Tiling, is this "good enough" from a pro?

Tiling, is this "good enough" from a pro?

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Discussion

aww999

Original Poster:

2,068 posts

260 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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So, after spending month's of weekends redoing my bathroom, I got a tiler in to stick the tiles on the brand new, dead plumb, wedi-boarded walls. I think he has underquoted and therefore rushed some key details. Am I being too fussy?

Pic 1 shows how the level of the mosaic tiles is 2-3mm below the level of the wall tiles. They seem to be fairly "in and out" along the whole length of the wall, but right at the end they sink below the finished tile level leaving a wobbly grout line where it hurts up to the painted wall.

Pic 2 shows the opposite wall, where the mosaic run ends 10mm short of the painted wall, and the three tiles above it are all cut crooked. I presume he plans to fill these gaps with grout.

So, good enough for a pro? He has had 3 days at this 2m X 2m bathroom, 750 quid for labour. Not done yet. It would have taken me three times as long but I would have kept redoing it as required until it looked right! I am worried that now it's set any rectification work may damage my carefully laid (and quite expensive!) watertight boards.




jas xjr

11,309 posts

238 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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Looks DIY standard to me but should look look better once grouted

p4cks

6,885 posts

198 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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Aye, once the grout's in it should look much better

Vanden Saab

13,889 posts

73 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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I would not put my name to it... He should have used beaver mesh to bring the mosaics out to the level of the wall tiles and those cuts are just dire unless that is into the corner and they will be hidden by the return. Cannot comment on the price without knowing where in the country you are and how many metres of tiling there are in total? I would be asking him to re-do the mosaics properly though.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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Mastic bead against the wall and should look fine although the mosaics are sitting in a bit and seem a bit short of the corner.

Sonie

238 posts

107 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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The thing that can’t change is the fact he has used 3 mosaic tiles the same next to each other on pic 3 on far left. It looks wrong.


MDMA .

8,849 posts

100 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
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Sonie said:
The thing that can’t change is the fact he has used 3 mosaic tiles the same next to each other on pic 3 on far left. It looks wrong.
The tile that is 2 above the mosaic looks completely different in style and colour compared to the others too. Might just be the light though.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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Looks like my level of tiling ! The corner will be hidden by the tiles yet to be laid on the adjacent wall so won't worry about that. The mosaics are thinner than the tiles hence they have sunk a bit. You'll never notice once it's all finished.

Sounds like you took the cheapest quote based on your comment about underquoting, so best not to expect a totally perfect text book finish.

aww999

Original Poster:

2,068 posts

260 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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The problem is that those edges will be seen, there are no tiles going onto the white wall. If he had started from that end and worked backwards then he could have lost any errors with an overlap at the other end.

I wasn't fussed about how much I paid, but this was the only guy I could find that didn't have a 3mth waiting list...starting to see why!

p4cks

6,885 posts

198 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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I'm not sure that you start at the edges when you're tiling

thebraketester

14,191 posts

137 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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I you are asking the question then the answer is no.

wormus

14,497 posts

202 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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Is he registered blind? Perhaps he asked his Labrador to have a go.

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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About the same standard as your photography... almost impossible to comment on those pics

Vanden Saab

13,889 posts

73 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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p4cks said:
I'm not sure that you start at the edges when you're tiling
It depends on how square the walls are and how the room works out. It is not an exact science. Normally you would work out from the centre but windows, doors, niches and fittings might make that impossible. I could plan a room to be tiled in which you would have to break every rule in the book to make it work. ie. look right preferably without any small cuts.

3 month waiting list is good, All the decent tilers around here are booked up for at least six months. Apart from me, My business plan is to not get booked up beyond 6 weeks which means I am the only available good tiler in the area and can pick and choose which jobs I want to do and charge a premium accordingly.

paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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aww999 said:
The problem is that those edges will be seen, there are no tiles going onto the white wall. If he had started from that end and worked backwards then he could have lost any errors with an overlap at the other end.

I wasn't fussed about how much I paid, but this was the only guy I could find that didn't have a 3mth waiting list...starting to see why!
If it makes you feel any better, it's miles better than any of the tiling my in laws have had done over the last few years. I reckon by the time you've found any tiler, let alone a good one, you'd have spent less time faffing about if you'd just bought the tiles and done it yourself round here.

There's a lot to be said for getting the job done by someone that actually cares about what it looks like rather than how quickly they can get paid.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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Vanden Saab said:
It depends on how square the walls are and how the room works out. It is not an exact science. Normally you would work out from the centre but windows, doors, niches and fittings might make that impossible. I could plan a room to be tiled in which you would have to break every rule in the book to make it work. ie. look right preferably without any small cuts.

3 month waiting list is good, All the decent tilers around here are booked up for at least six months. Apart from me, My business plan is to not get booked up beyond 6 weeks which means I am the only available good tiler in the area and can pick and choose which jobs I want to do and charge a premium accordingly.
Superb!

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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aww999 said:
The problem is that those edges will be seen, there are no tiles going onto the white wall. If he had started from that end and worked backwards then he could have lost any errors with an overlap at the other end.

I wasn't fussed about how much I paid, but this was the only guy I could find that didn't have a 3mth waiting list...starting to see why!
Oh well, it won't look aweful once the grout is on. If I wander round and inspect my work close up I can find the faults, but when I'm in the shower or bathroom, neither I, nor anyone else notices.

(it is odd how he has such poor edges on the cut ends. Is he using a tile saw? or snapping them? or an angle grinder?). It almost looks like he's compensatiing for a leaning wall, but then the tiles below the mosaic are square.

Chamon_Lee

3,778 posts

146 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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OP I have made the same mistake as you, I had 4 bathrooms to be done, I had one tiler booked in 2 months in advance for 2 of them but the other two I wanted done sooner, Managed to get another two tilers. 1 could start in 2 weeks! brilliant!

Yours is not too great but its not the worst. 1 of mine is shocking (but managed to salvage it myself), the other one is good but the two I had done from the long waiting list person are pin perfect.

I had a look at both of your images and there are some concerns, in your first image where you have the recessed mosaics I would hazzard it will not be worth correcting and doesnt look "bad". your second image I would personally recommend that the top tile is redone, there is a flick off the corner of the tile and that alone will mean that the silicone bead line will be thicker than it needs to be to cover that.

Again in the second image the mosaic has quite a large gap to get to the wall. Personally I would cut down 3 mosaics and take them right to the end of the wall. that way your silicone bead line can be as thin as possible. That corner should not be grouted anyway as silicone should be there. good luck!

As an example my tiler took 6-7 days to do our bathroom - similar size to yours 2mx2m but he is very very fussy about his own work, personally I think he takes too long, should be 5 days but I can't complain if he wants to do a good job! He once spent 1 hour on one tile because it was a hair out from the tile it was running off. Eventually I had to tell him to leave it!!

Ps all my walls were bent and had curves and all sorts but before my "excellent" tiler started, he checked all this and had drawn out were the tiles would be, how big the cuts would be at the top etc etc



Edited by Chamon_Lee on Thursday 18th April 16:11

Wozy68

5,387 posts

169 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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£250 a day ....... to tile a wall, blimey I’m seriously in the wrong trade

designforlife

3,734 posts

162 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
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My brother is a sparky and he can tile better than that, I would be asking for it to be redone if you are paying for it and it isn't a mates rates deal.