Tiler mistakes - Advice required

Oldsoak

Just as an after thought, if you paid less than £120/day or £20/m2 then he probably isn't a pro tiler.

keystone

Two minds with but a single though not just once but twice OS.

Very poor understanding of layout. This is why you never try and have a whole tile at a horizontal interface whether that be bath, ceiling or floor.

How much are you paying him for this? If you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you can have a cheap job or you can have a good job but you can't have a good cheap job.

If he really is a tiler and you are paying a proper price for the job then it should all come off and be redone. Fire him without paying hiom a penny and get soimeone else. It looks like he's used tubbed stuff anyway so it won't have dried yet in which case it will come down quickly if done with care and the tiles will all be salvageable and reusable.

If he's not a tiler, doesn't know better and this is being done on the cheap then you share the responsibility tbh and its a different approach. Get him to take it down, clean up the tiles and have a sensible discussion with him about whether he is capable of doing it properly. If he says he is and you can be convinced then let him try but he doesn't get paid a penny until you are satisfied.

Alternatively agree you both made a mistake, get them all down and cleaned up, slip him a small amount bit of beer money for his time and find someone to do it propely.

As a matter of interest why does what has been done seems to have been grouted already? I do hope he's not using combined adhesive and grout which is absolute pants.

Cheers

tonyfaestoney

keystone wrote: »

Two minds with but a single though not just once but twice OS.

Very poor understanding of layout. This is why you never try and have a whole tile at a horizontal interface whether that be bath, ceiling or floor.

How much are you paying him for this? If you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you can have a cheap job or you can have a good job but you can't have a good cheap job.

If he really is a tiler and you are paying a proper price for the job then it should all come off and be redone. Fire him without paying hiom a penny and get soimeone else. It looks like he's used tubbed stuff anyway so it won't have dried yet in which case it will come down quickly if done with care and the tiles will all be salvageable and reusable.

If he's not a tiler, doesn't know better and this is being done on the cheap then you share the responsibility tbh and its a different approach. Get him to take it down, clean up the tiles and have a sensible discussion with him about whether he is capable of doing it properly. If he says he is and you can be convinced then let him try but he doesn't get paid a penny until you are satisfied.

Alternatively agree you both made a mistake, get them all down and cleaned up, slip him a small amount bit of beer money for his time and find someone to do it propely.

As a matter of interest why does what has been done seems to have been grouted already? I do hope he's not using combined adhesive and grout which is absolute pants.

Cheers

Ok spoken to tiler who feels really bad about it and agreed not to take payment on either bathroom. So appreciate all your comments.

Now left with the problem of getting another tiler as he is fully booked and from what I hear it is November at earliest to get another tiler.

P.S. We had run out of tiles so that is why only 3 walls are grouted and some tiles still to go up. This allowed the plumber to install all the furniture and shower and would just have left the towel rail to go in.

Thanks again for all your advice.

cyclonebri1

tonyfaestoney wrote: »

Ok spoken to tiler who feels really bad about it and agreed not to take payment on either bathroom. So appreciate all your comments.

Now left with the problem of getting another tiler as he is fully booked and from what I hear it is November at earliest to get another tiler.

P.S. We had run out of tiles so that is why only 3 walls are grouted and some tiles still to go up. This allowed the plumber to install all the furniture and shower and would just have left the towel rail to go in.

Thanks again for all your advice.

Look given you have the job done for free it would be very easy to cover these mistakes with quadrant tiles or similar.

Not what you would have wanted but you got a free deal and it can be made respectable without total rip out.

Thats the worrying part of this thread :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
A fully booked incompetent tiler, ooooerrr:mad:

DaftyDuck

Your tiler may not have charged you, but he should reimburse you for the used tiles - it is not up to you to face that cost!

cyclonebri1

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Your tiler may not have charged you, but he should reimburse you for the used tiles - it is not up to you to face that cost!

But if the situation can be rescued, which I think it can, then why the hassle and mess again??

tonyfaestoney

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

But if the situation can be rescued, which I think it can, then why the hassle and mess again??

This would depend on the individual I suppose. I did not envisage anything other than a neatly finished bathroom to house all the expensive vanity units, shower etc I have forked out for.

To have to put up something to cover the gaps somewhat takes some appeal away from what could be a very smart contemprary room.

Some people would say not a problem but I know most would want if finished to a standard expected of a tiler.

ian103

i totally agree

we had a new bathroom in our last house, the desired effect required the plasterwork, tiling etc to be spot on. thankfully the chap who did the tiling was a perfectionist.

in our new house we tiled the utility as we wanted to try tiling, not perfect but good enough for what we wanted. when we do the bathroom we will use a tiler as we will want all the details properly installing etc.

Avoriaz

liam8282 wrote: »

I am certainly not a tiler, but the job isn't even finished yet, maybe it will look better when it is done.

Maybe it is your window and ceiling that are not aligned, which is why there are differing gaps, made all the more obvious because there are now tiles in place.

I don't see how a tiler would be able to compensate for a ceiling or window which is running out of line?

They do that on every job as almost every ceiling and window is out of true to a greater or lesser extent.

I'm not a pro tiler but I would imagine that lesson one in tiling is measuring up and working out where to start the first complete row and column of tiles so that you don’t end up with the bodged job that the OP has.

Tiling shouldn’t normally start with a whole tile at the top, bottom or corner. The tiling should be worked out so that all edges are done with part tiles, each part tile being cut to exactly fit. The part tiles are cut with a straight edge if that part of the ceiling or wall is straight or (to answer the bit in bold) an angled cut if there is a slope or angle to accommodate.

It would be astonishing if a wall was exactly the right size and perfectly true so that only whole tiles would be a precise fit.

A decent tiler will measure up everything before he or she starts tiling, and aim to achieve a balanced appearance.

He or she will start tiling away from the top, bottom and side edges, working towards each edge, having calculated that each edge is reasonably close to half a tile. Too small cuts of tile can look odd but are usually easy to avoid by careful measurement.

I learned all that with my first, and so far only, DIY tiling job. It may not be perfect advice but I followed it and my tiling looked good.

liam8282

^ I didn't really think about it in depth before posting, as I said I am not a tiler! I just didn't get it at first, but do now.

I will be getting some tiling done very soon, so I am interested in this thread.

All good points and things to look out for when I get my work done.