Just for reference, it's supposed to look like this.

I like the random way you have it now better.

Seriously? To me it looks too close to what it should to be okay. If it was all random that would be one thing, but the random spots are only in patches. I suppose we could put a bath rug over it.

How hard is it to pry up individual tiles that small? Probably would wreck the whole thing?

I’m also a perfectionist and I totally like it this way.
It doesn’t look bad at all :) truly. I don’t think prying up individual tiles will help you.
I’d leave it. I think you’ll get used to it.
I love it as is!

It's so bad that it's good. Way better than a "just missed".

Time heals all decoration and rehab wounds. You'll forget about it, put a rug down, life goes on and you'll never remember. If you do remember you're letting the tile take up space without paying rent.

I also like it!

Wow, I was not expecting anyone to like this. Thanks, guys. I feel a little better. The edges are still pretty bad, but that's a little more fixable.

Looks good to me too.

Quentin, it's totally fine. It looks like it was laid in a deliberate random pattern. Like you said, get some bath mats down and no one will ever notice what pattern it makes, or doesn't make.

I think it’s a happy little floor and totally fine!

I think the random looks better than the original.

Looks good and the rough edge cuts at wall cover with baseboards and if really off shoe molding or maybe bit more grout can blend in the gap

I don't like it, but I don't hate it enough to go through the mess of pulling it up. I say leave it. You'll both get used to it.

Thanks! It still looks very haphazard to me and it's overall a poor job (grout lines of uneven thickness), but I know I'm a little fastidious. Beggars can't be choosers; we will learn to live with it. We got in a hurry because we need it to be functional soon.

My wife said to me that a blind person couldn't have done a worse job. I'm still puzzling out if I should feel good about that or not. :) Maybe it was a compliment? At any rate, next time I'm doing everything myself. Accepting help is always a risk.

Agreed. I have had enough experience to know that either I hire a very reputable PRO, with a contract that I can count on, or I learn how to do it myself. Unfortunately most of the "hey I can do that for ya" folks have no friggin' idea what really should be done.

I think it looks fine, too. A search of this site will result in some pics of much worse installations of this tile by 'pro's'!

@Chessie. I completely agree. Either spend a lot of money and get a good result, or do the best you can yourself. It's my house so I have more invested in being careful and getting it right, even if it's challenging for me. Our friend did a decent job in his own bathrooms so I don't know what went wrong here. I think he was in a hurry. It's probably also my fault for choosing the one inch hexagons instead of something slightly larger.

I think once I trim the edges it will be okay. The pattern we can deal with, we can't do anything about the uneven spaces, there are a few really bad places with chipped tile that I am not sure how to hide. Any thoughts on trim around the bathtub?

Can anyone tell me how hard this will be to remove if we decide to do that? Every time I see it it looks worse.

Quentin, I am a perfectionist also. Many years ago when we were building a home, I walked into the house took one look at the spindles on our stairway and pointed out to the contractor that one spindle was on upside down. He disgustedly shook his head and told me no one else ever would have noticed. With that being said, I love your floor because it’s interesting and looks intentional. I know the perfectionist in me would be driven insane if I walked into the room and saw the floor that wat but it would simply be because I had perfection in mind.

i don’t know anything about removing tile so can’t comment on the ease of removal. Good luck with it if you decide to remove it. I’d bet dollars to donuts it will be out of there asap!

Quentin, I like it! It looks more interesting this way. Kinda cool, IMO.

I would imagine the sooner you get it up the easier it will be, should you decide you must do that.

I absolutely like it! I am definitely a perfectionist and this looks great. It shows individuality and not looking like everyone else's. Please tell her that it looks great!

I admit, I would spend a rather ridiculous amount of time just staring at this floor were this my bathroom. I would be like a cat staring out a window. Whether that is good or bad, I don't know.

Rotary hammer with chisel blade willl take it up fast I"ve used this to take up tile many times. THere are larger tool that are more expensive. You may be able to rent from homedepot. But if you need to purchase this works

Milwaukee 8 Amp Corded 1 in. SDS D-Handle Rotary Hammer-5262-21 - The Home Depot

Milwaukee 1-7/8 in. Steel SDS-Plus SLEDGE Steel Tile Chisel-48-62-6030 - The Home Depot

I would have to agree with your wife. I would never be able to deal with that haphazard look and would have to get it off the floor. There are places where unique and not the expected works, but to me, this is not the place.
I do know you have a window of time where it's easier to get off the floor. In any case, I would rent what Rehabit suggests and get to it so it could be relaid properly.

Easy to demo and redo. I could not live with that.

@bry911 It makes me kind of dizzy looking at it. I hoped it would seem better after the initial shock but it's actually worse.

@User Does that mean taking up the subfloor as well?

It's a little more than $400 of tile and supplies, not to mention the work. Not a huge amount, but I still need to give it some thought before I start ripping everything up. The bathroom was terrible and it was never going to be perfect, but I had hoped our contributions would be positive rather than adding to the disaster. The pattern isn't the only problem. The grout lines are uneven, the edges are incredibly bad, lippage, chipped tiles, etc. Also, I told him to start at the door (especially in an old house where nothing is straight) so the straight edge would be what's first seen. He started on the far corner behind the toilet. It's quite bad. We just need this bathroom done before October, so it's a tough call.

I could live with it and probably wouldn’t even notice after a bit. Seriously, no one is going to study your floor.

I've used to take up cement board and tile. Its a messy job u want to put up some plastic over door cause its dusty mess. I used it to take up schulter membrane that was done very badly by previous owner. . I scored the plastic and took it out in chunks. Good luck!

Any chance I could spare the cement board by just using a chisel, or is that impractical? I don't know how hard it is to scrape thinset off the backer board.

If it were just the pattern I think we could live with it. Take a look at these grout lines. Also all the edges are unbelievable. The walls don't matter but the tub does.

If we left it I'd have to do something like this to the tub to cover that edge.

Oh ugh - the grout lines look awful. Man I would hate to have to pull it up, but yea I probably would have to go there.

One more question. It's been a day since this all went down. Is it going to be any easier to get it off if I do it sooner, or does that not matter at this point? I'm assuming everything is well set already, in which case I'll probably take a little more time to deliberate.

I’m late to the convo but I’d definitely start over. Sorry but the pattern placement is so bad it’s making me dizzy!

Sorry, Quentin, but I'd never be able to get over that. It's just not the way it's supposed to be nor intended to be. I love that tile - I had it put down in a bathroom in a house I used to own and I loved it. My disappointment (anger?) about this poor job would keep me awake at night.

First world problem, for sure. But .... here we are.

I haven't decided yet what I'll do. At this point taking it all up sounds just as bad as living with it.

Quentin, having just looked at tons of houses and finally buying one, I can tell you that one bathroom floor is not the end of the world. You have done an utterly amazing transformation on this house. As a DIYer a mistake is bound to happen as you tackle the amount of work that you've done. Heck, we've seen allegedly professional jobs posted here which look way worse than that.

Not to be snarky, but the next buyer of this home is not likely to be as discerning as the crew here on this website is. It's a first time buyer home, right?

My advice is that speed isn't necessary on this. Clean it up and move on to the next project. Let it percolate around in your mind. Maybe you forget about it. Maybe one day you decide it's got to come out. Whatever. It still looks better than what was there.

No matter what you decide to do, you've added tons of value to this house and you should be proud.

It mostly boils down to how much the floor bothers you. If you are a perfectionist: you may decide to rip it up if you just can’t stand seeing the minor imperfections in the floor. If you are not a perfectionist, then you will learn to live with it and not notice it as much in weeks to come. Most people fall into some shade of gray between “perfectionism” and more “carefree” as to what they will accept in renovations. As my husband always says: “don’t sweat the small stuff”. You just need to decide if this flooring issue is small stuff or big stuff. I hope these posts help you in your journey❣️

Thanks! We basically just put it out of our minds and haven't gone in there in two months. Needless to say I never got the bathroom functional by my wife's deadline. Anyway, we've decided not to be perfectionists - it's an old house and there are worse things we can't change. So now I'm looking into trimming everything including the tub, covering the radiator etc. My wife will get used to it and be glad just to have a functioning bathroom, and I can't see imperfections anyway. Hopefully a rug will help. We have learned a lot for next time.

I think it’s pretty awesome … it tells a story. :)

I have installed that tile in dry good stores in many different parts of the country. and you can razor knife the grout out, then you have to make sure to knife the little plastic nibs or tabs holding the tiles physically together in the sheet, carefully pop the single tile, scrape grout down to original floor, then thinset and line up the single tile of your choice and regrout and “voilá!”. i like that tile, it makes me dizzy to look at anything not in the correct pattern. we have made our own patterns as well this way, a little time consuming but pretty when done.