Discuss Advice on a poor job in the Australia Tiling Forum area at TilersForums.com.

L

lasors

Hello all,
My in-laws are currently having their bathroom refitted (first floor) and having done my own bathroom and a friend's, taking lots of advice from posts on this forum, I would say I have a reasonable grasp of what constitutes a 'proper' job, and have noticed several issues which I am worried for them over. The job has not finished, this is week 3.

As far as I know the installer is a plumber by trade and while there is nothing wrong with his pipe work his tiling is garbage. They are upset that the work isn't better. They are happy to pay a premium for quality materials, and this tradesman was recommended by a neighbour. Maybe their standards are not as high, or maybe it's just ignorance?

There is a walk in shower with wet-room type tiled floor and free standing bath. A preformed floor tray has been used to form the fall to a centre drain. Shower wall area is tiled floor to near ceiling with glass screen divide and the rest of the room is t&g panels with painted walls above.

The walls are normal plasterboard not MR. No tanking of any kind has been used on the walls. As far as I know no tanking has been used in conjunction with the tray. There is grout in the corners not Silicon. The wall and floor tiles have way less than full tile to adhesive contact, there are noticeable voids but some has now been grouted so this is now hidden. The setting out is poor such that there are differences in grout line widths from near nil to 6 or 7mm. There's lots of lipping. There are areas laid in the wrong order so they are now converging from two directions and won't meet up square or to pattern. The cutting in is poor, particularly where the tiles (100x100) have been cut on the diagonal to fall to the tray. I will post a photo when I figure out how.

The tiling is awful to look at and for what is quite an expensive job I'd expect better but I'm most worried about the reliance on grout to keep the water escaping the room. It's an old house with lathe and plaster walls and ceilings and any moisture is going to cause problems.

I guess really my question is, how do we go about getting it resolved? I've never had the need to seriously question a tradesman's work with a view to having anything re-done. I'm conscious that he could get the hump and, having been paid 80% of the cost so far, walk off the job. Clearly there are material costs involved with redoing work, and the tiles were not cheap. Who pays for that? How do you qualify a good/bad job if it comes to taking legal action? How do you decide if a customer is being fussy on quality of work, and what is considered acceptable? Am I overreacting and it'll be fine?!

Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any help and guidance you can offer.
 
T

Time's Ran Out

Lasors - it's really up to your in laws to make the decision they are not happy!
If they've paid 80% and are not content it's going to be expensive and where some tradesman can do the complete project you have the knowledge to know the difference in the quality of finish that is not just acceptable but also within the guidelines of British Standards. It's expensive to get an independent report from the TTA and as most of the preparation work has been covered now ( tanking and sealing etc) it'll be difficult without removing tiles to determine the damage they will have in the future.
Its not going to end well either way but I'd stop any further cover up, put you concerns to the plumber and ask him for a 10 year guarantee or a complete refund!
Failing his cooperation to satisfy your concerns the Trading Standards or Citizens Advice Bureau may be their only option.
 
I'am afraid the chap might walk when confronted with the problems,I know its not nice to say but your in-laws should not have paid that much up front,if I labor only my policy is to be paid on completion unless its a big job which extends into a second week then its part payment,advise your in-laws to hold the final payment until they are satisfied,but it might have to go down the legal route.
 
lol [MENTION=15936]Gar[/MENTION]y !!!

Sorry OP sounds like a rip out and redo to get the standard of finish you would expect from a protiler.

Good luck with this very troublesome situation, I find around 15-20% of my comes through fixing jobs like this. Im actually on one now where the painters tiled the floor and three walls, using hardboard upside down as a subbase to tile onto.

2014-09-20 13.16.15.jpg
 
L

lasors

Looking at my phone I appear to have only taken two photos, of the tray, one section of which has been grouted and the other not.

I will freely admit that I am a bit of a perfectionist and I'm probably pickier than most average homeowners when looking at/doing things like tiling, but these make me shudder.

Aside from the cutting, these tiles are obviously easy to space, it's the others that suffer the varying grout line thicknesses. They are an octagon/square pattern, barely visible in the corner of the one photo.

Anyway, two photos, will take more when I'm next over, tomorrow I think.
 

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L

lasors

On another note... the bathroom I did for some friends of ours, and my first attempt at anything more complicated than a bath surround or kitchen splashback tiling wise. Large size tiles (400x300 if I remember correctly, had to buy a big Rubi to manage the cuts), all walls floor to ceiling, stud walling... was good fun if a little daunting. The floor is vinyl. Feel free to critique that while you're at it, lol. :D
 

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Advice on a poor job
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