No. It's not the best way. Sometimes ppl do it to save money.

just install more tile over what's there? up onto the tub and vanity? seems crazy to me. yes, it's work to jackhammer it up and lay it again, but this guy blew it. if a sheet or two could be reversed to fix it, it would be no big deal, but it looks like a mess.

so sorry you have to deal with this!!

Yes, the original contractor and the second tile guy are both saying to just tile over it (the floor tile). There's room for another layer at the vanity (there's actually this funky gap), but it would go up on the tub a little higher. Thanks for noticing they screwed up. They acted like I was crazy at first! Haha!

Unfortunately, the best way to remedy this is tearing it all out and laying it correctly. Absolutely do not let them lay new tile over that.

Of course they'll tell you it's a good way to do it....it's easier for them.

They need to fix this to YOUR satisfaction, not theirs.

P.S. this isn't the first mess-up of this pattern I've seen here. It astounds me every time. A child could see that it's wrong, for goodness sake...

I'm so sorry. You'll get through this.

I know! I don't even know what I'm doing and I could have done a better job!

Tile can be and often is installed over existing tile but it's to save time and money. Three things about this I don't understand. I think they might save 1st timers from a similar problem. #1. Tile this size is usually on 6 or 12 inch square fiberglass mesh to speed install without compermising durability. Why did you chose individual pieces? #2. Any time materials are of different size,color or shape and not to be used 50%-50%,there's always a discussion before work is completed. Was this never discussed? #3. Customer go's to tile store to chose tile for 99% of jobs. I can't imagine why salesman would write the order without showing customer optional patterns. Who chose tile for this job?

The faster they start getting it up, the easier it will be. Bond strength only increases over time. Best removal method will be dependent on what the tile is bonded to, but a rotary hammer usually makes pretty fast work of it and it also good for taking down any thinset ridges left behind.

klem1, thank you for your comment. To answer your questions:

1) This tile was on 12in square mesh, not in individual pieces and this is the job I ended up with.

2) Because it comes in the 12X12 pieces, it should be very easy to put the pattern together. They never raised concern to me that they would struggle with the pattern, so I thought I was in good hands. The person who laid the tile admitted that he screwed up because he was rushing and not properly matching up the pieces.

3) I chose the tile and sent the contractor one month before the job the exact tile I wanted. He didn't order it and instead waited till the week of install to run around town to try to find a "matching" tile. He didn't get the brand/type I wanted, but I let that go because we were staying in a hotel for the week as this is our only bathroom. Once I saw that the job was screwed up, I let him know I wasn't happy that he didn't order the exact brand of tile I wanted. I have now since ordered it myself and it's ready to go in.

OMG,I would have never thought anyone could screw up the pattern while using 12x12 sheets,that's why I just knew they did the jig-saw puzzle number. No excuse. Home owners often learn from their mistake,in this case the installer will hopfully learn from his mistake by the time he straighten's this out.

The installer must think you're stupid....It's akin to getting color-by-number wrong :( OTOH, this is NOT open to any kind of interpretation, so you've got that going for you....

Once again, so sorry. He needs to eat the cost of this, imho.

"The person who laid the tile admitted that he screwed up because he was rushing and not properly matching up the pieces."

They know it is wrong. They want the easy way out. Another issue is that two layers of tile may create a height difference where one room meets the other.

Well, that's a shame. It will look so nice when it's done right though. I do think you want it to come up before the redo.

You COULD leave it as is for when guests have been drinking just a tiny bit but you want them to go home now and by going in the bathroom think they've had more than they've actually had, but that's really too specific a situation to leave your floor like this.

first off,,no. you don't tile on top of tile. they just don't want to take it all out and redo it.

second,,,I looked at a few more installs of this tile...anyway he could fix the spots out of whack? right at the entry way, and from the toilet back, the black lines are out of whack. do they not see that??

these are the spots I see. can you show them this and then show them the good installs below? Tell them no,,they cannot tile on top of this. tell them that some BS lazy sh*& and since they screwed it up, they can remove it and do it correctly.

Oh goodness...

I'm just going to chime in on the 'tile on top of tile' thing. Yes it is an easy way out and it is perpetuating more crappy work and laziness. I wouldn't be inclined to accept that solution from someone I paid to do the job right.

However, I will say our bathroom had 70's mosaic tile laid on top of the original 1928 mosaic - it was on for 40 years and really didn't have any ill effects. In our old house, the step up was managed by a threshold and not noticeable as there always other random transitions. Lucky for us the old tiles came off pretty easy with some sort of baby jackhammer and we were able to restore the original mud-set porcelain!

"You COULD leave it as is for when guests have been drinking"

That's evil. *_*

BTW,are you the same one as "extremely unhappy Fori"?

quality comes with a pricetag, dont shop so hard for A price point when it comes to hiring A tile professiional and learn from this

"quality comes with a pricetag, dont shop so hard for A price point when it comes to hiring A tile professiional and learn from this"

All true,however I think most will benefit from knowing how much additional should have been budgeted for this job to assure it turned out satisfactory. Looking at it from the standpoint of interviewing installers,what is the minimum number of jobs an install need's under his belt to lay a pattern with 12x12 sheets? Should a diyer be able to lay the same floor without messing up the pattern?

Freshly laid tile comes off much easier than old, as cement is not 100% cured. That needs to be jackhammered off and redone. Was anybody supervising? But regardless, not acceptable and not what you paid for.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Beth, I was thinking they could just fix the incorrect areas, too, but once you start looking at it closely, you see the incorrect areas are EVERYWHERE! Haha! I'm definitely going to request that they remove it and I will go with a new tile installer instead of giving them a shot at re-doing it. I'm not feeling very confident in their abilities at this point. I also don't feel like they have my best interest at heart.

Also, fyi on the pricing comments, the professional tile installers are actually both charging about the same to do the job as what this contractor charged. The part that is costing me more having to re-do it is the material. I think the original contractor didn't buy enough tile, so they used a lot of smaller pieces to try to keep the cost down. I bought an abundance of new tile to ensure I don't have this issue when it's re-done.

Every single “professional tile setter” you have talked to so far is NOT. They are low budget hacks. All of them. They have all given you the wrong answers here. You need to find someone actually competent. Not a $500 git ur dun or Homey Despot Hangout kinda guy.

Are any if these people licensed contractors? Do they have insurance that you actually verified? Do they have a portfolio of past work? No. No. And No. on all counts.

Sophie, it seems like you just like to troll and be negative. You don't know who I've talked to. Are you here with me? No! So I advise you to stop correcting me and what I'm doing and go take your old lady purple hair elsewhere.

Undebateable @ klem ( says houzz) but. that layout tells me something underneath just may be amiss. Oh my.

People can go ahead and hire on the basis "Its easy just 12x12 sheets" so easy as we see here daily...Oh my

@ op in my market and in my version Id have tore that floor down to the structure rebuilt it properly and properly prepped your floor with an impeccable layout, a real contract, wrrty and all. Youd be pleased and Id walk with about 2K for the floor job.

@thatsmuchbetter @klem1 This wasn't about shopping for a certain price point at all. I wasn't looking to hire cheap, I was looking to hire "good". That being said, this is a small 1940's cottage, not Versailles we are talking about. I hired a contractor who seemed capable of doing a good job and ended up with a bit of a mess on my hands. I have since had two professional tile installers (both with good references, etc.) come out and tell me two different ways in which they would fix this problem. One said remove and start over, the other said tile over it. Hence, my reason for asking Houzz's opinion. I appreciate what both of you have offered. I feel confident now that the floor "should" be removed and I know that I will feel much better having a separate tile installer do the job, instead of letting the original contractor attempt to re-do it.

"I wasn't looking to hire cheap, I was looking to hire "good". That being said, this is a small 1940's cottage, not Versailles we are talking about. I hired a contractor who seemed capable"

Well there it is all of a sudden you realize you need a pro, lets hope youve made a smarter decision this time. How much will be lost if youve failed to hire smart this second time? and what if anything have you done to eductae yourself in how to remove, prepare and install this time around? walk us thru it?

Contractors should have the same disclaimer as investments...past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Regardless of the research done, and references checked, even a topnotch contractor may have problems beyond his control like accidents, illnesses and emergencies. No one can absolutely guarantee that hiring a specific contractor will guarantee the expected outcome.

its more about shopping for deals and getting just that if i read between the liness of what op said its obvious whats happened what may happen again we see it allday here on hooz

It reads like she doesnt care that much about her home and is willing to gamble on good enough and those 2 statements go hand in hand.

I work for folks with 80k condos and 2mil homes. I find the 80k want the same quality as the rich. Its about caring about your home and the quality work done to it.

You choose to invest in the hiring process at somepoint

so sorry. Make sure you re-coup the added demolition cost from your original contractor as well as the refund. Anxious to see the after photos when it's all corrected.

I wouldn't want the added height of tiling over existing tile, nor would I be comfortable with the whole idea of tile on tile anyway. It's sad to face re-doing something over such a stupid mistake, but I would opt for pulling it out and starting over.