How not to do tile

Contractor agreed today to completely redo the backsplash in our kitchen redo.

Neither I nor the company owner were satisfied with the results or possible fixes. Stand up guy for doing this.

Basically, because they didn't think through the layout, put a rookie on the job that got insufficient guidance, and rushed the job, it's a mess and needs to be torn out and done correctly.

Unfortunately, I was too busy to keep an eye on them or it wouldn't have gotten this far. The same reason I hired out the job to begin with.

To get a true appreciation for the craftsmanship, you have to look at the album...

https://i.imgur.com/I2hFbnOI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/I2hFbnOI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I2hFbnOI.jpg
https://imgur.com/9FzOa08l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/I2hFbnOl.jpg


https://imgur.com/a/PtMUyu9

Got a little nipper happy I see. Glad you're getting it replaced but what a pia.

Wow. Glad to hear they are taking care of it.

That's ummm... "special"...[Shock]

https://media.giphy.com/media/hapr8YRm7XCuc/giphy.gif

I'm pretty amateur, but what are we looking at here? I see some tile that is stacked. Is that what is wrong?

Edges are pretty ragged in spots.
Corners don't line up with proper grout lines.
Trim pieces aren't level/plumb with the rest of the tiles.

Quite a few issues there.

Sorry it turned out that way, but at least they are taking care of it for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grant H.

Edges are pretty ragged in spots.
Corners don't line up with proper grout lines.
Trim pieces aren't level/plumb with the rest of the tiles.

Quite a few issues there.

Sorry it turned out that way, but at least they are taking care of it for you.

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Tile is natural stone, so it is a bit rough and the sizes not perfect. Tile was all cut for install with a wet saw so no reason for extra sloppiness. He also had a finishing stone and could have either turned the tiles, done a better job of matching, and/or used the dang smoothing stone to ease the edge. Stacking tolerances is bad mkay? Had an upper and lower like that once.

That said, yes, grout lines too tight to allow for any wiggle room, crooked tiles, many sitting too proud, and the centering of the window just didn't even occur to them. He wasn't very skilled with using the right amount of mastic. ,etc. On one tile I did catch that was cracked and made them replace while they were working, another fell right off the damn wall when he was removing the cracked one. I also went behind them and did some touch up drywall filler on the wall to get it a little straighter before they were done and had a tile pop off that had almost no mastic on it. I should have made them stop right there, but we wanted our kitchen for Christmas so I backed off. My mistake.

I couldn't get a good pic looking down the wall, but the grout line rises and falls very noticeably. It's "groovy."

The accent tile came on a backer and they still managed to jack that all up.

Alexa couldn't fix it ? [Sarcasm2]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StagLefty

Alexa couldn't fix it ? [Sarcasm2]

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Alexa, fix my tile!

All right StagLefty, I fixed your smile!

Looks like he didn't use the little spacers for sure.

I can show you the tile in my house if it will make you feel better. I have grout that ranges between 1/2" and 1" thick. The whole floor looked like someone just winged it. Glad I can say it wasn't me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Irving

Looks like he didn't use the little spacers for sure.

I can show you the tile in my house if it will make you feel better. I have grout that ranges between 1/2" and 1" thick. The whole floor looked like someone just winged it. Glad I can say it wasn't me.

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He didn't use the corner + spacers. He did use little wedges, but that should have only been for a tile here or there that wasn't perfect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StagLefty

Alexa couldn't fix it ? [Sarcasm2]

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Alexa said she was embarrassed to be near it.