Help! Grout and Silicon problem - bathroom just retiled

[jambourie]

Hello,

I had my bathroom retiled a couple of weeks ago. Floors were tiled with large square grey tiles with white grout and walls with white brick tiles with grey grout. There are a couple of problems with the work the tiler did:
- The grout on the floor tiles has already cracked (hairline cracks) and is crumbling away. He has tried to cover this up in some places with Silicon which does not look good.
- In the internal tile corners on the walls he has used white Silicon over grey grout, which has sort of smudged together and ended up looking dirty.
- Generally the Silicon looks messy and dirty.

I will attach some pictures to show you examples of this. Is this normal? Surely the job should be neater than this? What has gone wrong?

Is it normal that they grey grout looks darker when wet? Should he have sealed this?

Any help or advice would be really appreciated!

Thank you.

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome....you are correct to have reservations about the quality of work......

 

[Bubblecraft]

Hi & welcome to TF. I'm sorry to say this but not only is the Silicon work awful but grouting is shocking. This is unacceptable. Hairline cracks could be caused by a number of reasons. Incorrect adhesive, substrate not prepared correctly.

 

[peteablard]

Have you spoken to your tiler about this?. Sorry but that is a very poor job. Dark grout with white tiles will show up any imperfections and as we'll as the grouting being very poor in general it also shows up that the tiles are spaced poorly. It looks like the Silicon was applied before the grout had dried and has smeared the grout into the Silicon

 

[Alex E]

That workman ship is atrocious! Please tell me you haven't paid them yet? The grout lines are dreadful!

 

[dobragol]

This must be one of the worst tiling/grouting/siliconing I've seen in ages . Really poor quality job.Talk to your tiler as this is unacceptable but get someone else in to rectify it.I don't think the guy who done this job is able to tile better than this .

 

[jambourie]

Thank you all, I thought this wasn't right. I did speak to him about the wobbly grout and he said it was hard to get it straight with the small tiles and spaces and grey grout. But then he finished the job while I was away, and the worst bit by far is the edging with grout and Silicon, and the cracked grout on the floor. What has gone wrong with the grey grout? Why does it look so clumpy and messy? I'm wondering if even I could have done this better myself

 

[jambourie]

I will get him back and see what he says. What should I say is specifically wrong with the job?

 

[Bubblecraft]

You should say that overall, you are not happy with the finish. That is absolute rubbish about the grout on the walls. It's just not been done properly. It has been rushed. As I have said in my previous post, your hairline cracks on the floor have been caused by failing to prepare the substrate correctly or incorrect adhesive used. This could be a number of things but unfortunately, if this is how it is now soon after grouting, it can only get worse! There is no excuse for the state of the Silicon. It has been applied while grout is still wet which has caused it to mix & discolour. He's also trying to either cover up large gaps with the Silicon or the nozzle has been cut too large.

 

[carlito]

Rushed at the end springs to mind!

 

[jambourie]

I think he did actually rush it at the end and that's part of the problem. Bubblecraft, where he made the cuts up against the wall, the gaps between some of the tiles and the wall was almost an inch, so he used really thick grout and then tried to cover it with Silicon. I'm guessing now this isn't the right thing to do..

 

[peteablard]

Rushed all the way through IMO. Look at the cut in the floor tile round the architrave, it's way too big and you can see where the blade has overrun in each direction. No care taken at all.....
if I were you jambourie I'd make a list of everything you're not happy with and give it to the tiler hen he comes to look t it.

 

[Rookery]

Agreed its a sub-standard job. I'm sorry but the only real solution is to have it re-done. Poor workmanship, poor practices and probably poor selection of tools and materials have all contributed to this.

 

[diamondtiling]

In a nutshell...........The guy is not a tiler.

 

[prceramics]

makes me really sad to see this i am sitting at home with no work and guys out there doing this kind of work !, not acceptable