Please Help

[annette]

The Tiler came today to grout the tiles and after the advice given here I told him that I was not allowing him to do it. I showed him to the bathroom and pointed out the fallen and loose tiles. He admitted that he didn't have much adhesive left so he put the last lot of tiles on with what little was left. He told me this after I told him I was going to complain to the council, he blamed the council for the amount of stuff they gave him saying it was not enough. He could not believe that some of the tiles had fallen off, he also admitted he should not have used that adhesive to tile on the ply board. When I pointed out about the tiling around the radiator brackets he said the plaster was sticking out so he just plastered over it. He also said after looking at the back of one of the tiles he pulled off and the adhesive was still soft that he couldn't believe it! When I asked him should the newly plastered walls not have been primed before the tiling was done he said that the council didn't give him any to use. I told him that I had sought this website for advise and he told me he was going to see the works foreman on monday, I wonder what he has to say? I'm going to demand it all be re-tiled again

Big Thank You to all who have helped me here

Annette

 

[garyc4507]

annette well done you its time tilers learned the art of doing a proffesional job unlike my spelling its our lively hood not just me but many tilers one bad job does more harm to your reputation than one good job take heed you would be tilers times are going to get tough glad to help garyc tiling contractor merry xmas to all:gettree::santa_cheesy:

 

[BDS]

annette where are you from or what part of the country are you in?

 

[cornish_crofter]

At least the tiles appear to be OK in terms of quality.

I'm trying to do a good job with B&Q tiles, it's just not working the tiles 13"x 8" are absolutely carp! They are not level. They are either twisted or bent.

I don't do a lot of tiling and hence am not as profficient as some of the other posters responding to this thread. However, there are certain common sense issues here, for example, you remove the radiator brackets, mark the position of the holes in the wall on the tiles, drill the tiles in the right place, fix the tiles then refit the brackets. It's a wooden floor, so any minor adjustment in the pipework as a result of the tiles should not be ain issue.

You can get away with certain gaps at the internal edges if he was going to Silicon the internal corners. However the grout lines MUST meet all the way around the room. With a bit of preparation it is not difficult to get this right. I would batten the room with the batten one tile height or less from the floor. If all the battens are level then the tiles should line up around the room. The last tiles to go in should be the ones on the bottom row after the battens are removed (when the adhesive has set). Some of these may need to be trimmed to fit between the floor and the row above.

The work in your house IMO is shocking. This is in no way the odd unfortunate slip up. Any idiot will know to take the rad brckets off. I can only think that the council are paying peanuts, so monkeys come to mind......

You did the right thing searching out this forum.

Annette - what part of the country are you in?

 

[grumpygrouter]

all new plaster and ply must be primed with adp1 first when dry then tiling should comence if using mapie or ( ball whitestar which is the best adhesive on the market ) should be left to dry for minimum of 24hrs before grouting should commence

This is not strictly true Gary. Check the adhesive manufacturers spec. Certainly BAL recommend NOT priming the tiles surface for ply, for any of their adhesives, though the back and edges of the ply should be sealed with SBR before installing.

 

[faithhealer]

Good luck on Monday Annette, I have followed council workers onto jobs before and the standard of work is shocking. The problem is there is no come back on the workers, that poor lad (only doing his job the way they have told him or not as the case may be) will be gritting the roads next week and tiling a bathroom the week after.

Once did a complete bathroom in a council house, the existing bath only had three legs!!, the packing from the bath was shoved under the bath WITH THE RUBBISH FROM THE PREVIOUS NEW BATH CIRCA 1986 !! And the tiles came off like a dream because they were dot and dabbed!

 

[davy_G]

Oh dear, just looked at the photos. Very poor.
Annette, stick to your guns. Make sure all the loose or hollow sounding tiles are removed and tiles with powdered adhesive.
You deserve quality workmanship. Everyone does.

 

[annette]

annette where are you from or what part of the country are you in?

Sunderland tyne and wear.

 

[annette]

The Tiler did not work for the council he was a sub contractor. I know what you mean about men doing other jobs though, we had the joiner fixing the dryer venting kit in here one day last week, he was actually trying to redo the bodge job that the labourer did when he first fitted it, I will put a picture up of the laboures DIY attempt.
Speaking of rubbish underneath the bath we pulled a newspaper from under it dated 1985 along with a lot of other crap.
Every workmen except the joiner over the last 6 weeks has left the mess for me to clean up, every single job the plumbers had done leaked and the boiler fiasco was a joke, when it was first fitted it was left leaking so they sent the engineer to sort it out, he refitted some part and left without a word, later one of the workmen noticed another leak so the plumber came round and went to nip the pipe up where the leak was coming from, when he tightened it up and turned the water inlet on the boiler the water went everywhere, after dismantling the boiler himself he noticed the ENGINEER had put the part in the wrong way round so some seal was not meeting correctly. What really upsets me is the work is been done by GENTOO, they used to be called Sunderland City Council but changed their name, we in Sunderland know why though, to get rid of their bad name they had before, so they have never really changed have they.
Noticed the labourers sealing of the dryer pipe is brown parcel tape

Thank You

 

[DERBER]

Er,Er,Trying to think of words to describe my thoughts on the photos, but they would'nt be allowed on here......... So unbelievably poor it has to be.

 

[annette]

Heres a picture of the plumbers work on the small basin sink in the downstairs toilet, it leaked so I told him, he then fixed it with some white stretch tape plumbers use, it still leaked. I told him it was because the basin was fixed on the wall wrong, he put more tape on it, I also called the works foreman down to show him and after he looked at it he said well it doesn't leak now so that's ok. I told him to look at the way the basin was fitted wrongly to the wall and pointed out that the waste pipe coming from it did not meet the waste pipe that went out through the wall, he didn't want to know, basicaly he said but the sinks fitted to the wall properly and it was meant to be slanting downwards. You can see by the picture it's not fitted right and the waste pipes do not fit together straight, my patience is rapidly running out.

 

[grumpygrouter]

I am sorry any plumbers that may be looking at this thread but, that sink fitment is shocking......

 

[annette]

I am sorry any plumbers that may be looking at this thread but, that sink fitment is shocking......

Thank You Grumpy so you can see it I was begining to think I needed to go to spec savers, after the plumbers and the foreman kept telling me it was ok lol

The last tiler we had in our house was a young lad and his Dad, they done a fantastic job tiling the whole bathroom, I just wish I had left the old tiles on now.

Again can I just say Thank You to you all for your help

Annette

 

[BDS]

Hi annette i only asked about where you lived cos if i`d of lived near you i would of come and seen if i could of helped in any way shape or form but as you dont i cant so sorry about that,i`ve seen your pics and someone needs there butt kicked cos tiles falling of are dangerous in any situation so play the health and safety card with who ever needs telling it usually gets them moving,and as for the plumbing i see it all the time and see worse but its still shocking workmanship that makes my blood boil when i see it,again sorry i cant help but as said by others stick to your guns keep on telling whoever that all these things need sorting and tell them your not going to accept bodged work anymore.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

OMG! I'm not even a tiler or plumber and even I can see that work is shoddy!

Annette, if the council are not playing ball, could you contact Trading Standards? You've paid for the work to be done and everybody on here can see that it's appalling.

Either that or shop them to Rogue Traders on the BBC :santa_cheesy: