Floor Tiling - Not Level

[st11x]

G'day,

Our contractor started tiling our floors recently and since we are renting just next door, we are constantly looking at their work.

We noticed that when tiling the walls of the bathrooms, the contractor first laid a layer of cement to level the walls. After the walls are set, then they laid the tiles.

Now they are laying tiles on the floor of the bedrooms. They lay the cement as they lay the tiles.

We are seeing that the tiles are not so "flat". Some are a little higher. We asked the contractor and sometimes they would lift and redo the work. Sometimes, they say it cannot be done as the tiles themselves are not flat (we bought grade 'B' tiles). At the edge, they are not parallel to the walls because they say the walls are not straight (bad cuts?). They did not level the walls for the bedrooms because we are not tiling the walls.

Any truth in all that? We are novice at this, so we don't know if we are just being picky or is there a problem.

The contractor generally do not take care of the floors after they tiled. They lay a couple of "show" cardboxes but they hardly cover the entire floor. Again, is it a fair expectation that they cover every piece? We noticed they dropped things on the tiles and now some of them are chipped. So we have to go buy new tiles, in some cases a box just for one tile. How many of such mistakes would one generally allow before it is fair to tell them off?

thanks

Matt

[JimmyTheMook]

They are clowns - buy a level from HomePro and check each job

If they are breaking / chipping tiles that are set already it sounds like you're being taken advantage of.

[Rimmer]

You are being taken for a sucker.

Nothing wrong with B grade tiles that prevents them being laid flat. Buy a meter long steel rule or a plasters straight edge and check the tiles for high ones. they should all be flat without exception. Any tiles that are proud have to be taken out and re laid. Each tile is laid individually on a small pad of cement, sometimes the pad of cement is too big and it leaves the tile proud. A good tiler will take the tile up, scrape off some cement and try again, and again and again until he gets it right. This process is tedious and time consuming, I suspect they are not doing this but just slapping them down any how.

A tiler will often start in the center of a room, small pins are hammered in to the floor and two rows of thread is run one way across the room then two more threads are run at right angles to form a cross. This gives the tiler the correct lines and also the height of each tile. It does not matter if the walls are not straight because the tiles always are, they have to cut them nicely to fit the walls.

Whilst you are checking the squareness of the tiles and counting the number of chipped ones you should also lightly tap each tile with the but of a hammer handle or a screwdriver handle, if there are air pockets under the tiles they will have to be taken up and re laid.

As for breaking and scuffing tiles that already laid, this is totally unacceptable and they must replace them and take more care or be told that you will deduct the damaged ones from the payment.

Many workers claim they can lay tiles but in practice good tilers are few and far between. Sounds like you have got very bad ones. My wife has run three separate teams of so called tilers off our work maybe you need to do the same.

Edited October 28, 2009 by Rimmer

[bangkokumpalumpa]

I agree with rimmer 100%

there is no reason why the tiles should not be flat!!!

as for chipped tiles, that is just un-professional.

when it comes to work being done and you dont know what the story is then here is a simple rule to follow.

you know very little, so if it does not look right to you then there is a 99% chance that it is NOT right.

if you sit back and watch a professional worker then you will learn something with every thing that they do, and the end result should make you pleased. if you are not happy with the end result that you are seeing then they are not being professional !!!!

remember this is your house not theirs!!

it is not being picky to want your tiles level, it is NORMAL.

buy the big ruler and take a camera and start taking some pictures of the problems and them working, lay the flat edge on the tiles and take pics of how bad they are, take pictures of the chipps in the tiles.

they will ask why you are doing this. you can tell them that you are taking pictures of the bad work so that you cant be blamed for doing it when you fight about not paying them until it is all good!!

you will get more respect by standing your ground wanting quality than letting them get away with bad workmanship!!

[st11x]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

My wife and I will go speak with the head chang tomorrow. We'll see what happens after that. We had divided the payments roughly into 40/40/20, and we have just gone past the 2nd 40, so it kind of leaves us in a bad position since we paid them quite a lot already. We questioned why 40 in the first place and they said they needed funds to buy materials. Lesson learned.

The team was really great until he had to hire extra workers to do the tiling. That's when it all when wrong with those new monkeys.

Thanks

Matt

[Thongkorn]

I have laid tiles in Thailand with some Thai friends . all we used was a small spirit level and some string, we laid a cross from one wall to another , that was the form to work too , also we laid the cement and tiled straight onto it. It was level , it can be done , yes they will have a problem taking them up again because you will have to relay the cement base again. also the Tiles were not expencive to buy, you can buy them from 200baht upwards. there are usualy 12 in a box 1 sq meter.

Edited October 28, 2009 by Thongkorn

[stgrhe]

Before the floors and wall are tiled in wet rooms, e.g. bathrooms, they should preferably be provided with a moisture barrier because else the concrete will absorbe water and this will eventually lead to mold, which in the end of the day will cause a bad odor.

Good sealants are Radcon Formula #7, Masterseal 525 and Sikaguard - 680S.

[mdechgan]

The floor tilers are not professional or are just plain lazy.

If they can't do it right tell them to pickup their tools and get another contractor.

It is not worth it to have them finish their work. Repairing bad workmanship is a pain and the only correct way to do it is remove all the tiles and redo the work properly.