A second opinion request

[John & Mary]

We just want some advice as to whetheror not the job our tiler did is satisfactory, he argues it is, we areless sure but would value a second opinion.


We used the tiler recommended by theshop. He laid expensive Welsh Slate tiles which had been diamond cutone side so were all virtually 9mm. The bathroom floor had beenconcreted and was flat according to the spirit level prior tostarting. We had Dukkaboard laid across the floor and three strips ofunderfloor heating near the middle of the room (the shop suggested – and we agreed - it waspointless to heat under the bath, shower, sink, toilet and bidet).


He laid the board, heating, and tilesbetween 8:30 and 1:30, and came back the next day to grout and polishwhich took a couple of hours. He didn't use any leveller. There was no heating in the room.


The display in the shop had the tilesthat were at the same level. We expected this but got lippage acrossalmost half the floor (the green arrows in the overview picture showwhere we thought there is lippage, the remaining pictures are examples) – and were told this was to beexpected with these types of tiles. Is he right?

 

[suave]

welcome!

 

[northstar]

Hi and welcome, what area do you live in ?

 

[peteablard]

The aren't lips they look more like steps!!! In my opinion it looks totally unacceptable. Quite often with slate you do get some lippage however a professional tiler would dress them with a chisel and reduce it to a minimum. If you are having no luck with the tiler I would get someone from the tile shop who recommended him to come and have a look at it. Please keep us informed of your progress and good luck with sorting it.

 

[Del W]

What he has done is unacceptable.A decent tiler would not be happy with that finish.

 

[JLM Tiling]

Also was the bond supposed to be that random? As in the grout lines?

 

[nybor62]

not good at all, they could have been dressed as comment above stated, there also seems to be quite a bit of grout residue left on the tiles

 

[nybor62]

oh and welcome to the forum

 

[On one]

Those slates don't look riven enough to warrant needing to be dressed,they are just badly laid! Could i suggest because he didn't use SLC the lippage could be caused by not using a big enough notched trowel to get over the height differences from cabled to non cabled areas of the floor.

 

[Fliselege]

That's not lippage, it's very poor work. Have you paid him? If not, don't. Maybe take these pictures to the tile shop and show the salesman what a cowboy he recomended.

 

[NZ_Tiler]

When laying a brickstyled pattern or staggered grout joints like this, extra care needs to be taken getting the tiles/stone straight. A straight edge or long level should be placed across the surface of the first row laid. If there is a hump or hollow this will inevitable cause lippage, on the following courses to be laid.

 

[Dan]

The shop need a bit of a telling off there. They shouldn't be recommending guys that tile like that.

I just looked at the pictures and didn't read your full post, I was about to reply and say 'you should have got a tiler who came recommended' then I read 'Fliselege' above saying take the pictures to the shop so read your post.

Shocking.

If you sourced the tiler yourself I was going to say you've cut the wrong corner trying to get a better price by the looks of it. But if the shop has sent the tiler then I'd be taking it up with the tiler AND the shop.

It's a shame to see that, as it's nearly alright. I've seen a lot worse. It wouldn't have taken any longer to do it perfectly (that said I'd have spent extra time using SLC personally as it just gives a really nice floor to tile to and makes all that side of things quicker).

Love the arrows on the floor Careful you down get planes landing there.

 

[John & Mary]

Thanks very much to everyone who has replied - we are very grateful for your responses.

The tiler has been around again and relaid/replaced some of the tiles, and also added extra grout in a number of areas to reduce the trip hazard (although there is still a height difference between tiles). He has also chipped the corners on some tiles which were protruding but they now look odd. Finally, the width of the grout now varies between tiles. He said that if he relaid the entire floor we would still not get a better finish (even though as mentioned above the floor was professionally re-concreted and was flat and level prior to laying tiles).

We've been back to the shop in Bristol but they are reluctant to get involved citing a potential conflict of interest. We are extremely disappointed as we used a local shop as we try to support our local community. We were not trying to do this on the cheap and the shop certainly was not the cheapest.

We don't know what to do next - we can't afford to rip it out and start again, but although less dangerous it is still not right and each time we go into the bathroom we are reminded of the unhappy situation we find ourselves in.

We would be grateful for any advice on what to do next. Do we insist that the shop gets involved? Do we request another tile to review the floor?

Once again many thanks to everyone for your help.

 

[charlie1]

5 hre to fit slate, the board and the heating says it all. looks about 7m2 to me? I wonder what he charged you for that mess? Thats crap J&M

 

[jay]

Slate is a natural product and if you were expecting a mirror Finnish its not going to happen ,but the lippage you have may of been avoidable ,

question 1 Did the tiler view the slate before fixing and tell you what the quality of it is. this should of been discussed as the tiler was sorting the slate (thicknes graded bowed or twisted ones placed to one pile to be used as cuts or out of main walk areas )

the look of the job is disappointing but what was the quality of the slate

this pic shows poor quality slate bowed
The sad part is the tile shops (normally) place the better quality ones on the display (because crap is harder to sell)

Question 2

did you agree with the pattern the slate is fixed ////