Grout lines misaligned between rooms

5 years ago

We are tiling the kitchen bathroom and hallway with the same tiles and i have come back to find that the tiler has not aligned the grout lines in the kitchen with the grout lines in the hall. Does this constitute negligence on his part? We did not explicitly instruct him to align the grout lines but I would have thought it wous have been obvious?

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Ribena Drinker

5 years ago

Anthony Maguire, I'm with you all the way with this, don't let him squirm out of it.

It should have been done properly and to say because you didn't specify it should be continuous not to expect it, is ridiculous.

I always think if you turned the question round and said "would you accept that in your house?" they would without a shadow of a doubt say they wouldn't.

From personal experience, I would say, you must insist on it being redone,. If he's not prepared to re-do it, I'd even be prepared to bear the cost of paying someone else to re-do and hang the cost. If you don't have it redone, it will forever niggle you - even if you use the most excellent suggest of Jonathan's.

Sadly, it happens far too frequently, that tradesmen just don't seem to care about how the final result looks and are happy to do a sub standard job because it's easier and quicker than giving it some thought. And it seems to be the default position to kick off and act up, when they're caught out and called to book.

They also like to make it the homeowners fault, for not specifying you want. when it is, even to a layperson, clearly the most acceptable and pragmatic way of doing it.

Once when we had two radiators fitted either side of a bay window, I had a plumber tell me I was being difficult when I asked him to re fit one or the other, so they were the same height as he had fitted one much higher than the other. Why on earth would he think it was ok, I'll never know.

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Comments (13)

Sonia
5 years ago
Sadly it does look a mess, and why is there a gap in the tiling? You’re the second person today who has had poor quality tiling done. Hope you get it sorted.
Anthony Maguire thanked Sonia
Patrina
5 years ago
Wow - very bad even though you have a threshold the groutlines should line up. Looks very messy I would ask him to redo it. My tiler took a lazer line between my hallway and kitchen and laid the tiles so they all lined up.
Anthony Maguire thanked Patrina
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Anthony Maguire
Original Author
5 years ago
The gap is because the floors are slightly different heights. he didn’t need a laser. He just should have started in the hallway instead of the kitchen as he was not tiling to the edges of the room in the kitchen so he had a lot of flexibility in where the tiles were positioned in there (unlike the hallway)
Angie
5 years ago
The tile pattern should match throughout. I'd insist they redo it.
obobble
5 years ago
Just illustrates that good tilers are worth their weight in gold. We had about 150m sq of tiles across five rooms. The tiler spent a whole day day working out his lines across all rooms and flows through doorways before starting laying. It wasn't an easy task because parts of our house are old and those rooms don't have 90 degree corners. It helped that the tiles were three sizes and the lay pattern tessellated in a way that avoided long grout lines. The tiler was expensive compared to others and we had to wait for him but he was recommended for his care and attention to detail and he proved a great choice.
Laura Thomas
5 years ago
I also would not be happy with this. They should be lined up. The point of continuing the same tiles through both rooms is to provide continuity, but this looks a mess.
Even when DIY tiling, I’ve always planned the layout and cuts and made a sketch.
PRO
Tobias Oliver Interiors
5 years ago
It should be re-done. I would always air on the side of caution and provide a tile layout for any tiler no matter how experienced they are, however simple the pattern is. Always best to be sure so everyone knows what to expect :-)
PRO
OnePlan
5 years ago
Such a shame that a bit of forethought wasn’t used here.
Was there anything in the contract that stated rooms of different heights won’t be aligned ?
Jonathan
5 years ago
The first thing is can these tiles come up and be re relaid? Will taking them up damage them and if so who pays?

The second thing is why weren’t the floors leveled? The lower floor could have been screeded or overboarded for very little money to even out a small difference.

The third thing is sometimes when you don’t pay much for a tradesman you don’t get much forethought - they probably started at the other side of the room and the issue was only noticed when they got to the hall end. The lesson here is always state the obvious and leave strict instructions.

If you decide not to take these tiles up and start again I would take up a few tiles and add a wide wood threshold to the doorway (have one made that is the depth of your wall or wider) so that the floor levels can be evened out over a few inches, the slope down is gradual and the two areas of pattern are pushed apart so that their unevenness is less obvious.
Anthony Maguire
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks guys - really useful comments above. He was not the cheapest quote we had by any stretch. In fact we went for him precisely because he gave us a long lecture about how lots of people thought they could tile but it was actually a very specialised trade.

I told him today that we wanted it to be re-tiled and he really kicked off, essentially saying that because we didn't specify that we wanted the pattern to be continuous throughout, we shouldn't have expected it. He also said that because he had to start in the kitchen because there was some work going on in the hallway, it was not possible to align the grout lines, which sounds absurd.
Anthony Maguire
Original Author
5 years ago
We're happy to take the hit on the materials, as i genuinely think that it was a stupid mistake, and not a deliberate attempt to cut corners. He has also spent a long time on this project, so I suspect he has already lost money on it. Obviously none of this absolves him of responsibility, but I still feel slightly guilty in the run up to Christmas etc etc.

Nevertheless, I think he is going to really kick up a fuss when we try and deduct the money it is going to cost us in labour to get it taken up and retiled.

(Interesting to hear about the levelling solutions above - this certainly would have been good to know previously)
Jonathan
5 years ago
If you are taking up the tiles it is likely still possible

Grout lines misaligned between rooms

Ribena Drinker

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