Acceptable lippage in large format floor tiles

[Time's Ran Out]

@timeless john the guy was aware of the tiles and the floor and said ‘this’ll be an easy job for me, I’ve seen much worse floors, it’s pretty flag’. If there was a concern it should have been made apparent at the time of his visit or when quoting don’t you think? Instead he said he was holding off another job for ours and offered a 10 year guarantee in writing. Now the job is done and he’s been paid it seems like a whole different ball game, customer service and pride in work appears to have gone completely out the window. I’m not a tiler but I would never have left the floor in such a state. We were planning on doing the work ourselves but decided on a pro however couldn’t afford the decoupling mat quote. The tiler we chose was asked if he used a tile levelling system and he said ‘only if required’ - wouldn’t this be an instance where it is required? We had a system available we bought for us to use, yet it wasn’t used.

I’m interested in this variance in opinion on the work. His colleague is coming out tomorrow to look at the work and I was hoping to have some professional opinion regarding workmanship before this. As a layman, I am keen to know if this is reasonable for the tiles and floor level or whether this could have been avoided by grinding down or levelling up with adhesive and/or tile levelling system. As for ‘it was too dark’ @timeless john if you think that’s defensible I’d hazard to think that those in the poor workmanship boat are to be better believed

@Shinyshiny054 my reply was to our Italian member who prides himself on excellent work. He cannot believe an excuse of poor lighting is relevant in 2018. There is no excuse for the quality of grouting or indeed any lippage of the tiles and as others have stated it’s just another disaster for the rouges album.
At least you have his 10 year guarantee to fall back on.

 

[Shinyshiny054]

The floor was obviously leveled poorly and should of been picked up by the tiler when quoting the job.
Personally I hate it when builder's or clients try to level there floors as there's a lot more to it than spreading a bit of latex around.
Level clips will only help in certain situations and are more for large format tiles to prevent tiles lipping when the adhesive drys as shrinks slightly.
Also if the jobs that bad, why did you pay him...?

It wasn’t a great levelling job, but I had measured the floor at hundreds of point across it which clearly marked the variance. We offered to grind down high spots but this was declined. As for why did we pay him? I don’t know, i really don’t. We were only able to walk on and scrutinise after 24 hours. Should never have paid up front, I work in a builder yard, I should know better!!! Not sure what my options are from here, guessing just grout repair and a large rug.

What’s the process for grout repairs? Will the grout already put down need taken out? Don’t want swindled with an equally dodgy repair job.

Thanks everyone for your responses, really wish I had a better result for my hard earned cash

 

[Time's Ran Out]

We all do, as this type of work does no justice to our trade!

 

[Flintstone]

It can be grouted over the top of what’s there which will fill in any low bits of grout of which there appears to be a lot, might make it look better but it won’t make the tile joints sizes look any better because you bought cheap tiles. As for lippage, can’t really see the full extent of that on the pictures. Did you just get the two quotes or more? Was this chap recommended? Is he calling himself a tiler or a jack of all ?

 

[Albert]

You will need to scrap back the lumps of tile adhesive from
the joints, the grout on the surface will scrape off with a piece
of wood, hard plastic, even a piece of tile but not metal as
that will mark the tile. Then you can regrout, full joints may disguise
some of the lips

 

[Shinyshiny054]

It can be grouted over the top of what’s there which will fill in any low bits of grout of which there appears to be a lot, might make it look better but it won’t make the tile joints sizes look any better because you bought cheap tiles. As for lippage, can’t really see the full extent of that on the pictures. Did you just get the two quotes or more? Was this chap recommended? Is he calling himself a tiler or a jack of all ?

The joints themselves don’t bother me at all, that’s not what I notice when I look at the floor, and I was expecting issues there (though the vast majority of them were 605, I measured). Plus the grout is a close match to the tile colour so it’s not immediately noticeable. What is noticeable is the lippage and terrible grouting; there is barely a single tile aligned with another with decent grout. I know the grout fix lippage, but hoping it improves at least some of the floor, the rest will chalk up to experience and chuck plenty of rugs down.

The guy is a tiler by trade. My partner found him and 2 others to quote, sadly we just couldn’t fork out for the higher priced tilers, though their quotes included the Mapei decoupling mats. He gave a very good spiel and reconfirmed all his accolades in a lengthy text message to my other half who wanted some extra reassurance on workmanship. Not sure what the written guarantee gives us, looks like it’s not going to stand for anything!

 

[Andy Allen]

I can almost guarantee it won't... 🙂

 

[Shinyshiny054]

I can almost guarantee it won't... 🙂

Yep, I get that feeling too. Needless to say I had a terrible night sleep worrying about the whole thing. Still no further forward with what I can do about it. He’s not a trade guild member or anything like that and has chosen to send someone else to fix the grouting rather than come out himself.

As a layman I feel at a disadvantage to being able to justify my concerns since he just shut me down with ‘Any tile alignments were due to the fact every tile was a different size. Grouting we have missed bits due to there being no light
Thanks’. No responses after this Cept that someone would be out today. No time given for that either

 

[Albert]

Yep, I get that feeling too. Needless to say I had a terrible night sleep worrying about the whole thing. Still no further forward with what I can do about it. He’s not a trade guild member or anything like that and has chosen to send someone else to fix the grouting rather than come out himself.

As a layman I feel at a disadvantage to being able to justify my concerns since he just shut me down with ‘Any tile alignments were due to the fact every tile was a different size. Grouting we have missed bits due to there being no light
Thanks’. No responses after this Cept that someone would be out today. No time given for that either

Please let us know what the outcome is

 

[WetSaw]

Was anything done with the cracked screed before the tiling? Did the other tilers who came to quote have any reservations about it?