caulk over tile dilemma -- need pro advice or for hire in NYC
stinkypoop
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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Joseph Corlett, LLC
8 years agostinkypoop
8 years agoRelated Discussions
In shock over *awful* tile job - rendered speechless.Need a voice
Comments (37)lol -meth... I do hope that you at least post reviews on yelp and angieslist. The sad thing is guys like that expect homeowners not to deal with the hassle of going after them. If they lost a couple of half days of work and had a few cases go against them, they may start doing a better job. Since they aren't held accountable, they keep doing stuff like this. Our gc will be finding out how he can't get away with it on our job as soon as we have our written estimates. I know your job is not huge, but then again, going after him would therefore be easier/less complicated too. Maybe you could spearhead going after him and leave dh out of the process. It upsets me to think of the people before me who had shoddy work done by the gc but did not get the word out or make there be consequences for the gc. If they had, then we might not have been duped by them. The sad part is one person I know who used him did not bother to enlighten me about them until after we were screwed by them. If we had been warned, even after our project started, we'd have been better protected. Please do your best to post reviews at the very minimum. You will be doing a real service to the community....See MoreContractor says caulk, don't groutb/t floor tiles due to sitting water
Comments (45)OP here. Haven't had a chance to read all of the comments--work 2 full-time jobs and am stealing a few moments from day-job 1.. But just got off the phone with a member of the tile association referenced by CT and they said to do the same test he said to do from get-go so will do that when I get off of work. My electrician "friend" is picking me up so I'll have to go on the down-low, lol. Sophie, you are on-point and Joseph--more power to ya! On a serious note, water isn't visibly coming down--but it's an old house with layers of plaster so may be taking its time. When water was coming down, I smeared some pre-made grout along cracks in the grout b/t wall and floor and water stopped. Been about a month or 2. I started this post b/c I noticed that ceiling's plaster was cracking more and spreading more and a piece of plaster fell down so thought problem was starting up again or had never been fixed with the premade grout. I have more time tomorrow to devote to this so that is when I'll read over everything carefully and pull out the contracts. Really, really appreciate all of you. No longer feel alone....See MoreUrgent Shower Tile-Setting Questions - Bill or Mongo or other Pros?
Comments (20)With large format tile and the modified thinset, there was a pretty good chance that the thinset had not created a strong enough bond where the Kerdi would be damaged when the tile was removed. Without a doubt, float out the wall prior to continuing. A good foundation will improve your chances of success. I've used Versabond quite a bit over Kerdi, but I don't use it with large format tile because the tiles are so large. Modified thinsets need air exposure to completely dry and develop a complete bond. Thinset sandwiched between a large format tile and Kerdi will not see much air, especially the thinset away from the perimeter of the tile. If you're using Versabond, I'm guessing you bought it at Home Depot? Custom's unmodified thinset is Customblend. I'm not a big fan of Customblend right out of the bag, but if you have to use it, I'd recommend picking up a bag of portland cement and adding a margin trowel or two of portland cement to each batch of Customblend thinset that you mix up to fortify it a bit. Definitely change to a larger notched trowel to apply thinset to the wall, and definitely burn in and back butter the tile prior to setting it. It will help immensely with coverage and adhesion. The gap under the bottom row of tile? It depends on how inconsistent the floor/wall junction is as you go around the room. If it's wonky, with the floor already tiled? I'll toss out rough numbers for this example: Let's say your tiles are 16" square and you had a 3/8" gap in some spots between the bottom of the wall tile and the top of the floor tile, and in other spots they touched. Your best bet may be to strike a level line across the four shower walls about 15-5/8" above the highest spot on the perimeter of the floor. With a 3/8" variance in elevation around the perimeter of the floor, that line will be 16" above the lowest spot on the perimeter of the floor. You then scribe the bottom edge of each tile so it conforms to the floor tile, so when the tile is set in place the top edge of the tile will be on the line you drew on the walls. Some tiles may fit without having to be cut at all. Others may have up to 3/8" taken off their bottoms. Others may vary, you'll have to trim a bit here, a bit more there, to follow the contour of the pebble floor tile. A pain? For sure. But that'll solve the uneveness of the wall-floor intersection, and with the top edge of your bottom course of wall tile now being spot on perfect level around the entire shower, you've created the proper foundation upon which to tile the upper walls. An overall generic lesson? First thing I do in any shower is fix the framing. With square and plumb framing I get square, plumb, and flat backer board and plumb and square wall corners. With good backer board I get a good tile installation. Fight the framing at the start and that's the only battle you'll have to fight. Everything else will follow smoothly. Good luck!...See MoreI'm angry over the tile installation we had done.
Comments (78)Once you said you needed a translator there was no reason to go any further. If someone cant speak the language of the country they are doing the instal in how do you expect them to read a guide? How can they read instructions? How do they know what l a quality job is if they have never seen one? People defend this off the corner worker and this is what you get. They don't have a clue as to the standards or guidelines yet they get hired based solely ON PRICE undercutting the real educated tile person. Anybody not understanding what I wrote come to San Diego or LA and see the absolute butcher jobs these people do every day. Houses are ticking time bombs as they do everything from electrical, plumbing to drywall all without speaking word of English or know one single guideline. Then add all the flippers who also undercut the materials and these house all look like crap. They are designed to look good from a picture on Zillow. Sorry but hire a real tile person who you can easily communicate with. It doesn't matter what their ethnic background is it has to do with being educated in the country the install is being done. By the way the key to cement tiles is buying them that are polished. Look on Cle Tile's website and you will see that they polish their tiles which eliminates the majority of install problems by sealing the tiles surfaces....See MoreUser
8 years agostinkypoop
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agokudzu9
8 years agoUser
8 years agostinkypoop
8 years agostinkypoop
8 years agostinkypoop
8 years agoUser
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJoseph Corlett, LLC
8 years agoVith
8 years agoJoseph Corlett, LLC
8 years agokudzu9
8 years agostinkypoop
8 years agokudzu9
8 years agoweedyacres
8 years ago
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