British Standards Query

[One Day]

Nicely done Paul!
Just to add a cautionary note though: BS5385 is not law - just professional recommendations based on quite out-of-date information (in my opinion) and aimed at a completely ungoverned trade.
Still, courts will refer to it as guidance in the absence of an expert witness I suppose.

 

[Tile Shop]

BS5385-3:2014 Wall and floor tiling. Design and installation of ceramic, natural stone and mosaic floor tiling in normal internal conditions. Code of practice

7.1.3.2 Straigtness of joints
The joints between tiles are an important feature of any tiling installation, particularly when small tiles, wide joints, or contrasting coloured grouts are specified. The width of joints between tiles should be even and of regular dimension (subject to the manufacturing tolerance for the type of tile specified.

Generally the joints should be straight in alignment unless the tiles are, by design, irregular in shape. Special attention should be paid to large areas of floor tiling where the joint can be sighted.

The straightness of tile jointing can be checked using a taut lightweight nylon builders line. The nylon line should be in alignment with the tile joint at all points along the nylon at any point within the width of the joint, i.e. the normal permissible tolerance being the width of the joint.

Any sections of tile jointing not within this tolerance should not necessarily be considered to be a defect unless clearly visible by normal eyesight from both ends of the taut string line used for the test and viewed from a standing position.

Note: this is from the floor tiling standards, and can't see why something to this effect is not also in part one for wall tiling....... odd..... unless I've gone tile blind!

 

[Tile Shop]

Nicely done Paul!
Just to add a cautionary note though: BS5385 is not law - just professional recommendations based on quite out-of-date information (in my opinion) and aimed at a completely ungoverned trade.
Still, courts will refer to it as guidance in the absence of an expert witness I suppose.

Indeed. Correct you are.

Codes of practice recommend sound good practice as currently undertaken by competent and conscientious practitioners. They are drafted to incorporate a degree of flexibility in application, whilst offering reliable indicative benchmarks. They are commonly used in the construction and civil engineering industries.

At the beginning of the standards there is a disclaimer:

Use of this document

As a code of practice, this part of BS 5385 takes the form of guidance and recommendations. It should not be quoted as if it were a specification and particular care should be taken to ensure that claims of compliance are not misleading.

Any user claiming compliance with this part of BS 5385 is expected to be able to justify any course of action that deviates from its recommendations.

Users seeking assistance in identifying appropriate conformity assessment bodies or schemes may ask BSI to forward their enquiries to the relevant association.

 

[jamesbond]

Wow. This is perfect. Paul, I cannot thank you enough for this. This is above and beyond the level of detail I was hoping you would come back with. It is exactly what we need to help us all move on with this.

I am of course aware this is not a law or anything, but if this goes to court, then we will most likely need to get an assessment done to support our case. The assessors' website states that they assess the work against relevant British Standards. Not law, but you do have to have some kind of benchmark when it comes to these things.

I really think it is in our interests, and the contractors' interests not to waste any more time and money going to court over this. At the moment, it is a battle of opinions, so having this information available during mediation will hopefully help us all be more realistic and avoid such an unpleasant situation.

I hope others in a similar situation will be able to find this thread too. The hardest thing we have found through all of this is trying to gauge what is reasonable. As I suggested in the other thread....It's easy to be unhappy with someone's work, but it is important to be fair and reasonable in your expectations too. This thread and my previous thread have been extremely helpful in trying to ascertain whether our expectations were reasonable before pushing for a resolution.

I will of course let you know the outcome.
Thanks again for the time you spent on this, it is very very much appreciated!

 

[Dumbo]

I had a guy once complining about lippage on a floor because when he slid his chair back it caught the tile edge . He was demonstrating to me with a piece of square ended wood . I then took his piece of wood place it on the high tile then took one mm packer out of my pocket and tried to get it under his piece of wood. . It wouldn't go. I then told him about British standards and it was put to bed.
Red packers are 1mm arent they

 

[One Day]

Nah, red packers are 3mm 😛

 

[bsc ceramics]

Nice one Paul 🙂

 

[AOS TIling]

Well done Paul for helping the chap out

 

[Rookery]

Well done Paul for helping the chap out

Paul is a Topps chap isn't he? Very comprehensive help, it must have taken you ages.

 

[Tile Shop]

Paul is a Topps chap isn't he? Very comprehensive help, it must have taken you ages.

Topps?????? I've never been so insulted 🙂 and didn't take that long. Just had to find it and type it out.