You can either ask them to pull that 1 piece and recut a newer piece for better fit or wait until it is grouted, which usually hides what you're seeing now. The difference in tile sizing may be noticeable if recut to fit better due to the ceiling being uneven. If you're panning to tile the ceiling, this will also help hide an uneven area.

What Cinar said, or take the top row out and straighten out the ceiling, it will be cheaper than ripping everything out... its an easy fix and with quick drying compounds today a good taper can fix this in a few hours and get ready for paint.

In a vacuum, I'd be tempted to live with it -- I suspect it will disappear with the grout. Also, there's nothing about your drawing that makes clear to me that what you were trying to avoid was a narrow sliver at the top -- did they in fact use a half tile at the bottom, and it just didn't work out?

Another possibility would be to redo the top half, adding an extra couple of rows of the skinny accent mosaic, so that you end up with a large tile (slightly shaved at the low end) rather than a sliver up by the ceiling.

All of these solutions are a drag in one way or another -- only you know how much your time and money is worth, how much more work these guys are still doing for you (thus making decent relations worth keeping), and how you weigh The Principle Of The Thing against those factors.

@ Cinar & GN Builders, thanks for the comments guys. The issue is more than the one piece on the left, it's more that the entire top row is sloped (due to the ceiling slope). The piece on the left is about 2.5" tall at the left, and the piece on the right is ~1.5" tall on the right. What I'm hearing from you and GN builders is to take out the top pieces (only), and re-slope the ceiling - I assume this means tearing out the ceiling drywall, adding some shims to straighten, and put in some new pieces? That sounds like an attractive solution.

Regardless of the ceiling (which I will suggest tonight), would you guys feel I'd be justified in asking for a redo, if I wanted to be a stickler? Most opinions I see on a topic like this revolve around "you paid for a professional job, you should get a professional job". The contractor is reputable in the area, and has otherwise been pretty good.

The install itself looks good in the photo. Asking them to redo the entire job costs someone money. You may be the one stuck with the bill for tear out, new tile and installation of the new product. I would go with GN's option about having the ceiling re-leveled. Much more simple and cost effective for everyone.

@robbies2000 Yes, level the ceiling which is very easy to do.

As "if I wanted to be a stickler?" goes, there is no need for that... It will be a waste of time and this will not go in your favor, because tile guys don't straighten ceilings out... they didn't do framing, they didn't do sheetrock, therefore they not responsible for that. If anything, you have to take this up with a GC or who ever did the framing, if framing was done in that area or sheetrock guys.

With that said, unless you check every wall and corner, it's very hard to spot something being off when framing is exposed, unless something is being way off or you have a good eye for it. In many cases you pick that up after sheetrock is done, and that is when it should be fixed before taping.

Good luck

Wow, I have never seen someone hand a tile pro a diagram like that.

It isn't the tiler's fault your ceiling is out of square. That's your framing. You can fix that without tearing out the sheetrock. Ask your contractor about that. Don't tear anything out yet.

Also, it is true it will not be as noticeable when it's grouted, unless you are using dark grout.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for all the comments. Here's what I'm reading:

1) Tile installer is not responsible for out-of-square ceiling, so no fair for me to push them to redo things on their dime. My installer is actually a GC who took the bathroom down to the studs earlier in the project (new window framing, shower /bench framing, new piping, etc), but did not touch that area of the ceiling, so I think the conclusion stands.

2) I would have liked a warning on how out-of-square things were (I'd have probably had them lower or raise the deco line to eliminate the sliver tile), but it also sounds like that was a mis-communication, and again, not necessarily fair for me to hold him accountable for a redo.

3) Grouting may reduce visibility of this, but a better solution may be to pull off the top sliver layer of tiles, and level the ceiling. This may be done *without* tearing out the sheetrock. I'm not familiar with methods for this, but would appreciate any input, and will definitely talk to my GC tonight regarding this option.

4) (@Kris Mays) Regarding the drawing I gave them - the crew foreman requested a drawing requested a drawing from me for how I wanted the tiling, saying that it had been requested by the GC. He hadn't requested it, and was out of town, but I generated the drawing anyway.

Basically I generated a rough to-scale drawing, and filled it in with photos of the deco line tiles, and approximate coloring for the main tiles. It was intended as more of a "design intent" drawing (as requested), and not an engineering drawing. The goal was to specify leaving enough border on top and bottom to alleviate any out-of-square issues, but this is where I think the miscommunication occurred, as I didn't call that out specifically on the drawing, and when they asked about it, I didn't catch the import of what they were asking.

I don´t want to be the devil´s advocate here, but I am known on my job sites for being a pain in the butt for out-of-level pieces. This will always be on the back of your mind, if it´s a bathroom that you´ll use a lot. I honestly don´t see the grout hiding this a much as people say. Also, I think the problem with the drawing of the tiling is that the grout spacing was not taken into consideration, so there are nine (9) 1/8" grout lines which translates to roughly 1-1/8" extra distance. I seriously suggest removing the last strip and just asking the drywall guys to drop the ceiling. After all, it IS their fault if something is not plumb/out of level. Any and every corner/wall I´ve ever had to remake due to it being out of level, my drywall guy has redone free of charge.

On the other hand, if money is tight, time is of the essence and the shower belongs to a guest bathroom, I´d say leave it and try to hide it with grout as much as possible. Very few times have I ever caught myself looking at the shower ceiling.

That´s my two cents...

Hope it helps!

UNEKUAL Team

To fix an out of plumb ceiling, the last tile row will have to be removed on both walls abutting in the corner. Once that is done, the drywall ceiling can be cut about half way down the shortest wall. Then check if the framers put the studs without a level or if the ceiling can be corrected by placing a wedge at the corner in order for it to fall the necessary distance. Once that´s done, simply replace the removed piece of ceiling, retape, compound, paint and then tile...

Out of plumb drywall = out of plumb framing. So, not the drywallers fault at all. But they could certainly fix it if asked to and they will charge you accordingly.

I think the tile installer should have noticed that issue before he started putting up tile. When my favorite tile guy and I lay out the install, we draw horizontal and vertical lines to find out where the problems are before deciding how the tile will be installed.

Lowering the ceiling does seem like the easiest approach at this time

Generally, frame and drywall contractors are one and the same company, just different crews. I know very few people here that hire separate drywall and framers.
So if it's the framers fault...it generally means it's a drywall contractor's fault. But I don't know what Robbie's case is...

Depends upon your location Unekual. Here in my neck of the woods framers and drywall are 2 separate companies.

Same here, which is a good thing, if one misses something, good chance the next one will catch it and bring it to your attention especially when same people been working for you for a long time, everyone knows what you expect and they deliver every time.

Agreed, every city/state/GC has a chance to choose how you want to work, whether separate framer/drywall crews or all together. Round these parts, you get a MUCH better deal putting it all together.
But I concur, separate crews will notice errors that the previous workers left behind.

They are never the same here, UNEKUAL.

Well, I guess it's no mystery that we in Miami do things differently than in the rest of the US, Mrs. Mays...

Hi All, thought I'd provide an update, after my conversation yesterday. Again, thank you to everyone who has replied - it's been educational. The PM for my project stopped by after hours (7:15) last night, along with the owner of the company - a nice personal touch considering the size of my project vs. the size of the company and the size of their typical projects (mine is a master bath remodel vs. their typical full-home rebuilds, etc).

Also, just to clarify, the company is a GC company - the same crew and PM has handled demo, framing, plumbing, electrical, drywalling, city inspections, etc.

1) They showed me what the top row looks like with the light-colored grout - it does hide a lot, (see the new picture). You can still see the slope, but it honestly looks pretty good from 3ft.

2) We discussed floating/leveling the ceiling. He mentioned it was possible, but that it would entail taking out not only the "sliver" tiles on the top row, but the first layer of full tiles just below, to allow proper tool access without risk of chipping those tiles. It's also tricky due to a beveled-skylight region, the edge of which you can see in my original picture. Fair enough concerns for now.

3) As a third option, they're taking out the sliver tiles, and will re-trim new left-hand two sliver tiles, so they're more uniform in height relative to the right-hand two sliver tiles. The gap to the ceiling will be grouted. Since the grout is light colored, and actually roughly the color of the ceiling, it should hide the effect even more, and not draw the eye - hopefully good enough.

I'll evaluate that tonight, and go from there - either keep that configuration, go back to the original config (which they've offered to do if I don't like the new config), or re-open the ceiling discussion.

I really have no idea how things are done in Miami, UNEKUAL.

@ GoodHouse Flooring LLC - thanks for the crown moulding suggestion; the thought occurred to me as well, since we're having them do crown in the adjoining master BR and possibly the dining room downstairs. We'll see how things look tonight.

What is the skill level of a tile setter who does not check for plumb, level and layout before starting? I would be suspicious of the integrity of the job altogether. As for the fix I would remove the top course of tile and drywall bead. Set a new LEVEL PLASTER bead (I recommend scoring and removing about 1/8" thickness on the soffit face to provide a let-in for the plaster bead), wire lathe the shower portion of the ceiling, trowel brown coat gypsum (possibly 2 coats) and tape/finish with your preferred joint compound. Can be completed in 2-3 hours not including dry time usually 1-2 days. I have performed many of these quick fixes without problems.

@ fixer687 -- check dates; I think the poster probably sorted this out 14 months ago or so.

Well, ya know I’m reading this almost five years later and all the comments above, though not timely, were very helpful to me with a similar situation.