Tiles poorly fitted by "Professional" tiler

[GeorgeS]

I have recently bought my first house and am having the bathroom refitted. I got a quote from a local plumber who also advertises as being a "professional ceramic tiler". He got a joiner in to replace the old plasterboard around the bath where tiles had been. He is replacing the bathroom suite and fitting 400x250 wall tiles around 2 1/2 walls of the room.

I have been away through work for a few days and have just got back to see the progress. The plasterboard has been replaced, the wall tiles are up and the bath sink and toilet are all fitted. The tiles have been grouted. Work still to be done is fit shower and screen and apply sealant around bath etc.

On first look I was quite happy with the look but on closer inspection there are quite a few tiles which have been fitted with irregular spaces around them and the some tiles are not flush with the adjacent tile. There are also several tiles which have corners broken off (about 1/4" to 1/2" or so) which have been fitted and then grout has been used to fill the missing area.

The plumber will be back tomorrow but I am looking for advice. What is the best course of action if I am not happy with the finish of the tiles? Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[Raja]

the 1 thing i hate and really gets up my nose is plumbers who say they can tile and plasterers dont get me wrong some can but a large number can't i make a point of never doing anything but tiling for the pure reason i can't fit baths and dont know much about plastering. for me don valley tiling means just wot it says nothing more nothing less

 

[grumpygrouter]

The "tiler" should not have fitted broken tiles and you would be in your rights ot ask him to replace them at his expense. The tile flushness that you are talking about is called "lipping" and again, your "tiler" should make every effort to avoid this.

Don't pay for the work until you are satisfied with it. Ask him to rectify the poor workmanship at his expense and don't pay him until he does.

Grumpy

 

[knightonthetile]

Dont,t give him any money till your %100 happy chappy. Stand your ground and argue your point and tell him you want to get a second opinion.:mad2:

 

[DHTiling]

I totally agree with grumps on this one...don't part with any money until you are 100% happy....You need to make a list of everything that is wrong so when you confront him you won't forget anything...Stand your ground ,,, it is your right to have a professional job done.....keep us informed as to what happens please and good luck.........

 

[GeorgeS]

Thanks grumpygrouter, that is what i had hoped. Don Valley Tiling I accept your point. In future I would definately get each specialisation in to do their own area of the job. Jack of all trades springs to mind - but I have to put that down to experience.

 

[Tilestiles]

I have seen some so called tilers who cant tile let alone plumbers!! - Lol. You wouldnt get a plumber to fix your car would you!! Each trade to there own is what I say. A plumber plumbs and a tiler tiles!!
----
Like the guys say, dont pay him until your happy. I never take a penny off my customers including materials and only ask them to pay me when they are completely happy with the work that has been done!!

 

[Fekin]

Im supprised he had to get a joiner in to replace plasterboard though.

If your able to plumb and tile... I would of thought plasterboarding would of been within your realm too.

Frankly I don't see a problem with people being a plumber and tiler, though I always think tiler \ plasterer is a better combination, but at the end of the day, if you can do both then why not, though I do hear a lot of plumbers who are very bad at tiling, where as I hear far less plasterers that are bad at tiling.

 

[dptiling]

quote=Don Valley Tiling;54303]the 1 thing i hate and really gets up my nose is plumbers who say they can tile and plasterers dont get me wrong some can but a large number can't i make a point of never doing anything but tiling for the pure reason i can't fit baths and dont know much about plastering. for me don valley tiling means just wot it says nothing more nothing less[/quote]

:iagree:
all you have to do with the plumber , is show him what your not happy with.
a lot of pluming is hidden and missed if wrong. a lot of tiling work is visual(by that i mean they have to be stuck well also)
dont let him get away with it . and what ever you do dont pay him untill your happy.......might make him try a bit harder next time ,and sadly there will be a next time,,,

 

[Ric]

good point feks, plastering and tiling use trowels so more natural for each trade to get to grips with each other. Problem for us is, when a plumber comes in to do plumbing work and catches on to the fact tiling needs done he is going to price well for the whole job, whereas single trades will probably be higher priced. Customer will like the convienience and price and if done to good standard single trades wont get a look in!! thats life... And the moral of this tale is... get friendly with plumbers who can't be arsed to tile... he he

 

[bigdaz]

I'm with Fekin on this. I cant see any problem with so called "jack of all trades" as long as each are done to a high standard by someone with some experience rather than someone who's prepared to 'have a go'

I did 3 years plastering around my full time job and got a lot of recomendations. I'm now going into tiling and will always strive to do a good job. bathroom and kitchen fitting to follow.

as for this case, it seems as if the plumber is not such a good tiler and it might be worth taking a couple of the tiles off to see how they have been bedded as this might not be up to scratch either and you wont find that out for a few months when they start falling off...

 

[m.w.tiling]

I'm a tiler that is just starting to fit bathrooms myself. I find all earlier trades a too willing to take short cuts, saves them five minutes, costs the tiler half a day. Also i find the design of the bathroom should be influenced by the style/size of tile, this gives a far more complete look to the room, nice sized cuts, joints centrered, wall and floor tiles lining up etc. Also alot of plumbers are stuck in the past, they dont like to use newer products, or change theyre ways. I've seen some shocking stuff before, to the point where i couldn't start the job as wring, pipes etc were just plain dangerous.
Always try to see previous jobs and speak to old customers. All my work comes from reccomendations:hurray:

 

[LM Ceramics]

this is going to sound hiper critical( bad spelling) caus i do all aspects of plastering and tiling but i agree with don valley tiling theres loads of plumbers who claim they can tile and simply just cant do it we had our bathroom done about 8 years ago by a plumber we knew he didnt do to bad of job of our tiling (few lips like and a split cut around the window reveal and started a full tile at the end of a wall and the gap got slightly bigger) except from that it were alrite. i noticed its mostly the older plumbers that take on tiling not many of the new plumbers tile now. eventually im going to do a bathroom fitting course and nik plumbers work from them hahha

 

[billy123]

i agree with mw some of us are multi disciplined whch helps you to do the complete job to the highest standard possible.nothig worst than waiting on someone else doing their bit and then having to work round shoddy workmanship.but i take onboard what others say about mixing trades and not being competent in all of them.i wont touch electrics but i use fully qualified leccy when required,you gotta be careful out there guys.

 

[Fekin]

The difference is that to do electrics you are insane to just have a go, well it's a bad idea to just have a go at anything really without being compenent at them.

In the long run though I want to be able to plaster, refir bathrooms then the tile job.