Advice Please?

[nozzer]

Hi,
Ive just had my bathroom tiled by a "supposedly" good tiler. As i work away in Afghanistan i wasnt there to oversee the work. Anyway to cut a long story short, ive got back and found he,s left a thin (maybe 1 inch) sliver of tile in a corner as soon as you walk in, so it sticks out like a sore head.

The tiles were quite expensive and the bathroom is quite large, to remove all the tiles on that 1 wall, start from the centre as he should have and work from there, would take and cost quite alot of money and time. Ive tried to contact the "tiler" and he,s now unobtainable. Im gutted as i have said the tiles are quite expensive.

Is there another way of hiding the sliver (1 inch approx) or suggestions, the corner and the wall have the bath on it.

Any suggestions welcomed?

I wont even go into the flooring just yet. A clue, wall grout

 

[SeanTiler]

dont know why he as done this without seeing a picture but some times setting off from the middle isnt always the best thing to do, a lot of tiles have to be continued onto the next wall, specially if the border tile as a very noticeable pattern on them. some times when setting off in the middle(depending on size tile and wall dimension) you can be left with a small cut so an obvious way out of this is to start with a tile off set in the middle. on a window wall starting in the middle of wall is a rare occurance, and often starting in the middle of the window will leave a small cut so you can only do what you think looks right and go with your discretion. i have actually been on jobs £30\£40 a tile with the tiles ordered to the precise number so you have to utilise them to the best you can, if that meant using a 20/30 slither then so be it(customers words)

 

[nozzer]

Thanks for the reply. Im no tiling guru (far from it). it is a window wall and ive measured the tiles. He would have achieved even cuts on both ends had he of started from the middle. It would have also looked more aesthetically pleasing, as its the wall you first look at from the bathroom door. He has started from a corner and ended up with the slither. I,ll post some photos in the morning, so you can see why it would have been a better option to start from the centre. There isnt an excuse as the tiles are quite large, so sizing before sticking would have told him that he was wrong to start at a corner.

Hopefully some can come up with artistic suggestions to cover it up. I really dont want to spend my leave taking them all off and starting again. Youll see why on the photos and the size of the wall and amount of tiles...

 

[SeanTiler]

Hi,
"supposedly" good tiler.

proffesional, Specilaist Tiler, they are a million miles apart from a "good" tiler. as for starting with a full tile in the corner 99.999%of corners are straight anyway. by the sounds of it you have every right to be annoyed.i take it the cowboy has been payed aswell.

 

[nozzer]

Unfortunately he has been paid for job. Im an idiot and paid him half before i went away and on his call transferred the rest

Im hoping that the slither is that thin i may get away with a bath to ceiling (the tiles go all the way to the ceiling) corner glass shelf. I just cant think why someone would be happy with leaving a job like that and cant think why i was stupid enough (the first and last time) i trusted someone. I was inpatient and rather than waiting to do the job myself, wanted it done before i got back, lesson learnt the hard way. It would have been so easy for him to spend 20 minutes measuring and laying out the tiles. It would have been obvious there would have been a slither.

As you walk in my bathroom it has a kind of corridor inside. You look directly at the window, if he had started in the middle of the window, it would have given him a perfect finish on both sides. As it is, it just doesnt look right with the grout lines looking out of place to the centre of the window and of course the slither.

The more i talk about it, i may just bite the bullet and take them off. They are a nightmare to cut through and weigh a lot. Not happy but probably the only way to do it. The size of the wall and amount of tiles will set me back over 1000.00 if i cant re-use them. Lets hope he,s a proper cowboy and just dotted and dabbed them.

I,ll post some photos up tomorrow. Someone may have a fantastic idea that i just havent thought of.

 

[jefoss]

a lot of tiles have to be continued onto the next wall,

sorry dude i disagree, ive even done borders with writing on and NEVER continued the whol tiles round thr corner, very bad practice indeed.







as for the original problem any tiler worth his salt will firstly spend some time measuring the walls trying to iron out the problem of making sure there are no slithers anywhere, this isnt always possible (around a socket etc) but should never appear on the edges of walls.

and as your for your Question about waht can i do?? unless you can put up with it you would have to remove the lot on any offending walls.

 

[lancenotalot]

a lot of tiles have to be continued onto the next wall,

sorry dude i disagree, ive even done borders with writing on and NEVER continued the whol tiles round thr corner, very bad practice indeed.

as for the original problem any tiler worth his salt will firstly spend some time measuring the walls trying to iron out the problem of making sure there are no slithers anywhere, this isnt always possible (around a socket etc) but should never appear on the edges of walls.

I agree with Jeff on this,better to spend extra time setting out than ending up with slivers.

Nozzer can you post a pic?

 

[nozzer]

dont know why he as done this without seeing a picture but some times setting off from the middle isnt always the best thing to do, a lot of tiles have to be continued onto the next wall,

Like i said im no pro-tiler. but i cant understand this? Unless the tiles are handmade to the size of the wall i.e fit perfectly from 1 corner to the other, (havent seen them available as yet) surely taking the measurement from the centre to to both sides would always be the best option? Regardless whether there being a pattern or not. To have a, lets for argument sake say, a 4 inch tile at one side and a 8 inch at the other just wouldnt look right, even more so with a pattern.

As a note mine are plain tiles. Photos coming in the next hour

 

[gcol]

Photos coming in the next hour

*Looks at watch*

 

[dpsservices]

time check

 

[nozzer]

Apologies for the delay:

 

[lancenotalot]

Looking at the pics hes done it to avoid cuts down one side of the window,
The slivers do look bad and cant really think of any way to rectify it other than removal.
The other work doesnt look too bad in the pics,if they had been centered on the window they probably would have sat a lot better.

I also notice that where the skirt tiles are by the rad they dont match up.

 

[nozzer]

Thanks for pointing the skirting tiles out, i hadn,t noticed. Thats an easy job to rectify. The radiators coming off anyway for a new one and the tiles put over the pipes rather than cut at the back.

Im thinking theres 2 ways around it. 1. would be to remove the whole wall of tiles and start again, centering from the window. The other and easy option would be to get a stainless steel/chrome rod (of some description) and make some glass corner shelves?

The floor tiles have been grouted with wall grout, so with little to no use the grout on the (timber) floor is coming up of its own accord. Again its not a major problem, just time and wasted cash, to drag out the joints and re-grout with a flexible, maybe BAL superflex, grout.

Would the shelving idea with the chrome/SS corner pole look odd, all the way to the ceiling?

 

[lancenotalot]

No I dont think a stainless pole would look out of place if the shelves where fitted and made look like a shelf unit.Im sure I remember my Dad having a corner shelf unit with an extendable tube and chrome shelves.

 

[jefoss]

the bath panel tiles should be covering the wall ones instead of seeing the shoddy cuts there too.

id say bite the bullet fella and get rid, make a good project for yourself to re do the lot.