I don't know that asking them about conditioner is the right question because that doesn't exactly solve all problems with staining soft woods. Everyones eye will see it differently. It's really the same thing with color. Not every piece of wood is going to stain up the same shade. Obviously some companies will go to great lengths to please their customers and others won't. Post a picture.

"Of course not and I don't think anyone suggested that you should. Are these the same people who went to school for three years to learn their trade? " No. These were people in the US. My point is that I see work done here in my house that is so far off (literally) that it wouldn't even occur to me beforehand to spell it out in a contract (like, no crooked outlets, not painting the windows shut, etc.). In contrast, a trained crafts person, whether trained in a three-year vocational program or by years on the job, won't deliver something like that because (a) they probably can't even do such a subpar job and (b) know what the minimum standard of work is. I think my point is that I am justified to expect straight and even grout lines, without having to specify this. If the tile choice or walls or whatever make this impossible, I would expect a tiler to tell me that ahead of time and offer possible solutions, which I then can follow or not. My other experience is also that once you've eliminated the obviously fly-by-night outfits, the price is not necessarily an indicator of how good the work will be. However, this is veering off into a different discussion. The OPs tile job, while not perfect, is way better than the tile job in my house.

So we moved into a new house and had our bathroom redone. The tile and grout look horrible. This is the 2nd attempt by the contractor to fix it. I asked for a refund in the amount it would take to retile the bathroom and she is insisting that she be given another chance to fix it because in our contract she offers a warranty. Should I eat the loss or consider taking her to small claims court to recoup the funds.

My jury is out on this one. They used bullnose and not something like Schluter which limits the options on tile sizes and leads to the busyness you see around the sides. The middle tile on the left side looks crooked - is that a niche issue or a setting issue? can't tell The placement is wonky and not centered - but with that tiles size and that niche size, I am not sure what would look better (again - related to the partial tiles around the sides AND the partial tiles along the left side.) What color is your ground going to be? If the answer is dark - you'll hate this every day. If light - you will be okay Who picked the tiles and the niche size? This feels like it would have been a perfect place to use a different background tile to elimiate the weird placement / alignment issue All in all - if this was all they had to work with (the field tile and the half size bullnose) they did a reasonable job - but it still looks unappealing. Don't make it worse with dark grout.