I hate the white grout these floors look best with grout the same color as the tile to give that illusion of being real wood , who chose the grout ?

A designer. But it's not her fault. The color is a light brown as is the sample on the bag but it looks completely different once it's laid. . Like 10,000x lighter.

Sorry that you are so disappointed in your tile. It is beautiful!!!! Is the grout sealed? I think what you are experiencing with your grout is called efflorescence. The minerals in the water used to mix the grout and wash the grout away are interacting with the grout making the grout appear much lighter than the dark beige it was suppose to be. It is a very common with darker colored grouts. We had this problem with our dark brown colored grout with our wood like tiles. We used an acid wash on it using Sulfamic Acid Crystals. It made the grout look much better....not perfect but lots better. Not that this will help you nor I, there are some grouts on the market that will not have this efflorescence problem.

There are ways that you can color your existing grout to what you want it to actually be. Check the grout manufacturer to see if they offer this product. I know that Home Depot's Custom Building Products has this option. If the acid didn't work out to be acceptable, that was the route we were going to follow.

Yes, I agree that the wood like tiles are much harder to walk on. I now wear some comfy shoes in the house when I plan to be cleaning...walking around a lot. I don't notice any temperature difference compared to our old ceramic tile. I still really love our tile. We choose the tile also based on our lifestyle. Good luck!

I don't like wood look tile but since you have four children under the age of seven its going to be practical. I think I'd just live with it until the children are a little older & then make a change back to what you want.

I would explore the grout options and live with it until kids are older and then change back to wood if you want. That picture with the darker grout looks 1000 times better.

I agree teamaltese. Wood is far more friendlier to the legs and the head;)

I like to spec the darkest grout that will blend with the tile (preferably choose one that matches the darkest grain and go with that) - and the closer you butt the joints together, the more real the wood tile looks! I like a minimum 3/16" grout joint to make them feel real - standard tile joints make the wood tile look less "real".

I think it looks fine, nice and modern. If you put in hardwood you're just going to break your heart over how beat up they get with small children and it's a huge household disruption when you have to get them re-done. Trust me, I have four kids. Put in hardwood as a gift to yourself when the last one hits high school or college!

Agree to leave it for now. Also, you say "scrape it up," but you're actually looking at jackhammers, which is a huge expense and mess. Get a bunch of area rugs and make the best of things until the kids are older. Sorry so much effort went into a result you're not loving.

Darken that grout, live with it for a while, and everything will be fine.

I'm with Joseph...it is in. You don't like it. Money is gone. It is fully functional for now. I suggest darkening the grout (yes...the colour on the bag would have been perfect had it worked out) and start saving for another flooring remodel in a few years.

It is done and life can go one (although not what you where hoping for). Take a a thousand or two and go shopping for area rugs that make you happy. Pep up the rest of the space for now and in a few more years, after paying off this reno, go ahead and change out the floors to wood (or some other cool product we have at that time).

By then, fashion will have changed once again and you can have a new floor that is fashionable. Sorry this didn't work out for you.

I would have to see how this tile relates to the rest of your home but it's not bad. I personally like the grout! I feel if you darken the grout you remove the happiness factor.

I agree with the above comments about live with in for now. You have plenty of work to do with having four young children in the house and having something that you don't have to fuss over is a good thing. I have a house where the prior owner put down ceramic tile in the foyer, living room, dining room and kitchen. I don't care for the look but it is easy to care for and I don't have to worry about damage. Mop it with any type of cleaner and any amount of water without fear.

Four kids under the age of seven? Ha. That gout's getting darker, I promise.

Just wondering what you decided to do? Did you change the grout color or end up liking your floor after all ? We just had wood look tile laid as well and I'm not happy with the grout color or grout line size. It sucks spending so much money and living through a reno to end up being disappointed with the outcome.

OH! And I did try darkening the grout with something from lowes made for that... it was the consistency of a paint and it looked like poop on the floor.lol that was the last straw.

So happy that you are now happy! You can start focusing on living with your beautiful family and moving forward! Congratulations! Thanks for updating us.

Yes, exactly Pilatesmom3- so happy I could cry!! Thank you!!

An old thread, but the same ol' question for me: Why build a "dream house" with products that aren't designed to stand the test of time? Even the best engineered wood floors can only be refinished 1, maybe two, times before they're down to the nub. If it's really a "dream home", and wood is the true desire, get site finished hardwood, and skip the stress.

@902 Juanita- There are advantages and disadvantages. Some prefer having a prefinished wood floor which are also dimensionally stable (engineered wood). I have huge gaps in my solid hardwood floors during the winter (dry and cold), and it looks bad and is harder to clean. Expansion and contraction in my climate make engineered hardwoods an increasingly popular choice. We will likely get engineered hardwood in our next home.

julyraine - I probably would have lived with the tile for a while and let my kids abuse them ;-), but I am happy you are at peace with your floors now!

@902 Juanita. While that is certainly true for some engineered wood materials, not all are created equal! Engineered floors are great for wider width materials as CLC mentioned, because they are more dimensionally stable. There are even unfinished engineered products, so you get the best of both worlds - wide plank and site finished.

Many engineered floors have thicker wear layers, that can be refinished just about as many times as a solid site finished floor.

Certainly- and there are areas of warm and humid where EW would work well. But there are real issues with many, many engineered wood products that aren't inherent in site-finished HW. That's just a truism.

My comment was about the "forever, dream" house. That's not the place to play around with products that aren't tried and true. Pretty obvious that that's what occurred with the OP.

You can cozy it up with area rugs which would be much less costly than tearing up and replacing .

@juanita- I live in Florida where the humidity is high and solid is not recommended. I also couldn't afford it after the tile debacle. Thanks for your input though- I agree that with most things you're going to have for a while, you should only use the highest quality. I hope Bella cera doesn't disappoint. It seems like a good company, but as you said, it's still engineered and not solid.

Julyraine , Hi! I'm so happy for you. Your new wood flooring looks beautiful . I think it's money well spent on redoing them and now your mind can be at ease . Not having to constantly think about how you're unhappy with your floor . I totally understand . I look at mine constantly thinking how unhappy I am with the grout color , line size and the more I look the more I see spots where the work was sloppy. I still need to have the quarter round installed on our base boards and have the grout stained to the color it should have been in the first place . Then hopefully my mind can rest and I'll be able to live with our floors. Again so happy for you! You made the choice that works best for you and that's all that matters in the end :)

Thank you, Melinda! I'm glad you like it! :) it's so hard to find someone good at laying tile! If it was done recently, maybe you can complain and get it fixed? Did they use spacers for the grout?

julyraine- Yikes- I didn't get your region. Yep. Engineered is the best practice. Your new floors are gorgeous!!!

For anybody else who stumbles across this thread-

Pros- can you recommend the highest quality, medium etc, within manufacturers? Might be good info.

You couldn't be more right! Long story short the first contractor we had working on our tile used the money we gave him for materials which was $3,000 to move and over charged us $1,000 for the actual tile we purchased . We found that out once we received the invoice from the tile company. I'm currently in the process of filing a law suit against him . Besides taking our money it had been two and a half weeks and he hadn't even finished our front room !! The contractor we had finish our floors said that grout always dries lighter than the sample that's why it's lighter. But then why is it the right color in some areas and not in others! I'm totally venting but this whole thing has been a nightmare . We are going to have a actual tile company fix and finish the rest. I can't deal with a independent contractor anymore. No offense to any on here . I know not all independent contractors are bad. We just got unlucky . Unfortunately with the money that was taken from us and having to pay a whole other $1,900 for materials we have to wait a bit to get our floor all fixed and finished and I'm going nuts still having to think about this. I just want it done :(

Oops as for the spacers . He did use 1/8" spacers but the end grout line ended up being more 3/16" size . I feel maybe the tile moved or something while it dried. I didn't want a grout line at all let alone a 3/16!!

Ugh! Tile is so tricky! We butted the tiles together with no spacers trying to get as tight of a line as possible and still ended up with1/8 to almost a half in some places.

Aww Melinda I just read your other comment! Damn that's terrible! I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. How many square feet was it?

902junita- thank you!

Julyraine . Thank you . It really has been a horrible mess to deal with. The square footage was 1500 sq ft . We did our whole downstairs , stairs and upstairs landing . We left the bedrooms carpet . Also the hall bathroom and laundry room we left with it's existing tile.

Hi Elise, realize its been a few months, but I have a simliar experience. Dont love the look of my wood look tile during our home reno. I was told by a designer it would be a better option for me with three small kids in my new kitchen/dining/mudroom spaces even though the rest of my house is is hardwood (site finished). HUGE mistake. I hate it. It bothers me EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. problem is it was 660 sq ft of tile plus install PLUS radiant put under it. Yowza. dying to rip it up and replace with hardowod to match the rest of the house, but now have a new kitchen on top of the floor. Did you you have to deal with flooring around kitchen cabinetry too? If so, how did you handle...? I'm going to have to suck up this mistake and live with it for a while, but need to know I can deal with it eventually...

@Heather...the removal of the tile will mean damage to the in-floor system (assuming you have electric/mats). Removing tile from "underneath" the cabinets isn't something that will get done. A talented GC with a good crew will use a floor cutter to angle underneath the cabinets (just a small undercut...nothing structural) to get as much of the tile off of the floor as possible. And remember to get the electrician to disconnect the heating system before anyone swings a hammer.

Another floor is then installed in it's place. The tile will remain underneath the cabinets (assuming you ran the tile wall to wall before cabinets were installed). That's fine. A new floor will most likely sit about the same height as your tile = no problem. Some attractive trim is added to the cabinets to hide the expansion gap and Bob's your uncle.

If you lace in new hardwood to the old, you will need to have all the wood finished at the same time...which is normal.

This is how you remove tile (with in-floor radiant heat mats/wires underneath) from a kitchen without disturbing the cabinetry. Happens all the time.

@heather, I’m sorry I’m just now seeing your comments! What did you end up doing? Our flooring didn’t go under the cabinets, and there’s no island, so for us that wasn’t an issue. I’m sorry you hate your floor- that’s a crappy feeling, BUT I will say that having it in the kitchen area can be so practical!

Well said- we learned so much from this mistake! That sounds like a good idea and plan you have. I hope you end up loving it. Wood tile definitely wasn’t for me either.

Elise, how was the wood tile removed. Was it a mess.

@Elise what is the name of the wood tile? It’s actually nice looking. I’m glad to hear you were able to get the floor you truly loved in the end.