Is the Platinum the Laticrete Platinum? If so what about Silver Shadow? It is a very soft gray that is almost white, but looks great with Platinum. Are you using cementitious grout or epoxy? I know many have used SS for their light or white tiles. Here is Silver Shadow epoxy on the bottom vertical grout spaces. The top area was grouted with a 50/50 ratio of Platinum and SS. The middle row was with Raven and SS. Note that there is a halo around the marble, like it is still wet. Epoxy can do that with marble, I just looked at my tile boards after over a month of drying and the halo is still slightly there with the darker grouts. But not as marked as in this picture. So that is something to consider. Here is the Silver Shadow epoxy with my bright white tiles. With these tiles the SS looks light gray, but with the tiles above it looks almost too white for my taste: I took Laticrete epoxy Platinum and mixed it with a little bit of Silver Shadow for an in between gray for my black slate floors. It is in a 3:1 ratio. The colors mixed very nicely. The grout sample on the left is the SS and the one on the right is the Platinum. It didn't take much SS to lighten it up significantly. If I did this over I would just have used Platinum. My DH really likes the combo. He thinks it ties in with the tub. It is relative isn't it, because it is not white at all but appears white. I will be having a marble listello, as seen above in the sample board, with my white tile wainscot. I might mask the marble off when I grout the white field tile with Silver Shadow. Then I would plan to come back and grout the marble with a reverse blend of Silver Shadow 3parts to Platinum 1 part. Nothing like trying to complicate things. That's one of the benefits with DIY. But if I was paying someone to grout, I would not consider these mixes.

I wish I'd gotten pictures of it-- years ago, I worked for a guy in southern Florida, and we did a house in Coral Gables where the entire master bathroom was CLEAR thassos-- no veining, whatsoever-- it looked like the white version of absolute black. 10 foot high walls, floors, shower floor to ceiling (floor got cut up into 3x3 squares).... This bathroom was bright white and looked sharp as hell..... when we finished with it. I have no idea how long that lasted, but I know we were all commenting on how we'd hate to be on the cleaning staff there.

Dottie - I could not have done this without an educated designer - it's not just about the design choices although I would never have come up with design choices as my brain isn't hardwired in those kinds of visually imaginative ways. I can appreciate things but I don't know how to pull them together and I wouldn't have the ability to figure out where to even start in terms of the sea of vendors. I am good about researching appliances and functions but get lost in the sea of visual possibilities :-) And I can't even imagine dealing with codes and such since Los Angeles is code crazy - I wanted to move some floor electrical outlets up a bit from the floor as I found it difficult to reach them when I had some hip issues so I was thinking about for the future - I was told that if I move a plug, the whole thing has to be rewired back to the panel box. And the darn kitchen sink has to be approved by the UL LOL - who would think a kitchen sink could be dangerous.

You need documentation no matter what comes next. You need all your in-progress photos, all texts and emails between you and contractor, the contract, the texts and emails from the tile people, printed out manufacturer’s instructions for the waterproofing materials he used such as wall boards and pan liner, texts and emails from the local rep for the manufacture (if you contacted them), etc, etc. Buy the TCNA handbook and read the shower chapters. Ask for a meeting. In meeting explain what your concerns are and cite all the things that he did wrong, with in-progress photos and cross-referencing all the violations to the standards, codes and instructions. Ask what his plan is for re-building the shower. If he refuses, ask him does that mean he’s quitting the project? If he says yes, that means he has quit, you did not fire him, document/confirm that in an email. If he says no he’s not quitting, then tell him remedying this situation is part of the project, so ask him which day he’s coming over to demo and re-build it. He may quit at that point. If he does try to re-built it, if/after that fix fails, you can fire him. Then send a demand letter certified return receipt asking for full refund plus the cost that you will have to pay to hire a new tile professional to demo and re-build (use local averages or get actual bids). Cite all the violations like you did in the meeting with the references. We had to do all this stuff when our GC quit rather than fix the issues. It’s a PITA but we got double our money back. Read my “Project Goes South” post, you might find some helpful info in there. Now, if you don’t have any of the documentation I listed above, don’t have a contract, etc, etc, I don’t know what leverage you have. You can still have the meeting and send the demand letter, but if it goes to court documentation is your friend and you want max documentation. Hopefully you can dig up some photos of the waterproofing process involving both the floor and the walls. If you don’t have much, add this to your meeting: ask the contractor to simply explain each step (like he’s teaching you) he used to build your shower, starting with framing. Then write down every word he says, asking him to slow down or repeat if needed. Don’t correct or challenge anything he says; let him explain his process. That can substitute a little bit for your lack of other documentation. Then you can cross reference any wrong info he told you to the codes, standards and manufacturer’s instructions, and proceed from there with demand letter. If he refuses your demand letter, which he will, you can decide about suing him. In my state justice court (small claims) is non-binding. We didn’t sue our GC, but he sued us saying we fired wrongfully him. We responded with counter-suit in District Court and asked that the lower case get rolled up to that level because of the $ amount and we wanted a binding decision. It’s a pain and I hope we never have to talk to a judge again, but we had to respond to quit-GCs suit and go through the process. Best of luck to you.