Cheap?

So... long, less expensive tiles are often bowed. Lippage, it's called.

Also, 1/16 is to manufacturers specs?

WAY too small grout lines. Live with it or rip it all out. And redo with larger grout lines, medium bedding mortar, and maybe a leveling system. After doing the proper prep work for a flat floor.

Where did you source the tile? Through the contractor? Found it yourself? What source? What brand and line? Where did you find this guy? Do you have a copy of his license and insurance? Did you view past jobs? And what did you pay him?

As Sophie points out, this is an install + tile problem. It is a complete redo. Is this DIY or did you pay someone to do this? Long thin tiles will POOR off-set (really should be 1/3 off-set....yours are closer to 1/4 or less which is not good enough) and grout lines that are far too small. If you add that to bowed tiles (I would say all of them are bowed...which is why you are seeing sooooo much lippage) and a poor install without the proper mortar bed and without the use of a leveling system = perfect storm = the situation you are looking at in the photos.

As Sophie has already asked, who sourced the tiles? Who decided on the grout lines? S/he who is responsible for these two issues will have to pay for the replacement materials.

Who decided on the mortar/thinset option? Who made decisions about subfloor prep to achieve "flat"? Was it paid for? Who decided on the stagger-pattern? Who made the decision to work with (or without) a leveling system? The answers to these questions will tell you who's responsible for the cost of LABOR (which is roughly HALF the price of the job).

If this is NOT DIY, then you have some serious conversations ahead of you with your General Contractor and his/her choice of tile setter. If there is NO GC - meaning you are the GC - you will need to speak directly with the tile setter and decide the level of "fault" with this install.

Please answer a few of our questions and well help out a bit more.

Your GC, who provides thousands of dollars of work for them should be who has the muscle here. He should be solving this. You should never communicate anything substantive directly to his subcontractors.

For an inspection, if it comes to that, you need to have your copies of licenses and insurance provided by your GC and sub. You need pictures of the in progress work. The bags of the products that they used. The paper trail of who selected the floor, the pattern, and the spacing.

If none of these people are licensed and insured, and you furnished the product and the instructions as to how you wanted it set, then you are acting as the GC on the job. That muddies the issues and puts responsibility on to your shoulders.

As you are in Houston, call Paul Luccia at Cabot & Rowe. 713-459-6215 He is the master at this.

Bill...that is really something!

THanks