The only pic you've shown that I have an issue with is the last one. In the pics of the bullnose, look at the vertical joints behind the bullnose. They SEEM to be perfectly uniform. What you're seeing end to end is bullnose that's not square, and your installer's done a good job keeping it straight. This is NOT uncommon with bullnose pieces.

As for the last pic, I have a feeling that if you were to back up and show me the tiles and joints surrounding that one intersection of four tiles, there may or may not be a good reason for it being off joint like that. I'd have to see a wider picture to make the call. But after the first pics, and your description of what's going on, it sounds like your installer's trying to make the best of some "less than good quality" tile.

Bill_vincent, thanks so much for your response. Our contractor said exactly what you said: that it's not uncommon for bullnose to not be square. Thanks for confirming that.

Regarding the last picture, I tried taking photos from farther away, but the tile casts too many shadows in the more distant pictures. The only reason that intersection is off joint is because the contractor laid one entire horizontal line of tile slightly off.The entire line is about 1/16th- 1/8th inch to the left of the lines above and below it. Maybe this variance is acceptable--it looks funky to my husband and I but perhaps we are too particular.

I'd recommend using a straightedge to span the bullnose edges of those two bullnose tiles.

See how the reveal is between the bullnose and the straightedge. If it's even the ends are not square. If it's a "V" gap then the installer isn't square.

Mongo

Mongo,thanks for the advice. It looks like there is no gap on most of the bullnose (with the possible exception of the bottom two on one side--difficult to assess because they're so low to the ground and the gap may be from the thinset that oozed out from behind it, not because of how the tile is set).

When I use the straightedge against the 12 x 12 tile in the shower, though, there is a gap. I am not sure what is an "acceptable" gap--maybe, like my contractor says, we will not notice it once it's grouted.

FYI, we just called the tile supplier. They said the bullnose tile should not be that much off square, and they want us to bring in the off-square tile so they can contact the manufacturer (Florida Tile).

They also said that with the color grout we're using (light chocolate), the unevenness of the grout lines will be highlighted.

We are waiting for our contractor to arrive.

We thought it was going to be wonderful to have a contractor who could set the tile himself. Now we feel that we would have gotten a better result if he'd hired a tile setter. You know the old saying about a jack of all trades.

they want us to bring in the off-square tile so they can contact the manufacturer (Florida Tile).

That's all you needed to say. Of all the tile manufacturers in the world, that's one of two that I'll avoid like the plague (the other is Marrazzi). Florida Tile sucks, and so does their customer service. I've yet to do a single job with their tile in the last 12-15 years where it hasn't been a fight to keep it straight. I had one project in particular where tiles in the same box were as much as 1/4" off in size, and then I was told by the showroom to "deal with it". Never again will I buy Florida Tile, and any customer of mine who wants to supply their own tile and buy this garbage, I'll do everything I can to change their minds.

I'll mirror Bill's comments. It's funny how we've had the same experiences with the same two lines of tile. Florida seems consistently off, Marrazzi seems more like hit and miss.

suellen, the only other thing I would have done is that if these are all set square and I set a tile that resulted in a pinched grout line like that, first I would have tossed the tile aside and selected another.

If I had to use the tile, then I would have considered squaring the end of the bullnose prior to installing it. A quick sliver cut off on the wetsaw and all is well.

Being able to successfully cut off slivers can sometimes depend on the glaze on the tile, but I wouldn't be happy with those lines on your bullnose.

I know it's been mentioned, but moving away from the chocolate grout color and going with a grout color that better matches the tile color will help mask any deficiencies in the grout lines.

We talked to our contractor yesterday and everything has been worked out to our satisfaction. Regarding the bullnose, he agreed to pull off two of the worst and replace them with tiles that are more square.

Regarding the uneven 12 x 12s, he explained that our wall is not the same size all the way up (our house was built in 1970) and he said he purposely jogged the tile ever so slightly so there wouldn't be a big gap at the top. He said if we were worried about the grout lines not looking straight because of this, he wound use a diamond edge against the tiles to remove a bit of the edge and help the grout lines look straight.

We looked at the way he set the 12 x 12s, and he did indeed jog out each line very slightly--there was nothing haphazard about it at all.

All's well that ends well, except that we chose a terra cotta-look tile that has a fairly high degree of variability between the tiles, and he set 3 of the darker ones too close together, so that they really stood out on the shower wall that you see as you walk in the door. So today, my husband asked him to take off 2 of the tiles and replace them with different tiles ( DH has a more flexible schedule since he's self-employed so I got out of the task of telling the contractor something he probably wasn't happy to hear).

The result is absolutely gorgeous. Now that you guys (mongo and bill vincent) have informed me that Florida tile is notorious for being out of square, I probably won't use it in future projects, but this tile is just stunning. I'm VERY happy with the look. We are sticking with the light chocolate grout and I will post pictures after it's grouted.

Thanks for all the incredibly helpful input.

Hi Sabrina,

I'm sorry you had issues with our bullnose tile, the pictures do look like the ends were not square. It looks like you used our Fontana series, if you saved any of the cartons and want to send me the shade info from the label, I can check out remaining inventory here and cull out any that look like that so future customers won't have the same issue. We'd hate to lose you as a customer, so please accept my apologies for your issue.

Dan Marvin
Florida Tile Director of Quality

Maybe you ought to teach your distributors to deal with their contractors in the same manner.

I won't even go into the quality control side of it.