Well, I'm going to do something that I've been told over and over not to do ... make an example out of someone... Gibby I share your frustration with installer standards, but the reason it happens is the same reason that you see it happening in this thread. Recap: Poster-1 says that they see a problem with a certain execution in situation A. Expert gives the technical advice he has regularly given and that he has made popular here re: the what-to-dos vs. the what-not-to-dos re: exec of situation-A. At which time, poster-2 says that they are having the exact same problem with the exact same execution in situation-A also and what could be going on? (Er ...). More discourse about why idiot-installers persist with the behaviour that causes problem with situations-A. Poster-2 pops back up saying that they will repeat the behaviour that caused their and other's problem execution in situation-A. Well, if the person(s) most impacted by a poor execution or common executor problem - viz. the homeowner - won't learn, what would motivate the executor to learn???? THEY don't have to live with the problem and if the HO (poster-2) can't be bothered, why should they trouble themselves to be so? Bill, you were remarkably patient in that last response. When I read the previous post, *my* verbal response had a whole load of *F*s in it - from sheer incredulity.

I like the one on the right. but I sort of like the one on the left too. sorry. It's just 2 different looks. That being said, you need to do the "squint" test. I think the lighter tile on the left will appear to give you a white-ish color--so stand back, squint your eyes at the painted backsplash area now--do you like what you see or would you want it darker? Maybe do the test again with the tile on the counter--where you have counters so as to get the full effect. If you want it to look really rich, then darker. If you want to keep it light, then the lighter one. I think both will look nice, seriously. I say pour yourself a cup of tea, and sit down and just stare at it. It will come to you. It is sort of like a meditation type of thing. If anybody is home, they will wonder if you are "ok".

One problem I see is they had a bad (i.e. dull) blade - the cuts are very jagged. A good blade would not have caused the little pieces to fly off when cut and therefore you would have perfectly even grout lines where the cuts are instead of chunks out of the tile where the grout filled in. Secondly, why did they cut one in half and the other in thirds. And if they absolutely HAD to cut them, they could have put them so close together and used a different color grout - it would have been almost impossible to tell (of course, they would need the nice, sharp tile blade!) They could have done a better job with even grout lines even on the full tiles. I see the coping is also cut multiple times- not to point out something else, but that would really bother me too. I had them redo my coping where it didn't match the other side with grout lines. On the plus side, I LOVE your tile! And remember, once there is water in the pool and you have it landscaped and such, these small things aren't as noticeable. There are things you can live with (very minor and not worth the pain of having it redone b/c only I will know it is there) and things you can't. On our pool, even with the water in (it just filled this past Saturday) there are things I cannot live with. Some people don't notice these sorts of things. Some do, and people like us are the ones who do. The bottom line is that it should be done right the first time, and if not, it needs to be redone. If they redo yours, don't let them take out a small part and leave you with big, sloppy grout lines where they stop. Good luck! Sorry you are going through this - we have had stuff like this all along too and finally thought we were through - now the finish must be redone b/c they put the wrong size pebbles in and half of the pool has no pebbles at all. Does it ever end??! One day, you will be in your pool and let the stress of it all just float away :)

Hi oubigguy, The thing that helped me the most was taking my granite to the tile place (a good one) and just walking around with it. I ended up picking one that no one ever suggested to me. It jumped out at me while walking around. I had the same backsplash as you in my pre-remodeled kitchen so I was a bit more daring this time. I took a piece of my cabinets to the tile places too to make sure everything looked good together. You'd be surprised how much the tile people can help to. I just act like a dummy and ask everyone's opinion and then ultimately do what I want after putting all their ideas together.