion, the installer should have caught this mistake during installation.

It looks a lot better replacing the front, but I understand it is not what you wanted. I know you will know when you use your bathroom, but hopefully over time, it will fade from your eye. Thank you for posting this, as I learned a lot from what you went through (sorry you had to go through it).

Dye lots are a big deal when buying a lot of things(tile, granite, fabric, etc...). I'd put a rug under that table and move on. Inspectors are busy and you'd want one to come and access....guess what...you will have done everything else that you need in your home by then. I'd move on to bigger issues. The tile does not look that bad.

Going through the same problem now(sample on left). tiles we received were just installed(middle). I wanted as close to a solid color as possible to compliment the graining of the other tile we chose and we received a blotchy mess.

@lakomydenise what did you end up doing? I am in the same situation. I am working with a decorator and we did not look at a box to see the color patterns. This is what I thought we were getting and see pic for what was installed yesterday when I was out of town. I got home and knew it wasn’t right. It is AWFUL. I am probably going to pay the money to rip it out. I am spending about $100k on my kitchen remodel and I am not screwing it up with awful floors I will hate forever. This is a hot mess. I thought there was no movement at all but there are lines and marks and dark clouds!!

I’m dealing with this now. Half the tile has been installed and it looks completely different than the sample I chose. It hasn’t been grouted yet. I don’t know what to do and the store said it’s a special order so no refunds but will take back the unused boxes. Installer wants to charge another 5k to remove and replace after already charging 14k. The installed tile looks very blotchy and grey. I’m so stressed and don’t know what to do.

All porcelain tiles as you show,, will have a RANGE.

Before any tile order of consequence? You order a few boxes and open it and lay it out. You can never see the range, from a single tile sample.

I suggest you start your own thread, This is five years old, and may not even get a glance.

Uggghhh!!

What room is this? How much is installed? Do all of the boxes look like what's installed?

Whenever I see a sample I like, I ask the vendor how old the sample is. After 4 remodels, I’ve found samples are unreliable most of the time, especially if they are samples from a year or older. I can understand a little variance. But complete different colors is unacceptable. I am not a pro but this is an industry/quality control

problem.

It's not clear to me which is the sample and which is the installed tile.

In the first photo, the installed tile looks more beige than the one on top, which looks like the sample. In the second, the installed tile looks grey and just like the sample in the first photo. All three tiles look blotchy. So where exactly is the problem?

I had received 2 different samples from 2 different stores and I liked them both. We put them next to each other and it was good to go. I chose the tile store that gave us the contractor price. After the installer put down about 8-9 tiles I noticed it wasn’t looking right but was told no refunds due to special order. After it was half way down I couldn’t stand looking at it as my house is very warm tone and the tile I received is very cool. When I contacted the store and sent pictures they said they would return the unopened boxes. We are installing 1k square feet and now I feel like if we keep it I have to repaint walls and change carpet.

Here’s the sample

Yikes I agree, no excuse for that. A consumer shouldn't have to go through this. A little off-OK. That's a completely different color.

To be fair, you ARE in two different palettes . Your beige warm walls work with NEITHER of the tiles. The blue island is fine, as are the gray walls, navy walls. It is appears you now have three floors? Hardwood, tile AND carpet? That wasn't the best decision.....multiple floors cut up a house.

To all who pass. Sample purchase AT LEAST a box on small tiles and large format? You will need more.

Avoid online purchase, and it you must?You will be exposed to risk.

A LOCAL TILE DEDICATED SHOP IS ALWAYS BEST.

Inspect on pick up ! Or give the sample to your contractor when he picks it up. That is the sample from your "test order" NOT the sample from the tile store.

Hi Jan,
I’m not on here to argue, but we ripped up the hardwood and wanted to replace with tile. The only thing left is the carpet. The sample I chose had a warm tone to it to match everything around the house and the tile I received was ashy and blotchy. I’m asking if anyone has any ideas on what my next steps could be since the tile store said they will only take back the unopened boxes. Does the manufacturer have fault and what can I do about it? It literally looks like two different tiles.

No you will not have recourse. For all the reasons I stated above. You have not clarified where you made the purchase, but it is 100% routine for a special order tile to be non refundable, it implies you chose a tile they do not routinely stock. That is why you do the test order of a small quantity: ) !! And inspect the arrival asap.

The store is taking back all the unopened boxes? Start over with a different tile and rip what you have installed. Or live with it and proceed: )