post a photo if you can. if you use a similar grout color the spacing won't be so be so apparent. the lippage, how bad is it? Our tile work in our house is basically awful but in the end not one person even looks at any individual tile or even the "work". It's just the big picture and the environment you create that people notice. It may continue to bug you, that is something only you can answer depending on your personality.

Agreed. Photos would make it easier to make a determination.

The standard for the industry, though is if you can slide a credit card across, and it comes to a dead stop at the edge of a tile, it's excessive.

I have more lippage than that (credit card test) and it bothers me. At certain times of the day you can see shadow. My tile is light, and the grout almost exactly matches the tile.

Side note - the kitchen grout lines will darken, unless you are a fanatical cleaner. I am not.

I think the tile sub expected me not to accept the job. They had left it unfinished and then when I showed up (remote build) I think they were surprised that I was angry it wasn't done. At that point we had sold our house 1400 miles away and were living in a hotel.

In a way I think we are too attuned to every little detail. But...for the money, shouldn't we be?

https://www.tcnatile.com/faqs/175-lippage.html

24"x24"? 1/16" grout line? That is asking for lippage. That is way too skinny for a grout line on that size tile. 3/16 at a minimum. Not in a running bond pattern, surely? That would be asking for lippage again. Stacked bond pattern is the only one to use here.

What amount of floor prep was done? On a conventional foundation, you probably need to beef up the joists as well as beef up the subfloor and install an uncoupling material. On a slab, the high spots probably needs to be ground first and then the low spots filled. And then a crack isolation membrane installed. Was any of that done? Or did the installer just flow out a few bags of SLC and call it good. I've seen jobs where 10 bags were used in the kitchen alone.

LFT is completely unforgiving of improper prep work. Or poor design practices.

I'm sorry, but I can do a 24x24 running bond with a 1/16" grout joint, so long as the tiles are rectified and I use a leveling system. The question is if these are rectified tiles or not. That said, I DO agree that the smaller the joint, the less forgiving they are with respect to lippage. Also, if these ARE rectified square edged tiles, the square edges make them even LESS forgiving.

Now, I just reread the OP. If the joints are irregular, that's telling me there's a good chance the tiles are NOT rectified, which means they never should have been set that tight, for exactly the reason you're seeing now. There are slight differences in sizing and squareness from tile to tile that are ACCEPTABLE within the industry. Thing is, the tighter the joint, the more prevalent those differences are. This is the reason Sophie said minimum 3/16" grout joint. You'd never see the differences then, or at worst, it'd be a lot more difficult to see them.

I disagree that I am asking for lippage with 1/16" grout lines. I have 24x48 tile with 1/16 grout lines and it is pretty darn close to perfect. Night and day difference between the two jobs.

Yes, this is rectified tile. I know all about TCNA standards and the credit card/dime tests. The tile passes in parts and doesn't pass in parts. I'm not asking for the technical standards (it fails) I'm just trying to get some guidance as to when it makes sense to tear a job out and start from scratch. That's no small task. The 24x24 isn't as good as my 24x48 job, which is how I want it to be. I'm just not sure it's bad enough to justify tearing it out.

What isabel98 said makes me feel better. She feels her tile is awful; I wouldn't classify my situtaion as "awful" but it's not right and it bothers me. If I let it be, it is with the hope that in time I will forget about it. There will be lots of other eye candy in the kitchen to take your attention off the floor.

I can't take photos of the tile because we've got it covered up to protect it from all the traffic going through the room while remodeling. I'll see if I can find any photos of the floor right after the tile was set.

I would say, if you can "live with it" then go ahead and ask for a discount on the installation - in lieu of a remove/replace job. It sounds like they didn't use a leveling system = uneven joints and lippage with a rectified tile.

Again, only if you can live with it. I would also make sure that you have told the GC, in writing, that you are not entirely happy with the tile install and will contemplate your options at a later date (before the final payment is made). This allows the GC to recognise that something is amiss and be able to offer something instead of having the tile setter rip out and redo (on the GC's dime).

I came here looking for advice from pros as much as from regular folk. I wanted to hear about people's experience with imperfect tile. Do you get over it? Did you ever make someone redo a job? Was it worth the effort? In a way I'm trying to figure out if the medicine is worse than the cure. Experiences shared by isabel98 and jn3344 are helpful.

Let me backtrack a second here and ask this a different way...

It is quite possible that this won't look as bad as I'm afraid it will be once it is grouted. So the decision I have at the moment is should I have him start over or should I let him grout, see how it turns out, then decide whether I want to tear it out? Does the demo get harder after grouting?

Other than technical TCNA standards, is there some other factor I can use to help me determine if it it's going to be acceptable or not?

For the flooring pros reading this, would you rather I give you a chance to grout the tile before I make the decision, even if it might ultimately be more work for you? Or would you rather just start over at this point?

Hard to say since we can't see it. I would say have it pulled up and start over if it hasn't been grouted. Grout, however, will make it less noticeable. What's it going to cost you?

At the end of the day my cost is the same for the finished product whether it is redone or not. If I have him pull the tile out he's going to have to cover the cost of new tile and cover doing it again. The issue is the mess it makes, and disposal. Also, the flooring in adjacent rooms matches the level of the current tile, I'm afraid if we redo the tile it won't match up anymore, but that might be a silly concern.

The main this is that I really don't want to make him do it again unless it is absolutely necessary and that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Let's say the lippage is the thickness of a credit card. That fails TCNA standards but does that really so bad after it is grouted? Or does is only start to look bad at 1.5 or 2 credit cards?

Express your concerns in detail and allow a section to be grouted where you know a large piece of furniture will be. Grout can vary from batch to batch as well as variables that affect curing.( temp,humidity, etc). If the installer volunteers to grout the entire job so that you can decide great but you both need to understand the others position before proceeding. I noticed you have not posted any photo's which would be helpful to all voicing a opinion. A picture may get you a more direct answer.

I'd prefer to see pics, but that notwithstanding, if it looks bad to you before grouting, it's going to look worse once it's grouted and it becomes one solid "unflat" plane.

There is really no way to tell which personality type will accept a finished product (with defects) and which personality won't. There is a 50:50 chance that you could "try" to live with it and the mistakes only get WORSE looking. The flip side would be that after 1 month you don't "see" the mistakes any more.

I'm the "second" personality type. This is commonly referred to as a type "B" personality (I'm actually a type AB personality...some situations drive me BATTY and others don't even phase me).

Without knowing your personality type, we cannot help you decide which way you will, personally, react.

I'm someone who likes having a chunk of change left in the bank account after a renovation. I'll live with just about anything that isn't dangerous and is still "to code". So long as it offers some money back, I'm good. But that's me. I'm a rare duck.

excessive lippage after the floor is grouted can cause future issues with cleanliness - dirt will have a tendency to build up in the areas where the tile and grout is not flush...

Photos are hard. Here's mine during the day. The quarter is resting at a high spot. It's light, and even though I pulled the shades you can't really tell. It's not like you are going to trip.

At night you can see the curve in some tiles, and some shadows will be cast. In dim lighting. Turn on all the overhead lights and then the lippage is diminished.

I did not want them starting over because we were already 2 months behind schedule and we were living in a hotel. So I just accepted it.

I am pretty easy-going but this bothers me. Maybe because the builder took liberties in other areas. For example a cheaper grade of paint was used than specified. A couple other things.

Put them all together. On some days I feel cheated. But honestly, except for the inlaws (who are special cases of picky) nobody notices. I keep asking my sister to look at the floor and she keeps not seeing the problems.

I remember some of usc's photos of the project and it looks very modern and precise (and expensive). There is little room for error.

Good luck!

I appreciate all the advice.

As I mentioned, the floor is completely covered right now so I can't take any photos. And it's covered for a reason, so I don't want to pull all the cardboard off just to take some photos. When the time comes to pull it off and address this, if I'm still unsure about what to do I'll post photos and would appreciate your input.

Even though there's no definitive answer, lots of great advice and things to think about and weigh.

One thing I'm still not clear on is how much of a mess this is going to make. I know to start their going to have to break some tiles up. But once they get a few tiles out can they pry the rest of the tiles off in one piece or will they have to bust everything up to get it off?

And if they remove the tile, will the float below be damaged to the point it has to be redone or can they just patch up some trouble spots where there is a lot of damage? The aftermath is part of the decision for me. If it's possible to cleanly remove the tiles without making a giant mess or destroying the float then I will most likely have them start over using a leveling system. If this is a major demo job with a ton of mess and dust then I'd be less inclined to go through with that.

Major demo job, just like the original demo job.

I'm with Sophie. A major demo job with busting out everything. If you remove it, it will be a complete do over = includes new 'float'. Everything that went into the tiles at this point, will need to be done again.