Adding that I’m sorry for the typos and not sure how to fix them. I’m upset. 😞

Oh, my! Schluter edging should come out crisp and clean. What you have is simply a piss poor installation job by a hack. No way to fix it other than tear it out and have someone that cares about their workmanship redo it.

I’m so sorry this is happening to you! As someone who has gut renovated quite a few times, I can tell you that this is not normal, standard, or acceptable quality by any stretch of the imagination.

You’re not being too picky, and have every right to be upset and disappointed.

I don’t feel that having the same crew redo / try to fix it will help...if they felt that this was acceptable in the first place, they don’t have the ability to do this job professionally. Tiling is a very specialized field.

Did you already pay them? What does your contract say? That will become very relevant.

I haven’t paid them. It’s a flooring company. They are still working.
I’m having to repaint entire bathrooms from the demo they did too.
Is there a way around the schluter edging? I am just so sad with the outcome and not what would look better here. It’s my first remodle

*remodel

Those corner cuts are pretty pathetic. Beveled tile is tricky because you have to align the schluter with the face of the tile or the beveled part of the tile- neither is perfect. They seemed to do both here. Sloppy and Ill planned. The idea of using schluter here is fine- there are no great edge solutions with beveled tile.

What would ask to be fixed here? I don’t want to seem unreasonable but this is a custom home. To me it should look as an expert did it

I'd be really disappointed and not pay them for such a poorly executed job. It can and should look really neat and tidy.

Hallet and Co, can I also ask, is it normal to have to repaint an entire bathroom when tile has been demoed? The walls are filthy in my daughters bathroom I just had painted over the summer.

I'm sorry this is happening. Who is the General Contractor? Do you have a designer working as the GC? A custom home usually Has MUCH HIGHER tile install quality than that. Much much higher. In fact the install is so bad I thought this was a house from the 50's that was being updated. Yikes.

To me this screams out: wood floor dudes putting in tile. This is NOT the work of a quality Tile Setter. Not by a long shot.

You will speak with the General Contractor - not the installers. This is a redo...which brings us to the water proofing etc. The quality on the outside (the pretty stuff) is often the quality (or lack there of) of the inside.

As for the typos - that's easily fixed. Go to your post and look down at the bottom. You will see an option called 'edit'. Click on it. It allows you to edit your post. I use it all the time!

Your comment made me sad this is a bathroom I have saved for for a long time. Maybe you could provide some constructive criticism so I know what to ask them to fix.

Sara:

It's ugly, wrong, they know it, and how to fix it.

OK...first things first. Is this a NEW BUILD? Or is this a renovation of a custom home? Who is the General Contractor??

Do you have in-process photos? Like during the 'down to the studs' photos right up to the tile 1/2 way installed?

Lets start at the beginning. Load more photos and answer the questions. We can offer up constructive (construction...;-) advice from there.

One way to help you focus on 'what to ask' the GC is to 'blue tape' every single issue you have with the tile. We call this the knock off list. This is what MUST be corrected before payment is made. You take a photo of the room (not close ups...but room shots as best as possible).

You can do this for us...so that you have the photos READY for the conversation with the GC. Think of Houzz as your preparation for your GC presentation.

Here are some pictures when they finished the tile work.

A few more

This was a complete gut/remodel. My cabinet guy did the demo for me.

A few more

oh my. so sorry for you The glob of caulking behind the tub or sink?? WTH?

a flooring company is hiring the tile installers?? why?

what's the background on this remodel? is there a GC involved?

to answer your question, it's a very poor install and I wouldn't pay one dime for it.

this is lazy, poor tile install, and very bad clean up. NO WAY I"D PAY FOR THIS

this is ridiculous. look at the right side against the Schluter. shouldn't be like that w/the grout. right arrow

the top arrows. what is all this rough portion? was the wall like this before they started?

beveled tile is difficult to grout because it needs to be wiped clean down to the joint. they've left the grout in the beveled portion.

this is a properly done Schluter edge. look at the difference

the problem w/beveled tiles on the end is the gap you'll have

properly grouted beveled subway tiles

here's some other options

any pictures of how the shower was waterproofed?

Yes, you can see the hardy backer and how they painted it green above.

Sigh...Durarock/fiber rock/cement backer board is NOT water proof. It must have a treatment of water proofing either:

A. Over TOP of the backer board (often coloured red); or

B. BEHIND the cement board (should look like plastic...because it is!)

I'm not 'seeing' either...but these photos are well before the tile. Do you have any photos of the 'in progress tiling'? If we see photos of the wall with 1/2 of the tile on and there is NO RED showing then we KNOW this is a HUGE issue.

Another question: is this bathroom on concrete? As in on a slab foundation?

If it is, I'm seeing 'wood' touching 'cement' on the floor. That's generally a no-no. Raw wood should never sit direction on concrete. Ever. This is 'Builder 101'.

I'm also seeing reused timber (the 'white' strip of lumber facing the pony wall of the shower. Why? And then there is the framing. Oh the framing. Again I'm seeing wood on concrete. Nothing is square. I'm seeing gaps between the timber...they aren't tight...like you would expect from a framing job.

Are the shower cubbies sloped so that water will run OUT of the cubby towards the floor? If not, this is a complete redo. Is the pony wall sloped? Just a snick? Towards the shower drain?

And the shower pan - did they do a flood test? Do the marble tiles look 'damp' long after the water drains from the shower (like 4-5 hours later)?

Without proof of water proofing, you possible have a complete redo. I know. That is horrifying. You have not paid 'the dude' (this is NOT a pro...no way no how!). Good. You have tremendous bargaining power.

Take a breath. Find out WHO hired the people for the bath? Was it you??? Was it a GC??? This is very important. Who hired the bathroom guy?

so they waterproofed the cement board. that's fine. (is that the green stuff? waterproofing membrane?) However, I see a bunch of other red flags.

these large gaps should have been taped and mortared.

grout cleanup on the pennys and the other tiles is horrendous

what is going on here?? why isn't the faucet flush, and what is all the goop?

do you know if your shower pan was presloped? before the tile and the PVC liner went on, was it properly sloped to 1/4" per foot?

what about the drain, weep holes, etc? If you have an issue w/that marble tile staying dark in spots, that will be the reason. improper slope. put a level on your floor from one wall to the other wall. how much slope do you see?

Your pony wall. I see a piece of wood. did they simply set that top piece on raw wood?

is it sloped? the finished piece? put a level on that too. should be sloped toward the drain.

this was my pony wall. it has tar paper and then mud. on the top, it also has mud/cement board to protect the raw wood. They should have topped yours with the cement board and waterproofed it

what's going on here?
I'm also noticed that non of the joints or screw holes were taped. do you know if that was done?

hopefully the valve area around this gaping hole is properly set and caulked. Caulking should be in all of the joints in the corners, floors. 100% silicone caulk. NOT grout. no grout ever in the vertical corners or gap between floor and first row of tiles.

This was a pic of mine when they did the Schluter. I'm not quite sure why yours is done in pieces? it should be set and then tiled around it. not tiled first

I think the green paint is the water proofing membrane. The general contractor is southern floors. They send the tile crews.

Sara, did you read my last comment? I've posted some other concerns.

Their lack of detail and clean up are but one of many issues

Beth, I think the green paint is the water membrane and the hardy backer is water proof.
We are outside of city limits, so there are no permits required.

as for the tile layout. not the best. (this is just the tile layout. everything else mentioned above is for under the tile. that's an entirely separate issue that should be discussed with whomever is in charge of these guys)

tile should be symmetrical on both sides. looking at the back wall, the tiles on the outer edge are a diff width than the tiles on the inside corner. And those also get smaller as you go down. The wall was out of plumb. and their layout should have compensated for that.

the tiles around the niche are also a mess. lower niche, left circle. the tile layout is incorrect. look closely.

middle niche. Their lack of planning gave you tiny sliver cut tiles at the top of the niche. didn't happen to the other two. the middle one, bad planning. and the cut tiles on the left side of the niche don't match the cuts on the right side. again, poor planning and layout.

and of course the way they cut and set the Schluter is really bad. you shouldn't see all that grout w/those metal edges.

bottom arrow. they grouted this joint line. no grout in change of plane joints. grout isn't waterproof. most of your water seepage will come from the floor joints. it has to be sealed w/silicone caulking.

I'm also wondering why a solid piece wasn't used for your curb. again, the curb gets lots of water. those grout joints will absorb water, and bevel tiles will not make a complete seal w/the bottom of the shower door.

i''ve already mentioned the pony wall, above. and I've touched on the lack of taping and mudding on the joints in the cement board.

you can address all of the concerns w/your GC.

permits and inspection are to protect the homeowner from shoddy workers. You have some issues in the shower that may affect you further down the line

were the niches and vertical corners (and all seams) ever taped like this? over the tape goes the mortar

all those joint seams above your tub and around your shower, should all have that mesh tape, and then look something like this after it's 'mudded' with mortar.

this seals the seams so that water won't penetrate.

If you want more detailed guidance, I suggest to head over to JohnBridge Tile forum, (only takes 10 seconds to register) and go to the tile forum/Advice heading. . they have the best tile pros on that site. post the pictures with your concerns. then see what they write. They are going to ask about the shower pan though. try and have the info so you can include that.

https://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php

Worse than absorbing water that curb will leak since the shower door sweep can’t seal to the tile due to the bevels. There doesn’t appear to be any waterproofing under the wall cap either. sigh The entire tile job is a mess, ripping out enough tile to fix the schluter will destroy the waterproofing.

To me this is looking more and more like a tear down/start over. I'm so sorry but none of this is up to snuff.

Permits are normally required for plumbing and electrical.

Why are you having a flooring company install tile ???

I'm not even a pro and I can tell they didn't know what they were doing with the penny tile installation either. Your from the doorway photo shows an obvious grid so there doesn't appear to be any staggering of the penny tile sheets. I can only imagine your distress.

I’m so sorry you’re going through and I’m right in the middle of it too! But this is a horrible job!! Do not pay one cent until it gets fixed. I would only use them to re tear it out And hire someone else!!! This is fu^*ing insane. How did we hear this cost $50k? What’s with the bottom niche? Looks ridiculous

And tearing out tile is a big mess, especially if previous job was chicken wire etc. so having to repaint after that would not be surprising. You need to carefully read Beth H.‘s comments. She’s addressing every problem you have. Quit feeling sad and go after these morons!! Flooring guys doing tile should’ve been your first clue

“Permits are normally required for plumbing and electrical.”

I live in a township where I don’t need a permit for anything. It is completely unzoned.

Regardless if required permits, these guys don’t know what they re doing and I can’t believe you have to ask what’s wrong to give them constructive crtiticism!

I'm sorry this is happening to you. This happened to me a couple years ago. So I recommend you do the following:

1. Tell the contractor (whoever hired the tile people) to stop work and schedule sit-down meeting. Make the meeting be something like Friday so that you have some time to prepare. Do this communication by email.

(Do every single syllable of communication by email from now on. Nothing verbal. If any verbal words are exchanged, confirm them by a follow-up email confirming your understanding of what at was said/planned/promised/agreed, and ask for confirmation in the email.)

1. Get ready for your meeting: Document your understanding of everything that was done wrong. Put all the blue tape all over in the bathroom. You can download an online version of the TCNA handbook here:

https://www.tcnatile.com/products-and-services/publications/218-english-publications/188-handbook.html

It's a manual of industry standards for tile. It's less than $40. It also includes information about waterproofing. It's long, but you don't have to read the whole thing. Read the introduction (about 50 pages) and the stand-alone shower sections. You can skip all the other parts such as swimming pools, etc. Read about waterproofing and tiling on this forum and on the John Bridge forum.

You need support for the meeting. Ask someone (a spouse, adult child, friend, neighbor) to attend the meeting with you as your support person and as a note-taker.

Create your list of questions/concerns. Make them open ended and a bit broad, such as "How did you waterproof my shower?" "Do you have your TCNA manual with you; can you show me in there what method you used?" (probably he doesn't know what this is) "Why does the tile look so messy?" "What is your plan to fix all the problems?" Let the contractor talk and make sure your note-taker writes everything down. Don't interrupt of start arguing with the contractor. Always stay business like and calm. If the contractor gets upset that's his problem.

1. Have the meeting. If they don't show up, send an email inquiring why. Go through your whole list of questions/concerns. If the contractor gets off track, always come back to the important question: "What is your plan to fix all the problems?" If the contractor gets upset, says things like "You're too picky", "We've never had a complaint before", or "You're too hard to please" ask them to stay on track regarding the sub-par work. If the contractor yells at you, stands up or starts pacing around (happened to me), ask them to stop yelling at you in your home and tell them to take a minute and let you know when they are ready to proceed calmly. If, through your research and the contractor's answers, you are reasonably convinced that the waterproofing was done wrong, and/or the tile mess can't be fixed without compromising the waterproofing, ask the contractor to re-demo and start all over with a new, qualified, certified and experienced tile professional in charge. Your contractor doesn't change; you don't pay more; this is on the contractor's dime. If they say anything about you paying more, or making a payment now, say that you don't feel that that is reasonable given the problems so far, but that you look forward to the new, competent crew, and if the work is truly professional you don't foresee any reason why full payment would not be reasonable at the end of the project.

They will either agree to redo it or not; or they might want more time to think about their plan over the weekend, etc, etc. You might not get a definitive yes or no during the meeting. In our meeting (which was on a Friday), the contractor went off the rails several times saying we should hire someone else to re-do the shower and they would just finish the rest of the bathroom; that they didn't want to touch the shower anymore. DH kept bringing them back to "We hired you to complete the whole project and we trust that you will be able to figure out a plan to fix the waterproofing; so what do you think you will do?"...stuff like that happened 4 or 5 times. At the end of the meeting the only agreement was that they were going to work on their plan over the weekend and would contact us on Monday. After the meeting we confirmed this understanding by email.

1. After the meeting, send an email with a general summary of the meeting, based on the notes, and re-cap any agreements, quitting, or what you perceive as the result of the meeting. Keep all your language business-like and clear.

They might have agreed to re-do with a new, competent crew. Great! In your email, express how please you are at their business like approach to these waterproofing and tile problems. Say something like "We look forward to seeing you and the new tile crew on Monday for the re-demoing and starting fresh on the project. Have a nice weekend."

They might flat our refuse and get mad at you (refer to the yelling comments above). If they flat out refuse, say "Oh my; so you are quitting the project?" After the meeting, confirm this by email.

They might have huffed off, in which case you also confirm that my email. Something like "We were disappointed that you left our meeting this morning without letting us know what the plan is to fix all the waterproofing and tile problems on our bathroom project. After you have some time to thing about the project, please let us know how you plan to proceed. If this means you are quitting the project, please let us know right away so that we can start the process of hiring a new contractor. Hope to hear form you on Monday..."

1. After the meeting, whatever the conclusion was, post the contractors answers here and/or on John Bridge where I hope you will get continued support from the pros on the forums.

In our case, the contractor wanted to think over the weekend and then they quit by email on Monday. We had to start over. Months later they later sued us saying that we fired them illegally. We had no choice but to respond. It went to District Court where we were awarded ALL our money back plus extra for materials that they ruined. Why did the judge award to us? Because ALL communication with the contractor was done by email, and the judge could clearly see that they quit; she threw out their suit and award us everything that we put in our counter suit. Another huge reason is because our new tile pro, who is an experienced, over-qualified, certified pro, testified as an expert witness about all the things done wrong by the quit-GC. And don't be scared - we did all the legal stuff ourselves. It's not as hard as everyone thinks.

Again, I'm really sorry this is happening to you. We also live in a Wild Wild West area (North of Houston) and the township doesn't care what anyone does in their house. You could string extension cords all over the house for every single thing, put an outhouse inside your bathroom, install a firepole in place of your staircase, and no one would care til you sell the house and finally an inspector comes inside.