Tile pro, no question.

Tile pro. I used a Fireclay crackle subway, and it came out great using those little individual spacers.

Don't let the GC do it!!! There are too many pictures on this site of tile jobs gone totally awry by not using a tile pro. It probably won't cost a lot more and you'll be able to choose whatever tiles you want.

By someone who has had a general guy do the backsplash, then argued and cried about, go with the tile pro.

That's who is doing the one we ripped out.

Tile pro.

Ditto to all of the above.

YES to a pro. If I ever win the lottery, I will be tearing out the thousands of dollars of marble subway in my shower and having it redone by a professional.

Save yourself the heartache now, even if it costs a little more!

Can I tag along with my question? One of the guys my GC works with is slated to do our tile (possibly tomorrow). Tiling is his favorite part of the job... That means he's probably good at it, right? You can do a good job and not have only a "tile pro" job, yes? He's going to use spacers, and I will be here the whole time...

pippiep is he tiling your backsplash? Or your bathroom shower? If it's your backsplash, and you're there and you work with him first to show where you want your tile centered, thenI think you're fine.

Glad to hear it!

Can we see a pic of the finished product?

Tile specialist.

Pippiep looking forward to seeing it

When you say that he was "lamenting the difficulty," you need to decide whether he was truly sad about the amount of work or whether he was really indicating that he wasn't up to the job. Unless I had seen his tile work and knew that he was completely competent, I would tend to interpret it as he wasn't up to the job and that I should hire a tile pro.

I think you already know the answer to your question.
If you DO, for some insane reason (like money) go with the GC, you'll get what you pay for, being good or bad.

Note that he's also trying to talk you out of something you know you want, for his convenience. There's another potential regret.

Pro.

Tiling is his favorite part of the job... That means he's probably good at it, right?

I'm all for hiring the pro to do the OP's backsplash. We just finished a DIY subway backsplash (photos coming later today) and it's a lot of work. If you don't care to get it right, it won't be right.

On pippiep's though, I have a tale: our nephew bought a flipped house. For the kitchen the flipper found the cheapest cabinets I've ever seen. The design was bad, the cabinets were terrible, I'm pretty sure all the labor came from the HD parking lot. The one exception was the backsplash. Whoever did it did a beautiful job, so well done. He wasn't a pro though. He didn't know that you're supposed to caulk at change of plane, so he grouted there. Or maybe that's what the boss told him to do. I've always envisioned some guy working for peanuts who learned from somebody who "learned" from somebody, but who cared about the details and the end quality. That guy, whoever he was, needs a short apprenticeship with a pro and he'd be first on my list of hires.

Eeeeek! Today I left to the guy mentioned above doing the tiling...and came home to the intern doing it! It looks fine... But is there a chance that it will look bad after grouting? The head GC (not the one above) was here, so hopefully he checked on her work the whole time. It's a straightforward 1/2 offset installation. The tile egdes are uneven so the grout spacing is uneven, but that's to be expected. Waiting to see what my husband thinks.

Pictures?

My husband and BIL think it looks good. There's a slight wave in this area, but maybe that's to be expected with handmade tile?

The the original guy just got here and thought it looked really bad, so he's fixing it. Yay!

Yeah - that bottom row, from the left, tiles 3 and 4 look like they have a hump in them and then it got added to going up. Too bad though - because it does look like care was taken - but the critical eye for that most important first course was missing. Gat they are fixing - tile is HARD! Add some variations and color variation that outlines the tile, or colored grout and all this adds up to even higher skill levels being needed.

I'm kinda hoping he teaches the apprentice, because her work wasn't looking bad. I really doubt anyone takes THAT much care and plans to do a cheesy job. This could make or break her attitude about tiling.

Grout is in, and I think it looks GREAT!! I never said anything to the GC about theintern, or that I was dissatisfied. I posed everything as a question rather than a complaint.

Excellent!

Looks amazing! What color is your Fireclay tile?

It's Basil -- the regular one, not the one with black patine.

Oh it looks stunning. I so want to use fireclay but with everything else so expensive, I'm thinking it will be out of my budget.

I love it!