tile install - outlet crooked and other issues

last year

Just had Cloe white tile installed, but our contractor did not plan well and when he went to put the light sockets back and realized the boxes were broken and I guess the past owner messed them up somehow now it’s a bit too late to replace them… He was befuddled on what to do and left with them in disrepair saying he’d come back with an electrician…. not our problem, he should have noticed when he took the boxes off!

We hired our handyman who is an expert electrician to come and fix them, and while he did his best to get the outlets flush with the wall....one of the boxes is crooked…. It makes me really sad because we spent eight grand getting a new counters, hidden hinges, tile, backsplash, and a few other things updated and now we have a janky electrical socket!

In addition the Cloe jolly tile installed by the window looks pretty bad and was not joining up evenly and has already chipped…Plus there are bubbles in the grout installed along the seam were the countertop meets the tile!

How big a deal are these things to fix? Need to be prepared when I ask contractor to fix them! He still hasn’t come back to fix the wall texturizing in the areas where we adjusted the backsplash to match up with the cabinet!

Featured Answer

M Miller

last year

last modified: last year

@Ann Crisp - the regulars on this forum know that is @Lomo's M.O. - to criticize the homeowner for not spending $100k on a kitchen, and to project assumptions onto them. In any case, for the problems at hand, just to be clear, typically a handyman is not a licensed electrician. If they were, they'd be an electrician full time, not a handyman. It depends on your state, but in general, a licensed electrician must have completed an approved 2-year program in the electrical trade, and then apprentice with a master electrician for 4 years. From what you have said, it looks like your General Contractor did not bother to use a licensed electrician the way he should have as part of the project. It is up to you to hire one. You can look on Angi's list, or your local Yelp to see reviews of local licensed electricians.

When my receptacles were installed in the backsplash, the house's masonry was just behind the backer board, and so the receptacle boxes would not fit. The electrician had to painstakingly chip away at the masonry for each receptacle box in order to get them to fit. I am not at all saying that is your issue with that one receptacle - it's just that you need more than a handyman to address it.

Regarding the tile work, I always advise on this forum - as this issue comes up many times - never to use the GC's tiler. Always delete the backsplash tile from the project's Scope of Work, and separately hire a tiler yourself. The reason for this is that when you hire a tiler yourself, you know that is what they do 100% of their time. Often a GC's tiler is part of the crew and has done some tilework here and there in the past, that is all. I realize it is too late for you, but it's just so you know your next steps. Your Cloe tile is characterized by its irregular, more handmade-looking appearance. That makes it harder to install than a consistent exactly rectangular tile. It needs a better installer. You can get the GC to come back and make corrections. But you can't be sure that their expertise is just not up to it. Hard to know. If you find that is the problem, you will have to hire a tiler yourself to make corrections.

A "change of plane" means the joint where the vertical backsplash meets the horizontal counter. It's not only a change in plane, but a change in materials and those material move at different rates. That joint will always have movement. Tilers address that movement by using caulk in that joint, not the grout that is in the rest of the backsplash. Caulk is a flexible material.

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Comments (12)

Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
Just to clarify, We actually hired a general contractor who subbed out the tile we did not expect the tiler to notice, but our general contractor who took the electrical outlets off before the backsplash was installed
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Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
And we just had the Handyman put the electrical outlets back on because our general contractor couldn’t figure out how to do it
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Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
Could you clarify what you mean by a change of plane? I was posting to get help and I didn’t expect to get criticized for hiring what I thought was a decent contractor with an established business
palimpsest
last year
You can actually straighten up outlets and switches a fair bit even if the box is crooked. The fixture is attached to the box with the screws going though elongated, not round, holes. Sometimes it is the wiring in the box, which tends to push the outlet or switch out of alignment, so you have to unscrew it completely from the box, and fiddle with the wire a bit and tuck it back into the box a bit differently than it was in there. Turn the power off when you do this.

A "change of plane" is that joint you are talking about between the vertical backsplash and the horizontal countertop. The bubbled area looks like caulk. Maybe it just needs more.

Unless the tile comes with a rounded end mud cap that matches the large bullnose tile (aka mudcap when it's this big), when turning a corner like that, I miter is the only option, I think.

Most tile lines do Not come with trim pieces like this.
Ann Crisp thanked palimpsest
Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
@M Miller…. thank you for your thorough response and your explanation of the other posters bad attitude!
Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
@ thankfully, we only did the kitchen this time, and will know for next time to use an expert tile person… Unfortunately, we had a couple estimates for other tiling projects and could have used one of our Tile people, but trusted our GC!
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Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
&palimpsest thankful for your response!
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Dave
last year
Should be easy to straighten that. take off the cover plate and losen one of the outlet screws and push the outlet in or out to get it straight.
bry911
last year
The outlets are an easy fix, the outlet likely just needs to be adjusted, but it is not difficult to pull and replace a box.

The grout or caulk pulling away from the wall tile is an even easier fix.

The tile by the window is always going to have problems because you have a 90 degree joint over a rounded corner. Take a picture from farther back, many great tile jobs look questionable from 12” away.
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Ann Crisp thanked bry911
Ann Crisp
Original Author
last year
The lighting is not great but here are the two corners by the window… They don’t seem evenly matched up and there’s not grout fill in the space so there’s a big sharp edge on at least two of the tiles and the corner of one of the tiles is chipped off…
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HU-574454193
last year
last modified: last year
That just needs caulked and the wall repaired. All of those corners should be caulked.

tile install - outlet crooked and other issues

M Miller

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tile install - outlet crooked and other issues

M Miller

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Ann CrispOriginal Author

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