I would say it depends on how you feel about the chipped tile being there. Is it going to bug u to no end? I allowed for my backsplash travertine to have flaws, travertine has pits, holes and such in it anyways but not my floor that is porcelain that was installed same time. If you can live with it I bet no one would notice. We are always pickier with our on stuff. At least I am

Go to the owner and put a stop to this crap immediately. Sit down with him, explain everything you've just told me, and let him know that you're not going to accept "thrown together" work just because his installer and salesperson are having a pissing contest, and the installer is pressed for time. The tub REQUIRES either a vapor barrier behind, or waterproofing over, the backerboard. End of story, no questions asked. You will not give him another dime until it's so. You'll also not give him another dime until all work is completed to industry standards, and you've got someone on call with both a TCNA handbook and ASNI 108 and 118 to guide you on what is acceptable and what is not. Tile setter works on installing backer boards since we have no tile. He works maybe 5-6 hours a few days and the bathrooms are ready - minus the shower pans (2). Also, if he's NOT using a surface waterproofing, I'm curious how he's putting up the backerboard BEFORE the shower pan. He started the walls on Monday, starting around the tub from the top down. I would have thought he would start from the tub up? Doesn't matter. Personally, I also prefer to work from a level line down , because I can't count on existing surfaces to be level and plumb, so I'd rather go from a line I KNOW is level, and then cut in the abutting surfaces. However, no matter if you work from the bottom up, or the top down, you KNOW what your pieces are going to be before you start, and make sure you won't have any slivers. You adjust your level line to MAKE SURE you avoid it. As for the 6600.00 for the master bath tile, You'd have to have an incredibly big bathroom with all kinds of custom touches to it, or located in a penthouse across from Central Park West to justify that price to me. But you've agreed to it, so you have to honor it. That IS, however, just one more reason why they should be bowing to any request you make.

Looks like bullnose on an outside corner? Tough to say what would structurally stress an area like that. A shower rod? Good news, it's on the edge of the installation. Removal and repair would not be difficult. And the location minimizes the effective compromising of any waterproofing membrane that might be underneath. Often times cracking of tile occurs on joints. Joints in framing. When new framing settles, or where new framing meets old. Differential movement within the wall. Near the top corner of an exterior window, etc.

jillian, a couple of things: The shower pan is "the floor" of your shower. There should be a waterproofing membrane of some sort under the tile, and it's a code requirement that the waterproof membrane be sloped towards the drain between 1/4" per foot and 1/2" per foot. Now, I'm not talking about the tile itself, which should also be sloped to the drain. In addition to the tile being sloped, the waterproofing membrane needs to be sloped as well. What often happens is installers will pace the membrane flat on the subfloor, then put a sloped layer of what we call "deck mud" on top of the membrane. Nothing at all wrong with deck mud. It's a sand and cement mixture that is fairly porous, so water can percolate through it. Water WILL get past the floor tile and grout. Grout is porous. The water then gets in to the deck mud, just as it is supposed to. It percolates down through the deck mud until it hits the membrane, just as it is supposed to. Once it hits the sloped membrane, the water flows down hill towards the drain and goes out the drain by what we call "weep holes". Weep holes are small passages built into the drain to allow the water to escape the deck mud and eventually go down the drain. Just as it is supposed to! With a sloped membrane, the deck mud may be moist, but it won't be overly saturated and hold water. Now, if your installer put the shower pan membrane flat on the subfloor, when water percolates through the deck mud, it hits the flat membrane and simply sits there. The mud becomes fully saturated. If the bottom edge of the cement board on the walls was covered by deck mud, then the saturated deck mud can wet the wall board, and moisture can slowly wick up the walls, behind the tile. Because it is becoming wet from behind, mold or discoloration can build up BEHIND the glaze. I think one of the nastiest things to do in tiling, or with tile remediation, is to break up and demolish a saturated deck mud shower pan. They can be absolutely nasty. There's primordial ooze in that nasty mud. Anyhow, I tried to give a "nutshell" explanation, my nutshells seem to drag on for a bit. But hopefully this will allow you to better understand a potential issue with your shower. I'm not saying that IS what is wrong, but it's a common issue that presents symptoms similar to the ones you are seeing. Good luck getting it rectified.