Is this right here green board drywall? If so, you need to say no more about the "tile guy"...............

I think that is green tape on the shower pan?

Yea I believe it’s green tape millworkman. I’ll stop by tonight and check

I told the builder that I was unhappy with the job weeks ago. They basically keep saying “we’ll take a look at it, don’t worry we will make it right.” The pictures I posted are the second attempt at “fixing them”. I keep complaining and now I am being told “you should have chosen white grout and these subtleties wouldn’t be as noticeable.” While their statement is correct, it doesn’t change the fact that the “tile guy” does his job poorly. Are my thoughts justified by what you guys see?

Pretty poor workmanship. Layout should have been planned better. Thin strips of tiles at the top of the bench and the shower corners aren't wrapped. Corners should look like the tile is continuous, if the tile ends with 1/3 of a tile in the corner, there should be 2/3 of a tile on the adjacent wall. Hope that makes sense. Bench corner is terrible too.

the trend toward darker grout means that the tile person has to be exacting. If they know you are using darker grout, they have to use the right guys. If they don't have the right guys, you'll get what you get.

I've seen worse.

If the substrate to which it is attached is correct - a true cement board and good sealing to the pan, etc - I'd worry less about this and when you take in the view of the bath, in total, when it's complete, this will be less of an issue. the larger views that you show are not that bad - some odd spacing and cuts - but again - in total - I don't think it will scream 'bathroom fail" when it's all done.

I want to know what they used for waterproofing.

Cpartist I will look into it tomorrow and let you know.

How is the shower curtain going to work? It looks like the tile bench extends out past the shower pan.

You're building a "spec home" which indicates to me it will be for sale... or is someone reproducing a spec home for you to live in? Is there a licensed contractor involved? Licensed tile contractor?

Mark—we chose a frameless glass door/pane. No curtains.

Jeffrey—this is our first home and we will be living in it. There is a licensed contractor running the operation that we communicate with periodically. I am unaware of the specific person installing the tile.

tlee - the word spec means built on speculation. Built to put on the market for sale. So you are not building a spec house

Jeff - What state licenses tile contractors? I would doubt that SC does.

Probably not acceptable to me based on price point. I have heard that good tile people are hard to find and have gotten crazy expensive here in NC. Our house will have shockingly little tile.

Average and typical builder grade. Beyond the price incentive of a more expensive project to do better work, this is what is found in thousands of builds. If the green is Hydroban, then there is not a lot any low cost builder is going to do. You’re not doing custom. C level costs don’t get A level work.

David- as stated I’m not anywhere near an expert, but thanks for the correction in vocabulary. Thank you all for the replies. Sophie- I wouldn’t call $218/sq foot in a $124 average/ sq ft community C-level costs but that’s just my opinion.

That’s average new home costs. Not used home costs. You can’t compare new construction against older homes. The new car smell always comes at a premium.

Fair point; but I kindly disagree with you when it comes to the quality. No one should be told to expect C-level results when building a new home.

OK, back to the tile. Is the home being built on property you own or is it a home you will purchase at completion (purchasing a spec)? If you already own the property, the builder is working for you. Send the builder an email. "I'm concerned about the workmanship of the tile job in the shower. The joints are uneven, the tile does not line up.... etc. Please rectify." You have options to bring in an expert (another tile contractor or ceramic tile association/institute) to give you an opinion or take your photos to a tile store. I don't see a tile pro opinion. The opinion doesn't have to be in writing yet, but you will at least know the issues. If you are purchasing the home at completion, you may have other options, such as rejecting the deal if it doesn't meet industry standards. Read your contracts.

Thank you Jeffrey. I do not own the property and I will be purchasing the home at completion—I.e., purchasing a spec. Great advice on the contract—I read over my contract a few weeks ago and I can back out with the (likely) consequence of losing an earnest deposit of $5000. Hopefully, it doesn’t reach that point!

This is a tile grout combination that shows every flaw. And the installer didn’t care (as evidenced by the rookie mistake of having slivers of tiles where the wall meets the bench).

It looks unattractive. I’ve seen a lot of tile jobs like that so it seems that sloppy tile work is often accepted, which may make it difficult to get this fixed.

If this was my future house and the builder won’t cooperate, I’d redo the whole tile job myself after closing because getting a good tile job seems to be a matter of luck.

Thanks Galore. My wife and I talked about doing that. If it isn’t up to “par” by closing we were going to try to negotiate a price reduction in return for us redoing it ourselves.

Sooner you get that grout ALL out of those joints the better. Grout takes about 30 days to fully harden 100% if I am not mistaken.