I asked before It was grouted about my concerns and was told the grout would fix it. Now it looks like this

They are not handmade tiles. We have plaster walls and had tile on it before and it never looked like this. he Also didn’t use spaces when laying the tile.

I’m sorry for you but this is not acceptable. Can’t blame on wall. If they didn’t do it correct the first time, same company can’t correct it. They don’t know how to tile.
I hope you haven’t paid them.
I would not let them do any further work. I am telling you from experience, the more they try to fix it, the worse it gets.
Get referrals and physically look at the jobs.

The tile could be warped BUT it's all about the prep. The first thing a professional does with any install is checks the substrate and corrects any deficiencies (plumb and flat). The other thing a pro does is examines the tile and if concerns exist they have a conversation with the customer. Your contractor apparently skipped both those steps. And the fact that they told you the grout would fix it further suggests this is not a professional you are working with. No real pro does a job like that.

The tile is bowed, and it required thicker grout lines to compensate. Place the tiles back to back and face to face. Measure the gap. Add that to the narrowest grout line recommended by the manufacturer. If manufacturer recommends 3/16”, and the tile is bowed 1/8” then 5/16” is the smallest grout line that should be used.

The natural lippage from it being bowed is accented by the 50/50 pattern, which puts the high spot directly against the low spot. A 1/3 offset or stacked bond would also help minimize the appearance of lippage.

www.ceramictilefoundation.org/blog/how-acceptable-is-warped-tile%3Fhs_amp%3Dtrue

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/homeowners-guide-to-hiring-qualified-tile-installer

Redo

^ and that. Good advice Cook's Kitchen but always start with the substrate. A pro would discuss the bowing and resulting methods to minimize it which results in more labor $$. Some will refuse to set it. If the homeowner understands what they bought they can adjust their expectations or re-select.

He basically now says this “the walls are not straight and even if he tried to correct it with adhesive it would make it worse and no option to redo”

Ask him to remove the work he has done. Move on to a more qualified tile professional.

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/find-certified-tile-installers

Yeah, no offense, but even my ‘it’s a 60 yr old rental property, I need it done in an hour project’ does not have that kind of lipping. And I’m not a tile installer, just a hack homeowner looking to save some $$

I'm sorry he did that! Definitely not acceptable. :/

This is a 'guy' who is probably a General Contractor trying to save money by DIY tile setting. In other words he is trying to earn money on the tile install so he doesn't have to pay a specialty person (aka tile setter) to do a specialty job.

I'm sorry but this is a do over. At the GC's expense. Even a horribly wavy tile can be dealt with....so long as a PROFESSIONAL TILE SETTER does the work.

It sounds like there was NO prep; NO spacers; NO CLUE how to deal with this job. And someone saying 'glue' won't fix tile...is really lost. Glue is never used to hold tile. Thinset is used...

I'm sorry but you have found/paid for a Know-it-All GC (notice the title...GENERAL contractor means they know a little about a lot of things) who has tried to cut corners on a job so he can keep more money.

Ask him to remove the work he has done, purchase more tile for you (aka replace the tile he mucked up), thank him for his time and then ask him to leave the tiling to YOUR expert.

He owes you tile...and the money you already paid him for the labour to install the tile he ruined.

Thanks everyone, he was fired today. He basically said he wasn’t happy with the tile but it was the “walls” fault and he has not intentions of taking it out or replacing the tile. We will be reporting him to the better business bureau and leaving a picture review on his Facebook and other review pages.

Good and I agree with Dragonfly you can’t do perfect tiling until you have perfect substrate. I have tiled many backsplashes in some really old houses with wonky walls and did a better job than that everytime

Had the tile redone by someone new, just needs to be grouted.

Much better. You can see by the upper schluter edge that the wall isn't completely flat...but this tile install seems MUCH better. That's how much of a difference a proper tiling professional makes.

Great to see the redo is well on it's way to being done!

Huge improvement! Glad you were able to get it done.

Bravo. I know it’s not fun firing someone, but I’m glad you got what you needed. That tile is a good choice with your counter material btw.

Thanks I picked it all out myself