Please help! Is this tiling a good enough standard?

Itsokaytonotbeokay

Hi,

We wrestled with the decision of whether to do our own floor levelling and tiling or to pay the £1,500 (so much money to us!!!) to get it done professionally. We took the plunge after our plasterer told us how difficult it can be to get the tiles level. We'd already spent so much trying to make it into our dream home, we thought it would be worth the investment (even if we have to now wait and save to make the rest of our rooms useable!).

We're feeling really disappointed with the outcome. Many of the tiles are out of line, some aren't level, a couple are chipped (only a tiny bit in the corners) and the grout isn't even, lines are messy and in parts grainy (mixed in adhesive?) There's also grout on the tiles that they hadn't cleaned off. It's not the absolute worst job in the world... but we just wanted to sense check, are we being reasonable or are we being silly with expectations that are too high?

If we'd have known it would have looked like this we definitely wouldn't have paid £1,500. I'm sure we could have done a better job ourselves!? The room is 35 sqm and the tiles are 800x800mm. The levelling took one guy 1-2 hours one day then another 1-2 hours the next day. He also levelled half way into tiling. It took 2 guys 2 days for the tiling and one hour for the grouting the next day.

Some pics are below (excuse the tape - using this to help mark out issues!) it wont let me post links, so please take out the spaces

https://ibb.co/album/N7CBjc
https://ibb.co/album/Kcw5W4
(I can now post links!)

Edit: Totally unrelated but our cameras also saw them peeing in our garden! One time on the newly rendered wall!

Thank you 

SaverRate

That looks awful!

grumbler

https://ibb.co/album/N7CBjc
https://ibb.co/album/Kcw5W4

SaverRate

Linked...

Tiling — ImgBB (ibb.co)
Tiles — ImgBB (ibb.co)

HampshireH

You paid them?

Why did you pay them after they did such a bad job 

I would be getting back in touch first thing tomorrow and requesting they return and rectify

Itsokaytonotbeokay

It was a tough one because we couldn't stand on the tiles to closely have a look - and the ones that look on the better side are near the door where they started. So we didn't know until 24 hours later when we could have a look

I got in touch with them today and they said they are coming back tomorrow. I've asked what they are going to do but they haven't messaged back. Is it possible to rectify the laying of the tiles without breaking them? Worried it might be made worse if they try to..?!

grumbler

Itsokaytonotbeokay said:

 Is it possible to rectify the laying of the tiles without breaking them?

No chance.

Pretty often tiles noticeably vary in size. If this really was the case, they should have checked this first and discussed with you before laying them.

Itsokaytonotbeokay

grumbler said:

Itsokaytonotbeokay said:

 Is it possible to rectify the laying of the tiles without breaking them?

No chance.

Pretty often tiles noticeably vary in size. If this really was the case, they should have checked this first and discussed with you before laying them.

I spoke with the company I bought the tiles from and they said they were rectified and will all have been exactly the same size and that they need to be laid precisely. So don't think the tiles were different sizes. Maybe the chips, but like you said, they could have told us when they saw them - or used a different tile as we made sure we had extra.

Grumbler, do you know what our options are then? Really gutted we have to live with a crappy job, especially after spending so much on it. Regret is an understatement

DCFC79

Thats a really poor job, was it done by an adult or a 12 year old who was bored ?
You should have them rectify it or get your money back to get the job redone by someone else.

MalMonroe

I'm a secretary by trade and what I know about tiling can be written on a postage stamp but I could do a better job than that. And for less than £1500 too.  Would THEY be happy with that kind of a job in their homes? You're not being silly with your expectations, any reasonable person would want a good job to be done. 

Is your 'plasterer' a proper professional?  If so I'd have to report them to whichever association they purport to be in. 

I would also ask them for a refund and would not have them back under any circumstances. They obviously don't know what they're doing and can only make matters worse - in my opinion and experience of 'tradespeople' like this (I'm sure many others have had a similar experience at some time or other, too).

Plus I'd definitely tell them to stop weeing multiple times on people's properties! How disgusting.

Itsokaytonotbeokay

DCFC79 said:

Thats a really poor job, was it done by an adult or a 12 year old who was bored ?
You should have them rectify it or get your money back to get the job redone by someone else.

Is it rectifiable? I'm so worried they're going to make it worse!

If they try but it still looks bad, are we within our rights to request a full refund? We'd still end up massively out of pocket as we'd need to pay for them to be pulled up, and then another £800 on new tiles again! (We provided the tiles and paid them for labour, levelling, adhesive and grout).