B
Brauntonboy
I want the trade’s advice as to what I should do?
It’s a bit long but it is condensed
My wife and I had been looking for kitchen tiles for our new extension and saw just what we wanted at the Grand Design exhibition in April so we bought what we needed, which was 600x400 textured (anti-slip) natural limestone, colour ranging from a pale cream to a slate blue with iron oxide and ammonite. The whole point of an anti-slip surface is because my wife has MS and has balance issues. Also we wanted the tiles to reflect their makeup and have a matt natural look.
After meetings and lots of discussions with various tilers we engaged a professional tiler to lay etc, 36mtrs of floor tiles in the kitchen area of a new build.
The tiler had a good look at the tiles and throughout our pre laying discussions he gave us a strong impression he knew exactly what he was doing.
The laying process was ok and we were satisfied with the result apart from him not mixing up the different colours etc in a way that would enhance the floor, but not too big a problem and we could live with it.
The problem started after he had sealed the floor for the second time and then grouted part of it, at which point he had, for family reasons, quite reasonably, to come off the job for a while.
When he returned 3 days later he took up where he had left off and finished grouting the floor however it left grout smears where he had smoothed over with a float especially at the tile joints.
There was a lot of discussion regarding this problem as now the floor looked horrible, and he went away to consult his supplier and returned and proceeded to wash the floor over a few times in an attempt to clean off the excess grout, this was not successful and he was obviously panicking because he did not seem to know how to cure the problem. He then proceeded to set about the area effected i.e. where the tiles join, with a power sanding tool which he said would help in getting the excess grout off the tiles. I did say at one stage that I thought using the power sander would change the texture and he just pulled a face as if to say, what do you know.
After much more effort and 2 more days of trying the floor did look a bit better and I agreed that he seal the floor again to try to achieve a positive result.
This was done on Friday 12[SUP]th[/SUP] after which he left my premises and now the areas that he did the sanding are smooth and the rest is textured and when viewed the floor is patchy with matt and shining areas which looks awful.
As a point to note he has admitted that he probably left the grout on the floor for 5 mins too long before cleaning it off!!
Enough of the diatribe now the question.
What should he have done?
What should I have done?
What can I do now to achieve a solution?
Thanks for your interest.
Lloyd
It’s a bit long but it is condensed
My wife and I had been looking for kitchen tiles for our new extension and saw just what we wanted at the Grand Design exhibition in April so we bought what we needed, which was 600x400 textured (anti-slip) natural limestone, colour ranging from a pale cream to a slate blue with iron oxide and ammonite. The whole point of an anti-slip surface is because my wife has MS and has balance issues. Also we wanted the tiles to reflect their makeup and have a matt natural look.
After meetings and lots of discussions with various tilers we engaged a professional tiler to lay etc, 36mtrs of floor tiles in the kitchen area of a new build.
The tiler had a good look at the tiles and throughout our pre laying discussions he gave us a strong impression he knew exactly what he was doing.
The laying process was ok and we were satisfied with the result apart from him not mixing up the different colours etc in a way that would enhance the floor, but not too big a problem and we could live with it.
The problem started after he had sealed the floor for the second time and then grouted part of it, at which point he had, for family reasons, quite reasonably, to come off the job for a while.
When he returned 3 days later he took up where he had left off and finished grouting the floor however it left grout smears where he had smoothed over with a float especially at the tile joints.
There was a lot of discussion regarding this problem as now the floor looked horrible, and he went away to consult his supplier and returned and proceeded to wash the floor over a few times in an attempt to clean off the excess grout, this was not successful and he was obviously panicking because he did not seem to know how to cure the problem. He then proceeded to set about the area effected i.e. where the tiles join, with a power sanding tool which he said would help in getting the excess grout off the tiles. I did say at one stage that I thought using the power sander would change the texture and he just pulled a face as if to say, what do you know.
After much more effort and 2 more days of trying the floor did look a bit better and I agreed that he seal the floor again to try to achieve a positive result.
This was done on Friday 12[SUP]th[/SUP] after which he left my premises and now the areas that he did the sanding are smooth and the rest is textured and when viewed the floor is patchy with matt and shining areas which looks awful.
As a point to note he has admitted that he probably left the grout on the floor for 5 mins too long before cleaning it off!!
Enough of the diatribe now the question.
What should he have done?
What should I have done?
What can I do now to achieve a solution?
Thanks for your interest.
Lloyd
