The field is in 12"x24" sheets, the bullnose is in 12" strips, the built up base is 12" x 5" mounted, and the rest are made-to-order pieces. The way to fudge the corners is in the field adjacent to the cove or corner pieces. This bathroom worked out almost all full tiles. There are a few areas where a row needed to be shaved and a row where the gap between tiles is probably a tiny bit too wide, but it's in an unfinished basement and it was kind of an experiment.

I thought I had to have it too. Seems like we did many years ago when I was growing up. Then I priced it and decided, hey, we don't need this! Also, I looked at some in commercial restrooms and realized it wasn't doing what I thought it would do for us. All it does is move the grout line out away from the wall/floor juncture. you still have a grout line to clean--and to wick water if that's your concern.

Thank you for the feedback. I am fully aware that my GC has voided the warranty on the flooring. Not only did his laborers glue the floor down in some areas, but they also did not use a vapor barrier, (couldn't if the floor was glued down right?). There is no place in the house where any large amount of weight rests on the flooring. The cabs were all installed first and flooring installed up to the edges. Same with the fireplace peninsula and the island. The flooring was on the sight for weeks before the install, and stored for 3-4 months less than a mile from the house. We are waiting till it gets a bit colder to do the checks on the heat levels of the flooring. The problems have manifested over the colder months. The plan is to test for heat, make decisions regarding replacement of the flooring and then reinstall the flooring in the spring when we will be gone for two weeks. I am personally confident that the problems are due solely to the glue down of the floor. Every place that we have a crack or gap is at a transition of some kind where glue was used. Additionally the upstairs which was not glued anywhere, because a professional flooring crew did the job, is perfect. We do have some contraction around the walls, and because we have very thin baseboard we can see some of the gaps. These gaps are right near the walls and are mostly hidden. I feel that this type of gap is expected and is acceptable to me. I don't think cracks in the middle of kitchen floor and elsewhere are normal or expected. My husband an I installed the floating floor in our last home over radiant heat, it was Kahrs click and lock wood flooring. We had none of these problems and the systems are very similar. This is not the only problem we have had with our contractor. We are still holding back on final payment, although by the time we are issued credits the total amount isn't near enough to pay for the floor. Boxiebabe: Regarding credit card payment: even if we had paid with a credit card we are well beyond the 60 days a credit card company will allow you to dispute a charge. Did you manage to dispute the charge after 60 days? I was really curious to see if anyone thought that gluing down ALL of the flooring sounded like a solution. I do think that even if the floor was properly installed having the two peninsulas and the large connected square footage could be a problem. Perhaps the total glue down is some kind of solution. I realize that the GC is trying to cover himself by suggesting that we chose a poor material. He has stated that no one locally will work with cork and that the industry trend is away from this material because it is so problematic. Unfortunately we live in a pretty small resort community finding a "flooring expert" is not as easy as it sounds. The nearest city is 280 miles away.

numbers... we have a chipper tool with an attachment that is specifically used to chip tile. Professional tile installers use a VERY heavy duty one. Ours was heavy but not quite as heavy as the biggest pro models. It's a bear of a job. Just dusty, heavy, time consuming, and allow me to say dusty again. You will need two people. One for cleaning up the debris and the one using the tool. It took us several days to do about 1000 sq. ft. In the beginning , DH had to do the work alone because I was at work. THat meant stopping every 15 minutes to clean up the broken tile in the way. You'll also need a way/place/trash to dump the debris and get it taken away. It gets very heavy very fast. The tile we removed was at least 20 years old if not older. They are right... it's a huge amount of work. But it's doable, if you have help and just give yourself the time to do it. We are lucky in that we don't have to live there while the job is being done.