I think it's sad you are asking yourself if you are being nitpicky. The workmanship is pathetic. It looks awful.

I would consider a very short backsplash made out of the wood countertop material to cover that seam. Maybe an inch high? Not sure what the best proportion would be but it does look good in applications I have seen.

Ugh, thanks for validating what I already knew to be true but have been trying to pretend is not, because facing the reality of how shitty a job this guy did is just so depressing. Even had we forced him to fix his mistakes, I don't think his workers were skilled enough to do a good job. That's what we get for trying to hire someone on the (sort-of) cheap.

The wood counter is very thick. Wouldn't it look a little weird sticking out so far from the wall?

That looks bad. I don't know how they could fix it or if I would trust them to. You are NOT being nit picky.

Oh Gouda!

Ha! My spell check changed what I wrote to "Gouda"! I think that needs to be my new catchphrase.

Anyways, I'm soooo sorry! To answer your questions...

1) Yes, that does look really really bad. No, you are not being picky and dh's caulking doesn't change a thing. This is a terrible install.

2) My first thought after "rip it out" was similar to snookums. I wondered if a small quarter round wood trim piece would be enough to cover that mess. But not sure what to do on the wall edge. I think there are edge pieces you can get.

Ugh, what can we even do? I'm starting to feel we should hire someone really qualified to come in and just fix it. I don't even know how that works. Ripping out the counters, redoing bottom layer of tile, and putting counters back in? It just seems so costly after what was already such a crazy expensive reno (for us). Hard to justify when the whole reason we ended up with this shitty contractor was because we were on a budget. On the other hand, it's equally upsetting to think we spent as much as we did to have it look so mediocre.

"my husband thinks anyone would have a hard time cutting precisely with the tiles we selected, and thinks we just made a poor selection for backsplash tiles"

Absolutely not correct. This is why God created diamond blades. But diamond blades are expensive, so your lazy, cheap, good-for-nothing installer cut the first sheet with his ridiculous, worn, horrible tile saw blade, got an awful cut, AND DECIDED TO CUT THE REST OF THE TILE WITH IT ANYWAY. What a sphincter.

Heres what the correct repair looks like: you remove grout from the bottom of the last full tile (3rd row down to the counter)....chisel out every cut tile (bottom two rows)....chisel out the mortar till your underlayment is smooth....buy more tile, a tile saw, and a diamond blade (the blade will cost more than the saw)....measure the height of the area you want to replace, then cut your mosaic sheet to fit under that last remaining row, mortar it in place, grout and caulk, but with clear silicone caulk this time.

Thats a lot of work. You could also try to retrofit a modified Schluter edge. I've never done it, don't know that it can be done without snipping the tile channel, but I'd look into it, especially if there's a gap between the cut tile edges and the counter.

I would run the wood up two to four inches, and make a nice clean backsplash that looks intentional out of it... easy fix

But the wood from the counters is very thick...like an inch and a half. Won't that look strange sticking out from the wall? And will also mean losing that much depth in counter space?

I would dig out the caulk; modify the Schluter edge shown in the previous post by cutting off most of the back part, get out any mortar with an appropriate dremel bit/tool, fit in the Schluter edge, and permanently attach. I am not sure what would be the best material to attach the Schluter piece.

If you are not DIY, a tile pro can fix; but it will be more pricey if he/she has to get out the old tiles/mortar with the bad cuts before he/she can cut new pieces to fit in. Maybe you could get out the tiles/mortar that need replacement so a pro can just come in and fit in new tiles. I think the Schluter solution would be cheaper.

BTW guys -- as if this wasn't bad enough, this is only an iota of how they messed this backsplash up. After they did the first wall, we came home and it looked like someone had painted white all over it. Because they did such a thick layer of grout and didn't wipe in between joints, so even though those tiles are supposed to have those burnished copper edges, it all looked completely white. Since it was already done, we ended up spending literally an entire weekend going through and cleaning out each and every grout line with a grout saw. It was agonizing.

I know. That's mostly at the bottom edges, not as much higher up. In fairness, what was hard about this job in part was that the walls they tiled onto were in complete shit condition. Very uneven and we couldn't afford to redo them right. So I think that probably played some role, but yeah, I think it's awful too. By the time they had finished it was basically the last thing left in their work for us so too late to fire them. And we knew it was a losing battle asking them to fix it since it would have been the same incompetent workers redoing it (not to mention the epic battle that would have ensued in even asking in the first place).

I think Cpartist is referring to this pic that shows how crazy bad the spacing is between each and every tile. I cannot find a single tile that lines up to one beside it! Ugh....you poor thing.

Do you owe any more $ to this so called "professional"? Do you know if he is licensed? If this is the just tip of the iceberg of the gross workmanship, my advice is to get pictures of every little tiny thing that's wrong. You might have a chance to recoupe some of your money. At least turn it in to the contractors board if he really is licensed, which I doubt.

There are many ways to fix this; some easy, some not. You have to pick how much you want to pay and suffer first.

Wow, arielleeve! How very disappointing for you! I haven't even started my kitchen reno yet, but I already have nightmares about this sort of thing. You've no doubt spent a lot of good money on this, and it should be a really happy, exciting moment. I would turn this contractor in in every way possible: BBB, contractor's board, Yelp, etc. Any handyperson on Craigslist could have done a better job. And sorry to say, but your DH made it worse, imho. As usual, Joe hit the nail right on the head: there are several good suggestions above, and probably even more to come. But you need to figure out what will work best with your remaining budget and what will make you happy. Good luck, and please keep us posted! :-)

Oh Gouda!?! is right. That is nasty with the tiles. How could that happen. They must have been on a sheet, no? Actually, the guy must have been stoned. I'm afraid if that is what the rest looks like, it will be necessary to redo it.

There is always Small Claims Court to try to get your money back to do it over. You don't need a lawyer, but anyone who would feel okay screwing someone over like that probably wouldn't pay up anyway, even with a court order. I kinda doubt he took credit cards ... where they could retrieve the money for you.

Good luck. I hope he is out of your house. If plumbing, electrical or structural work was done, I would have it all inspected - anything that could pose a danger or cause further damage to your house.

I wouldn't use a thick backsplash. You can have a carpenter or furniture/cabinet maker rip the wood down to the appropriate thickness.

Here's a picture of the reduced height backsplash. I think they look very good.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2592021/anyone-with-a-2-inch-backsplash-or-no-backsplash

I like the reduced height backsplash, I'm just not sure how it will look on top of the tile backsplash. In all those pictures, the reduced height piece is instead of a full tile backsplash. I feel like the two, especially without a nice edge in between, might look weird.

We're meeting a new contractor this week. I think redoing the bottom row might be worth the cost.

Stepping back from the problems with installation for a moment, I think it's really nice tile! Does the wonky spacing continue all the way up, or is it just along the bottom edge? Could you post a photo from further away to give a sense of where the install starts to go south--and also just because I want to see the tile because we're considering smaller tiles with a dark edge too (a tiny point of self-interest there. :) ).

Yea, I LOVE the tile. The wonky spacing is not as bad higher up. It's not perfect, of course, but it's mostly at the bottom where it looks bad. And from far away it's hard to notice. These tiles are from Nemo Tile in NYC--they make the same ones in a rectangular stacked format, which probably wouldn't have the same issues since it wouldn't have required cutting on the bottom edge. Anyway, too late now. I'm at work so don't have a good photo of it from further away, but will take one after work and post it. (But yeah, love the white with the dark edges--perfect balance between maintaining the white theme in the kitchen but not looking too sterile/overwhelming).

The caulk line wouldn't bother; that can be fixed or covered with a small wooden round.

Now, the wonky tile spacing/grouting is a different story.

Can you post a picture from a distance?

I can post one when I get home. It's not so bad higher up, except in a few spots here and there which really don't bother me too much. Because the wall behind it was in bad shape (not flat, patched up in many spots when the whole thing probably needed to be replaced, which we decided against to save some money), so it probably made it harder to mount the tile.

"Because the wall behind it was in bad shape (not flat, patched up in many spots when the whole thing probably needed to be replaced, which we decided against to save some money),"

So then you end up spending more on labor because the job is more difficult, and end up with a bad installation to boot. You need a flat wall. Of course, if there were problems with the tile or the foundation, it is his responsibility to advise - not simply install it anyway.

"Because the wall behind it was in bad shape (not flat, patched up in many spots when the whole thing probably needed to be replaced, which we decided against to save some money)"

Not that this should be an excise for poor workmanship but you just may have made his defense statement him...............

Yes, it was a little of both. The old plaster wall was crumbling and he initially suggested replacing the whole thing. At first we thought about it, and asked if he thought we could try to do it with just patching. Since the whole apartment has crumbling walls and, my husband has become quite a pro at doing the plaster patching himself. So we were thinking he would just do it himself before they started the kitchen installation. At the same time, we said to the guy, why don't you give us a quote for the full wall replacement, and we'll think about it, weigh whether it's worth it. Of course he never got around to giving us a quote. We were still waiting to figure out a plan until until one day we came home and they had already started installing the cabinets in the kitchen--no patching, no new wall, nothing. It was a disaster. I don't think the kitchen will hold up well. My only solace is that we don't plan on living in this place for all that long. Sadly, it will be a future resident's problem to deal with.

"Not that this should be an excise for poor workmanship but you just may have made his defense statement him..............."

Yeah. It was things like this that led us not to fight him on certain issues, and to pick and choose our battles. It wasn't always so clear cut that we felt we would absolutely win in a court of law (since we knew he could say, "I told them to replace the wall and they didn't!" etc). The thought of suing him, or not paying him and letting him sue us, seemed like it was not worth the risk. In the end, we got a good price but will end up spending extra to fix the mistakes. So we should have just paid someone more to do it right in the first place. But because we were under so many constraints with time and insurance (NYC coop), it's hard to say how we could have done things differently. We had already cycled through two other contractors before this guy and needed to move-in ASAP.

If your not going to remove and replace tiles you may at the very least clean out that caulking job and get a caulk that matches. It would definitely look nicer with a matching caulk and nice neat straight caulk lines.

On the wood counter side, the caulk is the same color as the grout. It's different behind the sink. My husband wanted to use the other kind because it was silicone so more waterproof, but I agree that it would look better in a matching shade.

The one above says on the top that it's 100% silicone.

Hm, what brand is that? I don't think the brand we used for our grout had a 100% silicone option in the color we used, but I may be mistaken.

TEC Accucolor. Found a link on line. Colored Caulk

I've never used the caulk above before but Joseph Corlett above poster recommended another brand a while back. I ordered a few tubes of this but I haven't tried them yet. Axiom caulk

Was this inexpensive tile?

I can't remember the price, but it was on the less expensive end. The store is a high-end tile store and it was one of the cheapest mosaic tiles you could get there. That said, it's very nice and still better than anything we saw at Home Depot.

http://www.nemotile.com/ceramic/glazed-herringbone/dandelion

Love the tile. Not so much the installation but it's really nice stuff.

The counter is oak? Easy to find trim to match it if you want to go that route--you won't have to rip anything down and will have a huge selection of profiles.

Your DH can't caulk. Don't let him do it again. :)Try again with matching caulk and if DH wants to try again, make him use masking tape.

Is the white thing the sink? Or a different counter material? If you do the wood trim, would it be weird to run it behind there as well? (Wood trim is the cheapest easiest thing to do, if you decide not to do the REDO. The redo would be painful, but ideal.)

I love the tile too! And yes, counter is oak. I was thinking of making him redo the caulk (he offered), but just not sure if it's really going to fix the core issue anyway, so might not be worth the effort.

Yes, the white is the sink. It would look a little weird to do the wood trim there. Not sure what it would adhere to.

So, I talked to a tile guy today. He has good reviews on Angie's List and seems like reasonable prices. He said he would not want to take out several rows from the bottom because it would risk damaging the counter and the rest of the tile. He said the only option would be to redo the entire backsplash, which we don't have enough leftover tile for and honestly I don't want to spend the money on. He suggested either a border of some sort to cover the imperfections, or recaulking and trying to use the caulk to make it look better. I suggested maybe he just entirely redo the area behind the sink (there is a wide window there so it doesn't go very high), and then recaulking or adding a border everywhere else. I'm waiting for him to send an example photo of what the border might look like.