Advice please - Spacer/Joint between wall tiles

[graham35]

Are there any BS standards covering this please
I have recently had 3 sides of a shower tiled, each side approx 750mm, tiles are 330 x 250 laid landscape and stacked, the tiler says he has used 2mm spacers, the ceramic tiles are good, square and flat out of the box.
We have 2 vertical joints per wall (6 in total) 2 of these joints are are approx 2.5mm wide as grouted, the other 4 vary between 5 and 6 mm, the left and right walls consist of 2 full tiles and a 130mm cut tile into the corner, the back wall consists of a full tile in the middle and a cut tile each side of 220mm.

There are 9 courses of tile from the shower tray to within 25mm of the ceiling, all the horizontal joints are 5 - 6mm wide as grouted, (I think he tried to bump up these joint to save a cut at the ceiling height)
So looking through the shower door, we can see 2 tight 2.5mm vertical joints, surrounded by 5 to 6mm horizontal joints, and all the side walls joints at 5 - 6mm.

My understanding from what I have read here and on other sites, the joints should be consistent throughout the wall and typically +/- 1mm of the 2mm spacer used.

I understand that the tiles form a part of this, but he managed to perform 2 full vertical joints, with no problems, and as I have said the tiles are very constant in terms of flat and square out of the box.

Are there any BS standards or other standards covering this please.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Dave]

The standard your looking for is bs5385.

Can you post pics so we can see better why this might have happened?

 

[graham35]

Thanks Dave
It's a bit difficult for the photos because of light etc, but I have some.
I have tried looking at that bs number but can't seem find anything regarding joint size etc
Cheers Graham

 

[Dave]

Min wall joint is 2mm but some tiles can be sizey and create joint issues. But nothing that can’t be overcome.

 

[graham35]

Thanks for your reply Dave
The tiles are very good and not sizey at all, I know about the 2mm minimum for the wall tiles, but the tiler states he used 2mm spacer on all the joints, and also said BS standards state that for the size of this tile the joint can be 2mm to 5mm, now I believe he has taken that out of context, because as far as I know that would not be mixing joints of 2mm to 5mm in the same wall, I see that standard as meaning you can use 2mm or 3mm or 4mm or 5mm spacing, but if you choose 2mm then that should be throughout the whole job (my shower cubicle walls) and I know that some joints may well end up 3 or 4mm.

What he has done can't be right as there is no apparent deviation in the actual tiles, he told me prior to starting the job that he was going to use 2mm spacers, he had seen the tiles we had and also said he had fixed thousands of them over the years.

Standards We know about the minimum of 2mm spacers, but but I can't find anything that states any acceptable +/- (I thought it was 1mm)

As a tiler he could have sorted the need for wide vertical joints by using a slightly larger cut into the corner, and also starting with a cut tile at the shower tray and another at the top of the wall, as a builder I know these jobs are all about working out the detail and setting out before mixing an adhesive.

What is the acceptable +/- mm ?
Does any of the above make any sense please.

Thanks Graham

 

[Dave]

It just seems as if he has set out wrong and tried to open the joints to accommodate.
2mm is the minimum joint and can be as wide as your grout can cope with. So answering your question , if the tiles are not sizey then yes the joints should be uniform

 

[graham35]

That's exactly how I see it, so he can be proud that he hasn't actually done anything wrong in his book, except he said (in writing) that he had used 2mm spacers, when infect he could not have because they would have fallen out/off the joint

Sadly there are huge problems within the building industry (and other industries) because so few people actually care enough about the quality of their trade .... shocking times.

Thanks Dave, keep promoting your excellence, and hopefully we can look forward to more tilers completing top quality work.

Cheers Graham

 

[JASON]

The whole left wall the joints to line up. Just looks very amateur. I will say tiles are very sizey as of the last few years but that’s a lack of marking it of correctly

 

[graham35]

Thanks Jason, the actual tiles are very good, I would say the finish is down to lazy setting out, the horizontals are wide to try and make it to the top without a cut, and there is no need for wide verticals as there is a cut into the corners,
Cheers Graham

 

[Trigger]

It is possible that he used 2mm spacers everywhere, but just hasn't cleaned up the grout properly and evenly which will give the appearance of it not being uniform.