Should I be worried about this tile install?

clocktrasher

9 years ago

Hi! I wanted to post a bunch of pics from my bathroom tile job to see if anyone could tell me if this looks right. My untrained eye has me doubting the quality of this subcontractor's work. But I don't know if I should be worried or if it just looks off to me because it hasn't been grouted. Some things that concern me in the pics are the cuts around the baseboard trim (I'm guessing he was gonna cover with shoe moulding?) , spacing in between some tiles, the fact that he used some Schluter edge pieces that have large slices in them in the niche. The wall of the bench seat looks concave to me.

Are these things I should have the guy correct, or should I find a new guy all together? Any advice would be so appreciated!!

Featured Answer

MongoCT

9 years ago

Rhetorical questions: If you have to cut a tile, why not cut it accurately? If the space to be tiled can't be measured accurately, then why not cut the tile slightly oversized then place and recut a time or two to get a proper fit?

My comments? Your installation is okay for a first time DIYer, but it's certainly lacking considering it was done by someone getting paid to do it.

The baseboard should have been pulled and the door trim undercut. Then the tile should have been set and the baseboard installed over the floor tile. Ignorance or apathy. Or both.

There's no forgiveness for the slice in the corner bead. You don't "not see that" when you're setting it in place. Apathy.

The bench installation isn't pretty, but who framed the shower and the bench? The tile can only be as good as the substrate it's going over. Accommodations can be made for slightly irregular framing when installing the tile backer board, even when tiling, but sometimes those on-the-fly adjustments depend on the framing and waterproofing used in the shower.

Certainly the tile work could have been neater. Some of the visual will disappear after grouting with a tile-colored grout. That's not me giving the installer a pass. It's more me offering you a mental band-aid.

In the end, when you set tile, YOU'RE responsible for the tile you set. No excuses. If a tiler is given an out-of-square shower to tile, he needs to bring it up before he unloads his tools. If the installer chooses to do a lousy job over lousy substrate? It's on the person installing the tile.

The orientation of the floor mosaic? It looks like the bathroom floor tile hits the shower curb at a 45-degree angle, and the shower floor mosaic does the same. Or close to it. Did he try to make the grout lines of the shower mosaic align with the grout lines of the bathroom floor tile? As far as orienting the shower mosaic to the drain grate, the drain grate can be rotated 360-degrees, it is not a limiting factor.

Built-in benches require attention to detail. I see minimal attention to detail in the finish surfaces of your shower, so the integrity of the bench is a concern for me.

On these forums I've seen ugly substrate and absent waterproofing covered with drop-dead gorgeous tile installations. But seldom have I seen a tiler do meticulous detail work on the substrate and waterproofing and then go on to cover it up with a lackluster and sloppy tile installation. So like millworkman in his earlier
post, I am concerned about waterproofing. Especially when I see a
built-in bench.

My conclusion? I'd ask about the waterproofing. If the bench and shower were properly waterproofed? You have Schluter products in the bathroom. Did he Kerdi the shower and the bench? Talk about the grout job. That it needs to be good, it can't be sloppy. You need the grout done well to pull this job together.

If after all that talk you want to continue with this guy?

It's a less-than-average tile installation. It's not gorgeous. It's not horrific. If you want an easy out, I'd have him replace the sliced Schluter corner beads.

I'd deduct a bit to have shoe molding added to the baseboard, then painted.

On the flip side, if there is inadequate waterproofing on the bench and in the shower, then it's a tear out. Leaky benches are just horrible.

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Comments (10)

busybeeinsc
9 years ago
Is the picture with the Schluter edge pieces the fifth one down? And is the picture of the bench seat wall the sixth one down?
Overall, from what I can tell from the pictures, the floor looks pretty good - uniform gaps between the tiles, rows straight, etc. I personally don't like shoe (or quarter round) moulding, especially in a bathroom, but some people might. Since it's your bathroom did you not discuss with him what you wanted in that regard? I would've had the tile put in before any baseboard and not had shoe moulding. But since it's been done, yes - I think the shoe moulding will work fine, except perhaps where the door trim meets the baseboard in the second picture. Though to his credit he did put the tile under the door trim - I've actually seen where the tile was cut to fit around the door trim and that is awful.

I would not like the scratches on the corner piece in the fifth picture, nor the gap on the left that looks larger then the gap on the right. Also in that picture, the lower tile seems rounded at the top left corner while the upper tile has more square corners.

And in the sixth picture the tiles do look like they're somewhat concave.

I would talk to him about those couple of issues and get him to fix them before grouting. I don't think you need someone else.

Good luck.
clocktrasher
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you very much for your response. We actually didn't even think about the shoe moulding and so did not discuss it beforehand. I wish it had been brought to our attention first though to get our thoughts on the matter, but it's only three tiles at this point that would need replacing to fix that. I also think we should have a threshold between the bathroom and 'toilet' room. A lot of the cut tiles leave a lot to be desired. I wish I could post more pics but pics are only working from my phone for some reason. I'll see if I can get some more, but I appreciate the vote to keep the guy and just have him fix things :)
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clocktrasher
Original Author
9 years ago
lower part of the niche, left tile smaller than right

more weirdness around the bench

is it ok for the gaps where the corners meet to be different sizes? Some are butted up together, some have a gap.

I also don't love how the floor isn't lined up with the walls. It looks like he lined it up with the drain, but that caused it to go at an angle on the walls. Could the drain have been moved or are we pretty much stuck with that?

Thanks again for looking!
millworkman
9 years ago
Honestly from the appearances of the tile work I would have grave concerns about what is underneath that mess. To me it looks like a complete do over.
clocktrasher
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you for your input, I'm very worried that it will need to be. The shower pan liner looked to be OK, but I don't recall if it was pre-sloped or whatever I read about after the matter. The backerboard in the shower had some large gaps in between sheets, but he taped them, then mortar and waterproofed it with some blue paint stuff. I was hoping all that was OK. I'm really nervous about asking for it all to be corrected, but it needs to be right :/
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
9 years ago
Leaky benches are just horrible.
clocktrasher
Original Author
9 years ago
Yikes! I def don't want that!

Thank you, MongoCT, too for your detailed response. I told them before the first tile even went down that I was concerned some of the plywood might not be even (on the floor, I wasn't sure about the substrate on the walls being uneven), but they seemed to just brush it off. I would have liked that sort of thing to be fixed while we had the chance. Once I saw the bench tiles were not right, I pointed it out and the installer said the plywood wasn't straight..ugh.

I wanted to post some pictures that we got of the waterproofing process. I don't know if it was a job well done or not, but it did seem like they were doing some good things. I did not see any nails in the shower pan too low on the walls. The bench looked weird but the plumber said that's how it had to be done. I also never heard mention of a preslope but I wasn't there to see so I hope it was done? When they tested the pan the water drained out but the he kind of pushed it toward the drain to get it down faster. That has me worried now.

and waterproofing around the tub surround

Thanks again for all the helpful responses!
clocktrasher
Original Author
9 years ago
Update just in case it's ever helpful to anyone: We stayed in close contact with our contractor over the sub's work, and before long the contractor agreed that the work was no good, and without even having to outright ask, they told us they would tear out and start over from scratch. We are very happy they did.. ended up doing the work themselves and it turned out pretty nice. Here is a photo from the finished work (we still have to paint the walls). Thanks again for the help.
FeatherBee
9 years ago
Yay for happy endings!!! The bathroom looks fabulous!!