Problems with bal micromax grout

[Lynne]

I feel stupid now lol......poor dave

 

[DHTiling]

Right who wants banning first..


Lynne , did you get info from topps as to which way to go with the quote.?

 

[Lynne]

Hi dave
they are useless,
i explained what're spoke about on Monday and they said they will put an offer out to me only if I get a quote ...
i asked so I get the worse case scenario and Marion at customer services was vague and said she agreed this has gone on far too long and she would speak to h boss and come back to me the same day and guess what ... Nothing ...I have left a message for her yesterday and stll waiting

 

[Lynne]

Sorry
forgot to say I told her if necessary, I would pay for the tile association to fight my case if need be if she wanted it together tthis far

 

[DHTiling]

OK. IMHO Lynne, nothing short of a full re-tile will suffice to give you the bathroom that was intended... too much damage will occur as mentioned to get that grout out of the tile joints and replace scratched mosaic insets.

I'll leave it with you till topps get their act together.

 

[AliGage]

I used to tile for a company that was on Topp's "recommeded trades" list. To my knowledge they stopped having recommended tradesman just over a year ago. But, it was difficult enough getting Topp's backsides into gear then, i had some jobs i went to look at for my local topps that took 5-6 months to get the nod, and the almost the same to recieve payment from them.

Sorry to be the barer of bad news but this may take a while.

 

[Lynne]

Let's hope not I will be back on to topps tomorrow

 

[AliGage]

Best way i think Lynne, pester them daily until they make you their priority.

 

[jwatson]

shawshank redemption comes to mind. Andy dufrace writing a letter a week for the library :lol:

Best way i think Lynne, pester them daily until they make you their priority.

 

[Rookery]

Topps wont want to pay out and will use every excuse possible not to but if they do, they're likely to give the job to the cheapest quote.

 

[Martino]

This is extremely bad of topps, i dont every use topps and glad i dont!.....i use a small family run business and have done for 30+ years.......too many people passing on to another person at big company's like topps.....where i go you deal with 1 person and the same person all the time for tiles!....best way IMO....hope everything gets sorted for you lynne

 

[AliGage]

Marginally off-topic. Not stealing your thread Lynne. But i'm using Micromax Cocoa at the moment and too be honest i hate it.

It's a nightmare to clean and really really gritty. Which made me think about your issue lynne. I'm just wondering wether there is too much "grit" and not enough colour pigment. Maybe the grey tones or colour you were experiencing was because of this perhaps?

But other than that it's also a real nightmare to clean. To actually grout the wall with it is like the krypton factor. Most ended up on the floor!
The travertine i'm grouting with it was a 305x305x 10 as well. Albeit, i#ve cut these in half so there's proberbly an extra 3 linear metres per square metre with what i'm doing. Now the bag states for this size of tile, but at 9mm depth the coverage per 5Kg bag is 17.7sqm. Absolute tosh! I had to break into a second bag today to complete the wall i was doing. Meaning i've got coverage of around 6sqm for a 5Kg bag.

I'm seriously, seriously considering getting my pen and paper out and writing a letter of complaint.
Customer wanted the same colour in the main bathroom as well. 20sqm on walls, 4.5ish on floors. I've flat refused and offered them Weber brown instead.

 

[Lynne]

Called topps spoke to customer services mgr. Told him i hadetters to go out to all senior managers and the ceo based at hq. Said happy to take days holiday to go to hq with a journalist who is a friend of the family and guess what they suggested dave gives me a quote for the worse case senario a full refit. Tbey are alo wanting one of thekr tilers to quote also . I dont trust this and want dave to do the work and will insist this or go to the top of topps lol

 

[AliGage]

As with any job Lynne, you are entitled to get 3 or more quotes and choose who you want to complete the work. Topps never installed your tiles did they?
Dave's an awesome tiler from what i've seen. Keep pressing topps, they'll cave in.

 

[Lynne]

Bal rep been said yes wrong gout been used the discolouration of the grout is nothing to do with their ready mixed adhesive . There has been some overwashing in places as the grout has caught out the tiler and only very experienced tilers should use this.

 

[Dan]

So what does that mean though now? How's that help you?

 

[Lynne]

I have had a call from topps and they are sending a local tiler from chester le street to do a report and quote on thursday night. Daves doing this slso for me so when both quotes go into topps they will send out an offer. The bal rep told me this grout has been reformulated as theyare having too many customers
Complaining

 

[White Room]

I have had a call from topps and they are sending a local tiler from chester le street to do a report and quote on thursday night. Daves doing this slso for me so when both quotes go into topps they will send out an offer. The bal rep told me this grout has been reformulated as theyare having too many customers
Complaining

Interesting.....

 

[AliGage]

Just about to turnm in for the night so just quickly. I've complained to BAL this morning about micromax. Had the manager of topps on and off the phone to him most of this afternoon. Think there definately is issues with it, and i think they've heard the issues voiced a lot.

 

[Lynne]

Well both tilers have been and both opinions seem the same wrong grout , grouting could have been better but definitely should not have been supplied micromax just waiting for the quotes now as this could turn out to be a full refit !

 

[DHTiling]

Hi Lynn... myself and Michael are in full conclusion a full re-fit is required, but whether Topps see it that way then pass.

we do not do make overs to bonny jobs up.. it needs to be a re-fit or nothing from us i'm afraid.

 

[Lynne]

Yep that's what the other guy said , I won't let topps get away with this , I will dig my heels in ,,,,,,,

 

[Rookery]

I have had a call from topps and they are sending a local tiler from chester le street to do a report and quote on thursday night. Daves doing this slso for me so when both quotes go into topps they will send out an offer. The bal rep told me this grout has been reformulated as theyare having too many customers
Complaining

I said this in post 20. I still feel some responsibility rests with BAL as they continued to ship the product whilst knowing it was the subject of problems.

 

[Dan]

Bal rep been said yes wrong gout been used the discolouration of the grout is nothing to do with their ready mixed adhesive . There has been some overwashing in places as the grout has caught out the tiler and only very experienced tilers should use this.

Say what?

BAL rep has been and has said only very experienced tilers should use the particular grout?

Couple of random questions just for my own curiosity, I have read the thread but might have missed the answers: -

What's the original tiler said, and why hasn't he provided a quote to fix the job? I'm assuming you were happy with his work in the end? Did he get paid in full for it all?
And... how come topps and BAL haven't said that the original tiler perhaps should have spotted the erroneous supplying of the wrong grout?

As tilers, when we fix two batches of tiles that are not exactly the same, it'll be the tiler that is to blame. Why? - He should have the experience to know that he needs to A) check the order and B) work from a whole bunch of boxes at the same time and not just one at a time and get the next - so that even the slight size/colour differences in the same-batch tiles can be overcome.

So I'm wondering a lot about the original tiler myself. Where's he in all of this now? And how come not many have jumped on the old 'the tiler shouldn't bave used it' bandwagon which is what we'd normally see from reps and suppliers and whatnot?

 

[AliGage]

I think the tiler raised concerns but was instructed to go ahead as topps informed customer that was the correct products.

As i've already said, i'm using this product currently. Two bathrooms and the grout in the second room will not be BAL Micromax. It's awlful to work with, a nightmare to clean, smells bloody awlful to the point it made me feel ill. I grouted the remaining walls yesterday, and went in this morning for a final clean down. The dust from grouting is clinging onto the dry grout joints big time. The grouting now looks a grey-ish colour. I got a nail brush on to it and the dust does eventually clean off, but it's very stubborn. I think i'm going to need to put a day or two extra into cleaning. So i'm back there tomorrow.

I have complained through topps to BAL. Mainly due to coverage issues. i've been given another bag to start with it to carry on. But as i've said i will not be using it in the other room.
I'll see where i'm at and what it looks like at the end of the job, that'll form the basis of wether i complain any further. But regardless of any complaint or outcome, i will not be using it again.