Any round tile is up for looking lousy on a shower floor installation due to the possibility of the tiler burying most of the stones under a sea of grout. Yours is especially bad. And you can still see the sheet lines. If using a round pebble, I recommend increasing the pitch of the floor to 1/2" per foot. With round pebbles, the grout lines can be a maze for the water to shed to the drain. The steeper pitch can help the shower drain and dry faster. Consider a sawn/sliced/flat pebble floor instead. You'll get the look of pebbles. You'll get the texture underfoot. But it gives the installer less fo a chance to booger it up. Your installer seem a bit lost. As Casey wrote, print out a photo of what you want the floor to look like. Having a photo means: 1) Other installers can do it. 2) There are no "lost in translation" moments when trying to convey what you want the floor to look like. 3) It eliminates excuses. It's a way for the installer to look at the product, look at the installed photo, and to do a self-assessment of his skills. Of the materials needed. Of the labor involved. Be aware that cemetitious grout shrink a bit as they cure. That's why they usually have "maximum grout width" recommendations on the grout bag. With very wide grout line lines like you have in your photo, you can end up with shrinkage cracks over time as the grout cures. Might not show up for a few days. A week. a month. Or they may never happen. The more water used in the mix and the more water used in cleanup, the more likely it is that cracks can occur. Lastly? When setting pebble sheets, I'll almost always pull a few stones from the edges of the sheets and shift them, rotate them, just mix them up a bit, to eliminate sheet lines. Good luck!

"The problem I have is that the kind of person who couldn't get a good install to a clean subfloor is not the kind of person who is likely to spend the time necessary to get the Durock clean enough to reuse." That was the point of my first post. An installer who buggers up an installation with pristine materials in a new installation will probably suffer more pain when trying to rebuild over once-used surfaces. "The new installers do not want to use the existing Durock." That is a very good sign. They want ownership and control of their work from start-to-finish. Have a good talk with them. They already know what happened with the first installation. But tell them your expectations. Tell them how the last installer failed to meet your expectations. Things to think about, and to possibly discuss with the installers: The tile pattern. Where center lines or grout lines will fall on the floor. Example, will a full tile be centered on the centerline of the floor, or a grout line? Discuss grout line width and what you expect for consistency throughout the floor. Discuss lippage between adjacent tiles. That Crossville tile has a pretty subtle pattern, but if you care how the veining in the tile flows, discuss it. Some people like the veining to flow in the same direction. Some prefer random. Again, you have a small floor and a subtle pattern...but it's worth thinking about. Some tile styles have a set number of patterns within that style, ie, there might be 14 different patterns in that style of tile. If they find repetition, let them know to not put two similar tiles next to one another in the same orientation.I'm not sure if your tile has repetition And again, with a small floor, it's not normally an issue. Many of the things I brought up might not apply to your installation. But discussions held before any thinset is mixed can eliminate frustrations down the road. They also show the installer that you're an interested party, and that you'll appreciate the effort they put towards giving you a quality installation. I'm not sure which finish you have on that tile, but there are grout release and sealing restrictions with the satin finish. You can find all that on the manufacturers website. Again, good luck!

I hear or notice the noise way less now, but still hear it from time to time when walking over an area for the first time. We have a couple of seams that have a small gap forming. As others have pointed out and i have come to learn, the problems that we have with the floors are caused by the unevern (not flat) subfloor. So, from that perspective, i cant blame flooret. However, most people that are buying these vinyl floors are doing so for the advertised ”value” and installing them in extisting homes. When you consider the time and expense to make old subfloors PERFECTLY flat, they are no longer a good value. That is my biggest complaint at this point; they drastically under communicate the amount of time and money required to achieve the desired outcome. To those of you who installed these Flooret floors, im sorry and hang in there. The noise and /or your attention to it will improve greatly over time.

True...it is not a regular punch list item..but since his subcontractor created the damage we were figuring this should be on his list. I have the deck installer coming in the morning to take a look at it. Hopefully he will know what to do. By the way the white trim paint is a Sherwin Williams pro mar 200 alkyd semi gloss....would this be oil based? Or water based? We also have got a good amount to clean up in other areas that the “ wonderful“ painter got on our tile and hardwood. Wondering what will remove it from those areas.?