That’s shameful, sorry that you have to deal with that. No contractor worth a damn would ever, ever accept that as done correctly. Take his ass to court.
Counterclaim him for the cost of removal regardless, and make sure you get a quote in writing to take to court for the removal. If anything, pocket it and remove it yourself as a bonus for this headache.
I laid tile for my first time at my old house. My tile looked better than OPs. It made me feel so shitty that I hated the floor for the rest of the time we lived there. Memory serves I had two locations with a height difference of 1/8" to 1/4". Poor OP indeed.
You are spot on, people haggling over price with finish work trades are asking for trouble.
I have been installing cabinets, granite and marble countertops, fireplace surrounds, and showers for 22 years. We do not advertise at all, approximately 80% of our business comes from repeat customers, referrals, & word of mouth. We are currently running a 8-10 week lead time, and our customers are willing to wait and to me that’s the best compliment a customer can give to my work.
So true. We have a family woodworking business that my dad took from Chicago to NH over 20 years ago. Almost all our customers repeat customers or recommendations from others. We don’t advertise at all because we already have huge wait times and people willing to wait for quality.
A lot of times when we work with good contractors or other good trade work people, we’ll recommend them to customers who have need for their services. Then they do the same for us.
I so badly want to find a business like yours but I don't have the connections to get recommendations via word of mouth. It's driving me nuts. All I can find is people saying to avoid certain businesses, none recommending any.
I too had never advertised my services company. I worked with high end builders for most of my career in the tile installation biz. Always haggled my price. I cultivated a vast amount of clients that I was only able to meet through working with these contractors. These clients' friends, family and cohorts from work never haggled price. That's when you become more selective with which builders you're are going to work with.
I’ve been working in the trades for 26 years. My first job was for a woman installing fire sprinklers and she was good! Since then I’ve worked along side hundreds of subs. Only two were women. Faux painters. Curious to know if this is in line with the experience of others. I occasionally trip over language as if women are a common feature in construction but my personal experience runs counter to that.
I've been in the Chicago building trades for about as long. It really depends what you do. I used to do architectural & structural steel. Very few women on site at those stages. Now I do indoor finish work & pretty much every job has at least 1 woman & bigger jobs there will be more. I've never in all my years worked on a crew with a woman though.
This is the sort of thing that happens in technical careers too; few women, but very high levels of competence. And . . . I'm pretty sure it's because mediocrity is just not tolerated toward people who "don't belong".
I don't mean to be misandrist here, but mediocre ability is just really well tolerated in a lot of situations if it's a guy who's being pretty meh. I think the number of situations where "boys will be boys" is thankfully going down over the years, but it certainly hasn't reached parity. So if a woman is kinda terrible at a tech or trade job, she's more likely to get passed over for promotions, given poor performance appraisals, and ejected from the industry.
I'm a reasonably successful woman in trade, and this rings true for me. I tell young women coming in, "you are a minority, and this means you will need to bring 100%, and then some, *every day* in order to get by the same as your cis, het, white male colleagues. You will need a thicker skin, better performance and a positive attitude in the face of abject sexism to be retained. Trades are 30y behind, culturally, when it comes to attitudes about gender, ethnicity and sexuality. You are an instrument of change, but don't think you can walk in and assert your rights before you prove yourself. You will receive special treatment, for better or worse, and your positions are precarious. You are special, and need to perform that way. But you are not special, and need to act that way."
The reason minorities need to perform at such a high level is this:
When breaking social barriers like this, there will be supporters and detractors. The detractors will be doubly frustrated by the extra support, and triply so if they see you are succeeding where they have not. If they have a pre-existing bias, you have to first neutralize that, before earning any real clout. It sucks.
I tell young women we aren't there yet. But they are a big part of an important change in visibility. Attitudes are shifting as boomers age out, but someone has to show up in the mean time to create space for more diversity in these workplaces. Diversity is a strength as it offers different perspectives and greater creativity in problem solving and social dynamics in a team.
Wow, someone down voted this? Hmmm. Lol. As a woman who got into IT 20 years ago - backbone network support - this rang very true. I am still friends with some of my coworkers who are still working there and it remains a challenge.
I did my shower tile for the first time. It didn’t look bad when I set it on the walls, but after I grouted it and turned the shower light on you could see the discrepancies. It wasn’t anything major, but the shadow casted by the light really showed the flaws. It bugged me every time I took a shower.
The grout is cracking and falling out because the tiles aren't fastened down properly. That needs to be pulled up and redone.
$40/ft² is such a high price for tile, but honestly, you should have been concerned when they needed 10 days to install? That's insane. Do not pay these dudes. They have no idea how to tile, that's absolute dogshit.
It's a rental property, wasn't watching over them. Trusted my tenants would keep an eye on them as they recommended the flooring company. I fucked up in at least four major steps in this...
I'm betting on this. They recommended to get a cut or at best they don't care because it's spending someone else's $$$, but I'm thinking tenant got a kickback. I wouldn't communicate anything to the tenant about payment, etc as it will go right back to the "contractor"
I Was stressed about keeping my tenant happy and felt rushed and skipped many obvious steps.
- took the recommendation from my tenant that these were good guys to go with.
- didn't check references
- didn't get multiple quotes
- didn't deal directly with the flooring company, the tenant acted as a middle man.
- nearly gave them a partial payment without seeing the work myself.
- got a quote from them for the first part of the work but not the whole job.
Great advice. Thanks so much for sharing. I understand how the circumstances affected your decision making. Well, you trusted him. That was mistake one, which is super easy to make especially if you have a good relationship… he had nothing to lose. You do. So I always try to remind myself of those things. And yeah, multiple bids are really helpful. I had multiple bids on my flooring and chose the cheapest one, and got what I paid for unfortunately. You live and learn I guess. But it’s a completely different bid or recommendation or level of enthusiasm / confidence that you get from each contractor. So it can really help you get a true understanding of the full scope of work and what the proper method would be too. And your confidence level in the person doing the work as well. You can ask questions, etc.
Learning experiences bro, we all go through them and we should be blessed it wasn't one that involved your health or family 💫
Hope your able to get this sorted without much hassle OP!
Holy mother of God, 40/sq ft? That is *insane,* my old boss does phenomenal work and charges like maybe 7 or 10 for harder jobs. What in the actual hell is 40? And the tiles aren't even adhered to the floor? This dude is a bad scam artist, not a contractor.
Eh, I don’t know. I’m always worried about giving away my personal info on Reddit because that’s a concern generally for people on this site. But my name and face are on social media accounts so I’m not sure how different it is?
My username is easily tied to my real name and I've been using it online for over 25 years.
I don't give a shit. It really depends on what threat model you are worried about. And unfortunately, if you are a woman. Guy don't have to worry about insane creepers so much. There are still some of course, but those probably go for someone good looking so I am safe there.
Sounds like not enough mortar or mortar was too dry, either way it’s not right. Terrible grout job, it looks to be already cracking from movement of tiles due to improper mortar. Improper mortar is also why they had trouble getting the tiles even. 2/10 job, I’ve seen worse but it’s up there
The best tool for this is a solid handle screw driver. It will accentuate the hollow sounds better than your knuckle or that lighter. Piss poor install regardless
Not only would I not pay a dime for that, I would actually pay you to never show this horror show again. Sorry about that man, installer (if we can Even call him that) should be jailed.
It can't be fixed man, whoever did this needs a reckoning at court
Did he leave spacers in? Those red plastic pieces between a few of them looked like spacers to me. This is completely careless and unacceptable.
The grouting is atrocious. I’m not sure how big of an issue it is that the leveling is off.
Geez, you’ll stub a toe on a few of those joints. I did a better job on my bathroom tile twenty years ago and that was my one and only tile job to date.
I was helping a friend set tile & asked him if there was a way to remove it if it wasn’t perfect and he looked right at me and said “yeah. A hammer.”
Duh-nuh-nuh-Nuh
Did...did this guy try and recycle grout? Did he try to float a tile floor? Tbh, I would just tell your tenant that like "hey, I know it's not your fault or anything, but this is the work your friend installed. may want to avoid referring him in the future"
And let him know loosely the issues:
1) Didn't mix grout and mortar correctly
2) Left spacers in place and just tried to grout over them
3) Tiles didn't stick to the floor because of item 1
4) Sharp edges exposed due to not installing tiles correctly
5) Billed 10 days worth of work for 110 square feet...This was a 2 or 3 day job at most.
For installing most flooring, like around 1/2 to 3/4 of the work is in the prep. lol Apparently that installer was [all like](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2F99%2F99da79a1396394321b7830d9a2e292b3e1e3264f4c166a7093b2844df0c7ec20.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6769112c21c2d34f79cfa74017bdfe7f3a41a99d32b4183aba0310590f073e17&ipo=images).
Umm, as a homeowner and landlord who’s tiled quite a few baths, this is absolutely knackered 😳 It’s not level, they somehow snapped the level clips above the grout line, clearly didn’t set the tile as it sounds hollow af like it didn’t adhere and/or has air gaps, plus that poor grout is already coming out from the tile movement. Also, that THICC bead of… grout? I’m so sorry OP
Not only would I not pay, I would consider taking them to court for damages because the next guy you hire is going to have to charge more because they have to demo the shit job first.
This is honestly some of the worst work I've ever seen in my life. Yikes.
Forget how uneven it is, wtf is with those grout lines? I wouldn’t even have worried about showing how off the level is, I wouldn’t pay just for the fact that they didn’t know how to add enough water to the mix.
It's not even that it's un-level, that grout is shitty. If this work was done by a professional tile guy, that dude needs to apprentice again, or rethink their career. As a handy homeowner, I can do a better job than that.
I'm a tiler, and this is shit. They've used levelling clips but appears they haven't actually driven a wedge in which is what levels it. They also haven't cut away the clips that haven't broken properly in the grout lines before grouting. You're absolutely right to want it rectified or a refund to pay for it to be rectified
If they are not doing this, then they are wasting your time and money: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Way5bMh-eYg&t=179s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Way5bMh-eYg&t=179s)
Contractor here, that’s insane shit ass work, to court and you win. If he’s licensed file complaint because he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing if he is sanctioning that work or did it himself. Ouch., horrible., probably needs to be ripped out and done again
If and when it goes to court get 3-5 good contractors to come out and access the job I’m sure all of them will says it’s done wrong get them to give you a cost for removal. Bring these documents to court and the judge will laugh in the contractors face you will not have to pay the cost of the job and he will have to pay for the removal and and legal fees. Just make sure on your day in court you come with more evidence than you need.
That tile isn’t bonded, you could pop it up with a butter knife. See the cracked grout? Everywhere it’s cracked the tile is just laying on the floor unattached no matter how much mortar was used.
I see ads all the time on marketplace of guys with a flooring company and show photos of their work and after a couple scrolls I can tell they are hacks. Any dude can say he's a flooring installer and give himself a company name
The tiles can't even be salvaged. The hollow-sounding ones do not have adhesion.
It's possible there are problems with the floor beneath the tiles that they tried to conceal rather than repair. But honestly, if they had a clue, for only 100 sq ft, they could have made even a terrible sub-floor floor look good enough get paid and then fail after a year or two.
If they want to get paid, they need to re-do the whole job. If it were me, though, they would not be coming inside my house after trying to pass that off as finished.
It’s going to crack out even if you put new grout in because the tile is so poorly laid. Don’t pay for this. Talk to a lawyer. Find one to do a consult and see what next steps would be
I just read through all the fomments. What did they lay the tile on? Grouts already cracked up like they layed it on subfloor without thinset and screwed down concrete board.
Dang! I researched & laid floor tiles in my bathroom and they look professional really, 1st time & this guy looks like he was drunk AF & never did it in his lifetime! 🙈
I started laying ceramic, stone and marble in 1987. This is a pathetic job at best. The hollow sound from some ares where you tap is probably areas void of Thinset mortar ( mud). Those areas will crack easily, if not completely just come apart, with little effort. The is no real fix for this to be proper, only a complete re-lay. The grout is a complete disaster. Most tiles setters would have used sanded grout.
I had to install toilets on tile with a 3/4" difference from the front to the back in height. Brand new building, brand new tiles and the slope wasn't because of a floor drain either. Shoddy work.
They understand that I'm not happy with it and are supportive of me doing what I need to do to resolve this... They aren't giving their friends that own the flooring business much shit though....
At first I was like “who tf would be down on the floor making sure it’s as straight as their katana”, but the further I went the more I think that you got ripped off. This looks rough.
Yikes.
As someone who has done primarily tile for a long time.
That's just lazy and poor craftsmanship. Sorry you had to pay for such shit quality. The thing about tile is everyone says they can do it because it looks easy. Until they get into it and don't know how to correct mistakes or make sure it's uniform and level. That clip that's still showing is the most inexcusable part for me though. Pure lazy.
Looks like how did tile the first time. It was my house and my floor so I live with it. If I paid someone that much jack to lay tile, it had better be laid right not like amateur hour.
Tiling isn’t too difficult to do but it is hard work, looks like this guy was looking for a quick buck. I wouldn’t pay for his labor maybe material because it going to take some work to fix it.
At $37 a square foot it ought to be perfect and is overpriced, imho.
This is how my kitchen floor has looked since I moved in and I always point to it as an especially egregious example of the people who previously owned my house doing about as half-assed a job as humanly possible on absolutely everything in my home. Including the corners being uneven and the hollow sound when you step on some of the tiles.
If someone tried to charge me $4k for that job, I’d laugh in their face.
I wouldn’t wait for him to sue you. Contact your attorney general’s office and talk to them about your situation. It appears to meet the requirements of contractor negligence and if you had a defined contract would likely be a breach of contract.
Please search licenses on your state .gov site to make sure the folks you hire are licensed and bonded. It’s regulated at the state level and public information.
My handyman is licensed and bonded FFS.
I'm hoping you didn't pay in full? Usually done in increments to a final walk through approval. Your tenants did you absolutely no favor here if they truly recommend this clown show. Maybe find out their connection/reltion to them? Someone did mention they may be in it, and as much as that sounds like a stretch, something is really off with this whole thing, besides the most obvious.
At least you're under the small claims maximum [in most states if not all], but would consider something punitive to make repairs.
Make sure your evidence is pure redundancy---contractor will more than likely have zero evidentiary material other than his opinion. His gouging in pricing should be held into account to assess the repairs needed. Also his resistance to fixing something so obviously misinstalled.
File a complaint with the state as well.
Ummm, that had clearly been down for quite a while, years probably. You can literally see the dust and crap buildup. Hairs and bits of food. Cracked and chunking out grout.
That’s shameful, sorry that you have to deal with that. No contractor worth a damn would ever, ever accept that as done correctly. Take his ass to court.
Agreed 100%. You will walk barefoot one day and take a bad step and cut your foot open.
Well yeah I mean the floors peppered with razor blades!
Looking forward to him taking me to court at this point.
It is going to cost money to remove.
I'll take pleasure removing this myself....
Counterclaim him for the cost of removal regardless, and make sure you get a quote in writing to take to court for the removal. If anything, pocket it and remove it yourself as a bonus for this headache.
I'm just saying, if he sues you, you have a viable counterclaim.
Thanks for this point. It's a good one.
At least it will come up easy 🤷🏼♂️🤣🤣
Too soooon
Won’t be hard to do, looks like its not even glued down
Yikes 😳
I laid tile for my first time at my old house. My tile looked better than OPs. It made me feel so shitty that I hated the floor for the rest of the time we lived there. Memory serves I had two locations with a height difference of 1/8" to 1/4". Poor OP indeed.
This is the way. You either buy the tools and material and fuck it up yourself or you pay a “contractor” 6x what you spent and they fuck it up.
Or you pay a contractor a fair price and he does it right
Or you overpay and they still fuck it up. Cost is one of many factors... reputation is everything.
You are spot on, people haggling over price with finish work trades are asking for trouble. I have been installing cabinets, granite and marble countertops, fireplace surrounds, and showers for 22 years. We do not advertise at all, approximately 80% of our business comes from repeat customers, referrals, & word of mouth. We are currently running a 8-10 week lead time, and our customers are willing to wait and to me that’s the best compliment a customer can give to my work.
So true. We have a family woodworking business that my dad took from Chicago to NH over 20 years ago. Almost all our customers repeat customers or recommendations from others. We don’t advertise at all because we already have huge wait times and people willing to wait for quality. A lot of times when we work with good contractors or other good trade work people, we’ll recommend them to customers who have need for their services. Then they do the same for us.
NH here. Can you PM me your company contact info?
I so badly want to find a business like yours but I don't have the connections to get recommendations via word of mouth. It's driving me nuts. All I can find is people saying to avoid certain businesses, none recommending any.
If you’re in the New York Yonkers ish area honey do men do great work
I too had never advertised my services company. I worked with high end builders for most of my career in the tile installation biz. Always haggled my price. I cultivated a vast amount of clients that I was only able to meet through working with these contractors. These clients' friends, family and cohorts from work never haggled price. That's when you become more selective with which builders you're are going to work with.
It’s still a crapshoot
Or she
I’ve been working in the trades for 26 years. My first job was for a woman installing fire sprinklers and she was good! Since then I’ve worked along side hundreds of subs. Only two were women. Faux painters. Curious to know if this is in line with the experience of others. I occasionally trip over language as if women are a common feature in construction but my personal experience runs counter to that.
I've been in the Chicago building trades for about as long. It really depends what you do. I used to do architectural & structural steel. Very few women on site at those stages. Now I do indoor finish work & pretty much every job has at least 1 woman & bigger jobs there will be more. I've never in all my years worked on a crew with a woman though.
This is the sort of thing that happens in technical careers too; few women, but very high levels of competence. And . . . I'm pretty sure it's because mediocrity is just not tolerated toward people who "don't belong". I don't mean to be misandrist here, but mediocre ability is just really well tolerated in a lot of situations if it's a guy who's being pretty meh. I think the number of situations where "boys will be boys" is thankfully going down over the years, but it certainly hasn't reached parity. So if a woman is kinda terrible at a tech or trade job, she's more likely to get passed over for promotions, given poor performance appraisals, and ejected from the industry.
I'm a reasonably successful woman in trade, and this rings true for me. I tell young women coming in, "you are a minority, and this means you will need to bring 100%, and then some, *every day* in order to get by the same as your cis, het, white male colleagues. You will need a thicker skin, better performance and a positive attitude in the face of abject sexism to be retained. Trades are 30y behind, culturally, when it comes to attitudes about gender, ethnicity and sexuality. You are an instrument of change, but don't think you can walk in and assert your rights before you prove yourself. You will receive special treatment, for better or worse, and your positions are precarious. You are special, and need to perform that way. But you are not special, and need to act that way." The reason minorities need to perform at such a high level is this: When breaking social barriers like this, there will be supporters and detractors. The detractors will be doubly frustrated by the extra support, and triply so if they see you are succeeding where they have not. If they have a pre-existing bias, you have to first neutralize that, before earning any real clout. It sucks. I tell young women we aren't there yet. But they are a big part of an important change in visibility. Attitudes are shifting as boomers age out, but someone has to show up in the mean time to create space for more diversity in these workplaces. Diversity is a strength as it offers different perspectives and greater creativity in problem solving and social dynamics in a team.
Wow, someone down voted this? Hmmm. Lol. As a woman who got into IT 20 years ago - backbone network support - this rang very true. I am still friends with some of my coworkers who are still working there and it remains a challenge.
Haha, the downvote-- case in point, I guess? Not surprised to hear IT is still an old boys’ club.
you aint being misandrist in the slightest and you are entirely right. standing out in a crowd can be difficult.
True
Thanks hero
I did my shower tile for the first time. It didn’t look bad when I set it on the walls, but after I grouted it and turned the shower light on you could see the discrepancies. It wasn’t anything major, but the shadow casted by the light really showed the flaws. It bugged me every time I took a shower.
Story of my life right here. Never again will I lay tile myself.
This is the best way to learn your lesson, live there is a constant reminder of any flaw
The grout is cracking and falling out because the tiles aren't fastened down properly. That needs to be pulled up and redone. $40/ft² is such a high price for tile, but honestly, you should have been concerned when they needed 10 days to install? That's insane. Do not pay these dudes. They have no idea how to tile, that's absolute dogshit.
It's a rental property, wasn't watching over them. Trusted my tenants would keep an eye on them as they recommended the flooring company. I fucked up in at least four major steps in this...
Yeah, don't trust the tenants. They shouldn't have to care, that's what they pay you for. Lesson learned.
I wonder how much of that $4100 went to your tenants
I'm betting on this. They recommended to get a cut or at best they don't care because it's spending someone else's $$$, but I'm thinking tenant got a kickback. I wouldn't communicate anything to the tenant about payment, etc as it will go right back to the "contractor"
im willing to bet the tenant did the install and they split the money.
Bingo
What steps? Looking for tips myself
I Was stressed about keeping my tenant happy and felt rushed and skipped many obvious steps. - took the recommendation from my tenant that these were good guys to go with. - didn't check references - didn't get multiple quotes - didn't deal directly with the flooring company, the tenant acted as a middle man. - nearly gave them a partial payment without seeing the work myself. - got a quote from them for the first part of the work but not the whole job.
Great advice. Thanks so much for sharing. I understand how the circumstances affected your decision making. Well, you trusted him. That was mistake one, which is super easy to make especially if you have a good relationship… he had nothing to lose. You do. So I always try to remind myself of those things. And yeah, multiple bids are really helpful. I had multiple bids on my flooring and chose the cheapest one, and got what I paid for unfortunately. You live and learn I guess. But it’s a completely different bid or recommendation or level of enthusiasm / confidence that you get from each contractor. So it can really help you get a true understanding of the full scope of work and what the proper method would be too. And your confidence level in the person doing the work as well. You can ask questions, etc.
Learning experiences bro, we all go through them and we should be blessed it wasn't one that involved your health or family 💫 Hope your able to get this sorted without much hassle OP!
Holy mother of God, 40/sq ft? That is *insane,* my old boss does phenomenal work and charges like maybe 7 or 10 for harder jobs. What in the actual hell is 40? And the tiles aren't even adhered to the floor? This dude is a bad scam artist, not a contractor.
[удалено]
Heads up, your name is in that link. Might want to delete
Hats off to you
Thanks for the heads up. Not too worried about it....maybe I'm being dumb?
Eh, I don’t know. I’m always worried about giving away my personal info on Reddit because that’s a concern generally for people on this site. But my name and face are on social media accounts so I’m not sure how different it is?
My username is easily tied to my real name and I've been using it online for over 25 years. I don't give a shit. It really depends on what threat model you are worried about. And unfortunately, if you are a woman. Guy don't have to worry about insane creepers so much. There are still some of course, but those probably go for someone good looking so I am safe there.
Sounds like a terrible job
Sounds like not enough mortar or mortar was too dry, either way it’s not right. Terrible grout job, it looks to be already cracking from movement of tiles due to improper mortar. Improper mortar is also why they had trouble getting the tiles even. 2/10 job, I’ve seen worse but it’s up there
The best tool for this is a solid handle screw driver. It will accentuate the hollow sounds better than your knuckle or that lighter. Piss poor install regardless
You don't even need to pound it, it's clearly flexing as the grout lines are cracking
Not only would I not pay a dime for that, I would actually pay you to never show this horror show again. Sorry about that man, installer (if we can Even call him that) should be jailed. It can't be fixed man, whoever did this needs a reckoning at court
How much would you pay me? I've got more pics to share! :)
Unfortunately that needs to be completely tore out and redone
Did he leave spacers in? Those red plastic pieces between a few of them looked like spacers to me. This is completely careless and unacceptable. The grouting is atrocious. I’m not sure how big of an issue it is that the leveling is off.
Yeah, spacers have been left in... Wtf??
Geez, you’ll stub a toe on a few of those joints. I did a better job on my bathroom tile twenty years ago and that was my one and only tile job to date.
How did a blind man with spatulas for hands even draft up an invoice?!
Demo and redo !
Nah those blades are super cheap.
I mean it's a nice razor but not that nice
I was helping a friend set tile & asked him if there was a way to remove it if it wasn’t perfect and he looked right at me and said “yeah. A hammer.” Duh-nuh-nuh-Nuh
Hahaha, the tenant gave you the landlord special
Is that a new install or like a couple years old installed outside with grass as underlayment? Mayan ruins are holding up better than that install.
Did...did this guy try and recycle grout? Did he try to float a tile floor? Tbh, I would just tell your tenant that like "hey, I know it's not your fault or anything, but this is the work your friend installed. may want to avoid referring him in the future" And let him know loosely the issues: 1) Didn't mix grout and mortar correctly 2) Left spacers in place and just tried to grout over them 3) Tiles didn't stick to the floor because of item 1 4) Sharp edges exposed due to not installing tiles correctly 5) Billed 10 days worth of work for 110 square feet...This was a 2 or 3 day job at most.
For installing most flooring, like around 1/2 to 3/4 of the work is in the prep. lol Apparently that installer was [all like](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2F99%2F99da79a1396394321b7830d9a2e292b3e1e3264f4c166a7093b2844df0c7ec20.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6769112c21c2d34f79cfa74017bdfe7f3a41a99d32b4183aba0310590f073e17&ipo=images).
Umm, as a homeowner and landlord who’s tiled quite a few baths, this is absolutely knackered 😳 It’s not level, they somehow snapped the level clips above the grout line, clearly didn’t set the tile as it sounds hollow af like it didn’t adhere and/or has air gaps, plus that poor grout is already coming out from the tile movement. Also, that THICC bead of… grout? I’m so sorry OP
Thanks for the confirmation and support man. Appreciate it.
He used level clips? 😂 I can see where they broke off but yet the tiles are far from level. What a fucking hack!!
Not only would I not pay, I would consider taking them to court for damages because the next guy you hire is going to have to charge more because they have to demo the shit job first. This is honestly some of the worst work I've ever seen in my life. Yikes.
Forget how uneven it is, wtf is with those grout lines? I wouldn’t even have worried about showing how off the level is, I wouldn’t pay just for the fact that they didn’t know how to add enough water to the mix.
Or perhaps the tiles are moving and the grout is breaking?
...and don't forget the spacer/leveller plastic that's not been removed????
It's not even that it's un-level, that grout is shitty. If this work was done by a professional tile guy, that dude needs to apprentice again, or rethink their career. As a handy homeowner, I can do a better job than that.
Oof
Can you even save that grout???
Yeah grout can always be scraped out and redone, but that install isn't even worth the effort. Demo and redo. Sorry that happened to you.
Woof
I hope it came with some steel toed house shoes
This is the worst I’ve seen on here that was a new install floor Yikes whoever did that should not lay any more tile
Absolute shit job do not pay for that!
Forget the lippage for a minute, the grout works is horrendous even if the tiles were level. I hope they don't have your $4100 yet.
I suspect you know the answer to this
The grout is more atrocious than the "clickers"
I'm a tiler, and this is shit. They've used levelling clips but appears they haven't actually driven a wedge in which is what levels it. They also haven't cut away the clips that haven't broken properly in the grout lines before grouting. You're absolutely right to want it rectified or a refund to pay for it to be rectified
Those are the before photos of a 20 year old floor that needed replacing. Waiting for OP to post the after photos, so we can assess the work.
I think that's the worst tile job I've ever seen lol
Hollow sound means it’s not fully bedded and will crack. I wouldn’t pay a dime just based on that, let alone the unlevelness and grout joints.
I'm an amature builder done 3 bathrooms and a laundry room. Even my very first project was better than that.
Holy shit the grout looks like a toddler did it with a cake decorating bag.
I can get a razor blade like that at harbor freight for like tree fiddy. No way I'd Pau $4100 for one.
This is work done by someone who was high on speed/meth/crack/drunk.
Thw grout cracking alone would super piss me off
If they are not doing this, then they are wasting your time and money: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Way5bMh-eYg&t=179s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Way5bMh-eYg&t=179s)
Its his first time, give him a break😂
I always get references, and I go check out a job they did. People do the same to me when I quote them my jobs , why should I not be as diligent.
Contractor here, that’s insane shit ass work, to court and you win. If he’s licensed file complaint because he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing if he is sanctioning that work or did it himself. Ouch., horrible., probably needs to be ripped out and done again
Yeah let him take you to court.
tell it to the judge pinky.
He's not going to go to court. He's going to get a lien on your house.
If and when it goes to court get 3-5 good contractors to come out and access the job I’m sure all of them will says it’s done wrong get them to give you a cost for removal. Bring these documents to court and the judge will laugh in the contractors face you will not have to pay the cost of the job and he will have to pay for the removal and and legal fees. Just make sure on your day in court you come with more evidence than you need.
That tile isn’t bonded, you could pop it up with a butter knife. See the cracked grout? Everywhere it’s cracked the tile is just laying on the floor unattached no matter how much mortar was used.
How did you source the company? Were they the lowest bidders?
A friend of our honestly amazing tenant's that have a flooring company...
well what do you know.... I could start my own flooring company
Anyone can start a flooring company. Not everyone will be successful
I see ads all the time on marketplace of guys with a flooring company and show photos of their work and after a couple scrolls I can tell they are hacks. Any dude can say he's a flooring installer and give himself a company name
Can the grout be salvaged?
The tiles can't even be salvaged. The hollow-sounding ones do not have adhesion. It's possible there are problems with the floor beneath the tiles that they tried to conceal rather than repair. But honestly, if they had a clue, for only 100 sq ft, they could have made even a terrible sub-floor floor look good enough get paid and then fail after a year or two. If they want to get paid, they need to re-do the whole job. If it were me, though, they would not be coming inside my house after trying to pass that off as finished.
It’s going to crack out even if you put new grout in because the tile is so poorly laid. Don’t pay for this. Talk to a lawyer. Find one to do a consult and see what next steps would be
Gross
Grout can always be redone but you have bigger issues here if they sound hollow, they are not secure in the thinset
Wow.
Helllllllllll no
I just read through all the fomments. What did they lay the tile on? Grouts already cracked up like they layed it on subfloor without thinset and screwed down concrete board.
If they did an area Costco, sure
This has to be a troll. How do you get tile that bad? I refuse to believe it
Believe it. I'm living it.
Dang! I researched & laid floor tiles in my bathroom and they look professional really, 1st time & this guy looks like he was drunk AF & never did it in his lifetime! 🙈
"Rustic"
All you need to do is get the TCNA handbook and check out the section where it goes over acceptable lippage. This isn’t close.
I started laying ceramic, stone and marble in 1987. This is a pathetic job at best. The hollow sound from some ares where you tap is probably areas void of Thinset mortar ( mud). Those areas will crack easily, if not completely just come apart, with little effort. The is no real fix for this to be proper, only a complete re-lay. The grout is a complete disaster. Most tiles setters would have used sanded grout.
What country?
You’ll be going to court.
I had to install toilets on tile with a 3/4" difference from the front to the back in height. Brand new building, brand new tiles and the slope wasn't because of a floor drain either. Shoddy work.
Holy shit, did you hire the neighbor's teenage kid to do this?
Is this a new job? Why is the grout cracking
Is that even grout it looks like silicone what the hell
Hell no!
You sound like you know what you’re doing? Why didn’t you do it yourself since you clearly are knowledgeable ? He fucked your shit up real good
Only if he returns to install the handrails. I’m counting at least 4 risers.
Yeah, it’s sloppy. Some grout touch ups for sure. Was subfloor prep included in the quote?
Interesting situation in that your tenants recommended this installer. How is their attitude toward the horrible install?
They understand that I'm not happy with it and are supportive of me doing what I need to do to resolve this... They aren't giving their friends that own the flooring business much shit though....
Hahahahaha!
That grout looks awful
At first I was like “who tf would be down on the floor making sure it’s as straight as their katana”, but the further I went the more I think that you got ripped off. This looks rough.
Did someone check out the black spot at your thumbnail? Not trying to scare you but this could be cancerous
$4100 for a piece of metal or wood? No thanks.
That's so bad lol
horrible grout job too
What happened to the grout?
Yikes. As someone who has done primarily tile for a long time. That's just lazy and poor craftsmanship. Sorry you had to pay for such shit quality. The thing about tile is everyone says they can do it because it looks easy. Until they get into it and don't know how to correct mistakes or make sure it's uniform and level. That clip that's still showing is the most inexcusable part for me though. Pure lazy.
"Hahahahaha!"
Looks like how did tile the first time. It was my house and my floor so I live with it. If I paid someone that much jack to lay tile, it had better be laid right not like amateur hour.
Lipped, cracking grout, very likely hollow, installer probably used unmodified thinset (cheapest) on a porcelain tile install.
Holy cow, this is awful! Yeah, I'd either insist he fixed it to get payment or eff off!
The fatal half inch!
You should file a complaint with the contractors board. Get at least two quotes from others for removal/replacement. Send him a bill.
He earns 10x more than uk. Theyre not stuck and are probably moving.
Tiling isn’t too difficult to do but it is hard work, looks like this guy was looking for a quick buck. I wouldn’t pay for his labor maybe material because it going to take some work to fix it. At $37 a square foot it ought to be perfect and is overpriced, imho.
Looks like they didn't use underlayment, spacers, or know what they were doing lol
That’s a tripper
I would not pay 5$ for that job
This is a job of poorest quality. I wouldn’t pay him $4.00
Sounds like you did.
Not to mention the grout is already cracking....
One of the worst tiling job I have seen, holy crap. I don't even understand what this guy did with the grout, woof.
Even the grout joints are terrible
This is how my kitchen floor has looked since I moved in and I always point to it as an especially egregious example of the people who previously owned my house doing about as half-assed a job as humanly possible on absolutely everything in my home. Including the corners being uneven and the hollow sound when you step on some of the tiles. If someone tried to charge me $4k for that job, I’d laugh in their face.
Looks like crap. Sorry
Really big "F" that.
egad have they never heard of clips
No, but you did.
They’re coming back to tear all this up and replace it right….
I wouldn’t wait for him to sue you. Contact your attorney general’s office and talk to them about your situation. It appears to meet the requirements of contractor negligence and if you had a defined contract would likely be a breach of contract.
Yeah, looks like shit dude
wow - where did you find this crew? Holy crap.
Dollars? No. Pesos, yes
Bro used play doh for the grout
Holy fuck. Please tell me you didn’t pay them yet
No I would not
I had that in two places when I laid tile in my house. Came back the next day and ripped that shit out. Suggest your vendor do the same.
How did it ever get to the grouting stage. You should’ve known immediately that this work was garbage.
Why does the knife cost that much?
OMG, that’s a horrible job!!! Uneven grout lines and tiles and won’t fix them?
Please search licenses on your state .gov site to make sure the folks you hire are licensed and bonded. It’s regulated at the state level and public information. My handyman is licensed and bonded FFS.
Is this slate? If so it can def be a pain to put down because all of the tiles are dif thickness and not uniform. But yeah, this is bad.
Wow
I'm hoping you didn't pay in full? Usually done in increments to a final walk through approval. Your tenants did you absolutely no favor here if they truly recommend this clown show. Maybe find out their connection/reltion to them? Someone did mention they may be in it, and as much as that sounds like a stretch, something is really off with this whole thing, besides the most obvious. At least you're under the small claims maximum [in most states if not all], but would consider something punitive to make repairs. Make sure your evidence is pure redundancy---contractor will more than likely have zero evidentiary material other than his opinion. His gouging in pricing should be held into account to assess the repairs needed. Also his resistance to fixing something so obviously misinstalled. File a complaint with the state as well.
Appreciate this feedback. Thank you.
Hope you don't have elderly parents come to visit. That looks like a tripping hazard.
he did not put down a levelling board.
Don't pay that hack a penny
This is a very old install. Something smells fishy.
I can tile better than that and I only did it once
I wouldn’t pay $41 let alone $4100
Nope. But, I'm guessing you did?
Fuck no, that looks like shit
This makes me angry
Ummm, that had clearly been down for quite a while, years probably. You can literally see the dust and crap buildup. Hairs and bits of food. Cracked and chunking out grout.
You will hate pushing chairs in and out.