I renovated a bathroom 2 years ago and I was delighted with it. A pipe burst under that room recently and it had to be ripped out. The same contractor was no longer in the business so I used the person he had sold the company to. I asked them to put the shower back exactly the same as it was, with two exceptions. Adjust the height of the niche shelf slightly, and use Alabaster grout instead of white so that I wouldn’t have to struggle to keep the grout clean. I am feeling sick about how the shower turned out. So many issues that really bother me. Am I being ridiculous?
1). Grout is way darker than sample and uneven in color. Mapei came to look at it and determined the grout was overwatered. Grout appears to have holidays, cracks and pinholes, as well as looking sloppy compared to the original job.

2. The tiles were not put up in the same pattern as before (1/3 overlap). I guess the tiler decided to change my design, in some places overlapping 1/4 and other 1/2. Nowhere 1/3 like it should have been. Contractor thinks it looks nice. I don’t, and it isn’t the design I asked for.

3. Tiles are not all flat. Contractor replied that it’s less than 1/16” off and that it meets requirements. I held a dime up to it and in multiple places it seems off by a dime thickness or more. It’s quite visible with the naked eye.

4. Small tile slivers in the corner look terrible. Previously the contractor didn’t cut any slivers like that. This tiler extended the shower tiles an extra 1.5” into the room. Not only does that make my shower curtain hit the train rack over toilet, it left small slivers in the corner. Even with white grout that would not look right. With the Alabaster grout (actually turned out dark gray,) it looks horrible to me.

5. The pattern with the brick tiles was previously centered on the grout lines for large tiles. Since they changed the spacing of the large tiles, the grout lines don’t line up but don’t hit the center of the tile. And isn’t even even on both sides.

5). Behind the door they grouted, which is fine, but they filled the grout out all the way to the doorframe (very thick) which seems unusual and is already cracking.

There is probably more, but this gives you the idea. After agonizing about it, I emailed him about a number of the items and his attitude was telling. He is willing to chip out the grout “in a few select places” where he says it was discolored due to overwatering. In my opinion most places are the wrong color! A few select places look close to the Alabaster grout stick. I’m very concerned that the grout color will never look even if he just chips out a few places and that it won’t hold up over time because it was overwatered and not properly durable. (How will he decide anyway which few select areas he’s going to replace? )

We are meeting with him at noon tomorrow (Monday). If anyone has thoughts or advice I would appreciate your comments. It’s very hard for me to tell someone I’m unhappy with their work, and I feel bad to ask them to rip it all out, but even if they fix the grout the tile design is not what I asked for. Ugh. I feel sick when I look at it. If they decided they wanted to tile the pattern differently I think they should have discussed with me first to see if I agreed! If I had realized that were going to be sloppy, I would have chosen white grout. It is definitely more forgiving. My first renovation went so smoothly I didn’t realize it was an anomaly. I can only figure out how to attach 4 pictures. Can I show more? Sorry, my first post ever.