Public Thread!: Poor Tiling Workmanship by DIY and Rogue Traders

[slythetiler]

Here you go!
Polished marble tiles on a shop frontage, these two were "stuck" above head height, in a busy thoroughfare. They actually dropped of the wall, lucky someone wasn't killed. If you take a close look you can see the moss in the brick indents! The guy didn't even clean or prepare the brick work! Just a bit of dot and dab! Classic!!

 

[Italy]

I love this job. You hear some great stories, that you guys out on the road my not get very often.

This is todays howler!

Customer went into our showroom. He was having a look round and spotted one of our merchandising team re-tiling a small display of metro tiles. He watched him for a bit, went up to the counter and said "Like what he's doing. So I'll have 15 sqm of them please."

He's doing his shower and bathroom. He was asked if he wanted adhesive, tanking etc... He said he had the adhesive and would just take the tanking kit and a few tubes of Silicon and a bag of grout. Picked his stuff up from the warehouse and off he went.

That was two weeks ago and he has been tiling it gradually over the last week and completed it this weekend.

I get a call this morning from him.

Customer: "Tiles were finished 3 days ago. Looked good but they have started to fall off the wall. I've only used the bloody shower twice. A lot of the grout has cracked too".
Me: "Ok sir, sorry to hear you've had an issue. Let me just bring up your order........... Here it is. I can see you didn't have the adhesive from us. Can you confirm which adhesive you used?
Customer: "Yeah, Tecbond."
Me: "Tecbond. I'm sorry that's not a make I've heard of."
Customer: "Haven't you. Well its called Tecbond Fast Setting..... 15mm"
Me: "15mm??? Thats too much for an adhesive bed. Was it ready mixed or a powder?"
Customer: "Neither. Its one of them sticks, 15mm is the stick width."
Me: "I'm sorry sir, I don't follow???"
Customer: "15mm Glue stick. Goes in the back of the gun and it melts??? I put a good dollop in each corner and 2 in the middle."

*** Long pause, while i did a suppressed giggle and tried for the life of me to think back to see if it was a voice I recognised, and that this was some kind of absolutely genius wind-up.... but no. It wasn't ***

Me: "No. No.... You can't do that. It needs to be tile adhesive. Why did you think the glue sticks would be ok?"
Customer: "That guy that was tiling in your showroom. He was doing his display with it. So I just did what he did. I do carpentry as a hobby so had loads in my garage."
Me: "That display is deliberately changed every 6 to 8 weeks. We use glue sticks and Silicon to make sure the tiles are easy to take off when the board needs updating.
Customer: "Well I brought Silicon, but I put a few up without and the glue was doing alright on its own so I didn't use any. Would it have been better if I had?"
Me: ".................No................ You're not understanding what I'm saying. If you WANT the tiles to come off, use glue. Otherwise a proper cement based adhesive should have been used."
Customer: "oh......Oh right...... Ummmm..... Well I suppose I'll have to take them down and do it again. Do you do anything that takes glue off the back of the tiles or the wall? Its that tanking stuff you gave me."
Me: "You'll be struggling with the tiles. As for the tanking, if there is any glue still stuck, scrape it off and paint over any areas that peel off, with the membrane."
Customer: "Ok, I'll do that. So which Silicon did you recommend for sticking them on with again?
Me: "NO. NOT Silicon! **chuckle** Tile adhesive."

This went on for a further 10 minutes, asking why glue shouldn't be used and why our guy was using Silicon.....

I have asked for pictures and I really hope he sends them in. They will be printed and framed in gold!

the blame lies with. @Paul C.
He was to better inform the customer.
ahahah

 

[White Room]

...HETAS I thought? May be wrong though

your right, spoke to a gas safe guy who is on site with me.

 

[Colour Republic]

Dot and dab anyone?

 

[White Room]

That was never going to last

 

[On one]

Not much cement,and yellow sand to boot!

 

[Tile Shop]

I need to start a new thread soon called Stoooopid query/Stoooopid bodge of the day. Cuz I'm getting a few daily.

However, unlike my last one, this one is not that funny. In fact, its made me pretty angry.

A resident of a London council house (I won't say which particular council she falls under, but still..... one that should know better), has recently had them out to start a refit of the bathroom to convert it to a wetroom. Her husband following an accident has lost a lot of the use of his legs and a small amount of converting was required.

She was told to get ANY tile she wanted and they would supply everything else and do the required preparation. We gave her our recommendations for adhesive grout and prep for that particular tile so that the Council could buy the required materials. She presented it to them and they agreed. Alongside this she had done her own research, after being prompted to do so by a friend who had a bad experience with the workmanship of the same council and has also purchased the boards and tanking on the councils agreement that she will be reimbursed.

The tiles she's chosen are 60x30 porcelain. The walls are currently plastered but we have suggested ripping it down, sticking Hardie up and tanking it in the shower area. The floor is going to be Non-Slip Amtico.

Last week, they came to start. But first he had to sort the walls............ much to the dismay of the customer, they skimmed a few patches and went. They have returned this morning to start sticking the tiles up. The tiler has turned up this morning and has bought in with him a few lengths of Captile, a tile cutter, a bucket trowel and a tub of evo-stick wall adhesive.

She has asked him not to do anything as a few alarm bells started to ring following what we had recommended. She called me and I reiterated that the tile was too heavy for plaster if that is what they were thinking of doing, can't be fitted with ready-mixed and that the correct preparations still had to be done.

The tiler called his gaffer who within an hour came out to talk to her. She told him that she was not happy with what the tiler was about to do. He told her that she didn't know what she was talking about and that the tiler was a professional who knew what was required. They claim they "may have been too hasty in agreeing the required preparation before the tiler had viewed the site". At this point the tiler went out to his van and returned with a notched trowel, a paint brush............ and a bottle of Unibond.

She has been told that their way is cheaper and that the recommendations are nonsense. They have fitted similar tiles before in the same way. Due to the limited amount time they have they wouldn't even have time do the extra prep work even if they wanted too, and have told her to send back the boards and tanking as they are not needed. They will not be taking the plaster down, they will not be tanking anything because Unibond will be fine and the grout and adhesive are waterproof so the substrate won't get wet anyway, and a cement based adhesive was "too messy" to mix and does the same job as a ready-mixed.

They have also said "to be safe and signed off" it must be done by the registered council contractor they have provided, in a way he sees fit, and that no-one else would be allowed to be called in to do required work on "their" property or she will be in violation of her tenancy agreement.

Baring in mind her husband is due out of hospital in the next few weeks. She's in one hell of a corner that I can't see her getting out of, unless she agrees to let them carry out a half-arsed job.

I'm waiting to hear back from her but we may need to send her a smaller ceramic tile so that she is at least half way towards safe.

Caring for the community my arse!

 

[On one]

Wadda ya do
Apart from bang your head against a brick wall

 

[judge]

Bang it a bit more!!! What a bunch of muppets

 

[White Room]

And there supposed to be professionals, can imagine the quandary she's in

 

[lizzardtong]

Found it on the net.

 

[White Room]

Something has blown on the second picture

 

[Old Mod]

Something has blown on the second picture

D'u reckon it was the cork from the bottle Mark?

 

[White Room]

D'u reckon it was the cork from the bottle Mark?

Sod the wall a bottle booze

 

[dave l and l]