YouRockDaddy
02-25-2005, 03:41 AM
Let me set the stage, after a long search, and saying no to a lot of Turkish and Mexican Travertine. I found a place that carried Italian Travertine in a Versailles Pattern, unfilled with a chiseled edge; it was what they call Cappuccino. Beautiful! I paid a premium for it but it was world it. So after putting down my money for 1,150 square feet I was in search of a good installer.
I interviewed 4 installers, and decided to go with a company that had done a nice install for a buddy of mine the previous month. They didn’t cut any corners and did a real nice float install of his 18 in. Travertine honed and filled that he also purchased at the same place. And this installers are the installers that do most of the work for the tile company I was purchasing the stone from.
1.So the install proceeds and planned they stared preparing the floor, (concrete slab) leveling it with some sort of engineered thin-set, then membrane coating, I forget the name but it goes on pink and dries red.
2.Setting goes fine
3.Sealed with Miracle 511 Impregnator
4.Grouting goes OK, (PolyBlend Color Linen 122) but initial cleanup does not seem too good
5.Next day they clean the grout haze with a floor scrubbing machine and seal with Miracle 511 Porous Plus.
6.So two weeks they are finally done. Well not exactly, they had to return the next day and clean up a good bit of haze still on the stone under the sealer, they did this with a razor blade and resealed. I noticed the grout look really white too.
7.The next the company set out some else to look at the grout, and they agreed it did look right. Then over the next 3 days they tried to fix it.
a.First they tried brushes
b.Then they applied unsanded linen grout over white grout explaining that the grout below with suck up the color then they would wipe off the grout. The also did not work.
c.I returned at the end to the day, expected to see then cleaning the grout further. Instead I see they have applied a thin layer of new linen grout over my old grout! But instead of using sanded grout these guy decided to use non-sanded grout. Needless to say I was upset and told then I wanted the same sanded grout I asked for in the first place.
d. The next day I returned to fined they had placed another layer of sanded grout over the non-sanded. While the color seemed better I not longer had the proper depth of the grout and much of that chiseled edge of the stone was hidden by grout.
e. The next day, they returned to clean and seal, I told then not to use the machine thinking this was the source of the grout color problem. They did anyway, and while the new grout did not turn white the machine did rub off much of the newly applied grout. I could not believe they would have sealed it looking as poorly as it did but they did.
f. So the following day, now week three of the product from hell, the grout had three distinct looks, linen sanded, linen none-sanded, and sanded white. At this point I am breathing fire. I stop payment of this last check.
8. I called the guy I hired the supervisor, he comes over and agrees it look really bad. (He’s really a nice guy, and is accommodating and says he will fix it.) But at this point I don’t really have any confidence in him, but he states he will supervise everything personally. He say’s it will take 3 more days. Now into week 4.
9. And to my amazement this guy is going to remove all the grout, 5 guys worked on it for 4 days and got all the grout out even out of the chisel edge. It looks like this guys is going to come through after all.
10. Now he grout, again Polyblend Linen 122. it looks pretty good wet and the initial clean up is much better, the floor is almost clean. That day I tell him, let’s let it dry more that 24hrs this time, and he returns on day two. And before I catch then they had already stated using the machine for the final clean. I stopped them before they got to far. (This is when I still thought the machine was the cause of the problem) I can’t believe they are doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It’s that the definition of insanity!
11. That day nothing really gets done, but the grout is now looking lighter and lighter. He decides to read the back of the grout, and it says something about Grout Haze and suggests cleaners. He says a little acid cleaner will return the grout color. He test and area and it seems to work pretty good. And they leave to dry until the next day.
12. I don’t like the sound of acid on natural stone. This doesn’t should right to me so I decide to do a little research of may own, I find (on this board) that the problem Efflorence.
13. I tell them I read this and that the new grout must dry for 7 days. They come back a few days later, and during that time I call Custom Building Products Tech Support line, and they suggest a non-acid cleaner, then I call Aquamix and they to recommend the same. I print out the various tech documents, and purchase the products for them to use.
14. So I think finally have this under control. New grout, a little white but fixable.
15. They proceed to use the non-acidic cleaner (mixed per the direction on the bottle) and scrub, scrub, scrub. It’s appears to work and they clean the entire floor with it. I leave to return to work. After a couple hours of letting it dry they return to fine some of the white is returning. And this is the point my nightmare became more than a bad dream. This SOB decides he is going to use a little acid.
16. I return home this evening at 9:00 pm to find the floor a little sticky under foot. My wife notices a stone at the entry looks light and cloudy, after further inspection I find 30 more like it, and many of the darker stone are now even darker than before. They seem cloudy and much higher contrast darker darks and lighter lights, my beautiful Italian creamy stone is now significantly least attractive. (Time: 5 ½ weeks)
This SOB as now F up my stone. (And the grout is still white)
So what do I do?
Should I sue this company?
Should I make them pay to have someone else repair the stone, if I can be repaired?
Should I have every last stone chipped out?
What is my recourse?
Should I just kill myself because I hired the worst tile guys on the planet? :bang:
I interviewed 4 installers, and decided to go with a company that had done a nice install for a buddy of mine the previous month. They didn’t cut any corners and did a real nice float install of his 18 in. Travertine honed and filled that he also purchased at the same place. And this installers are the installers that do most of the work for the tile company I was purchasing the stone from.
1.So the install proceeds and planned they stared preparing the floor, (concrete slab) leveling it with some sort of engineered thin-set, then membrane coating, I forget the name but it goes on pink and dries red.
2.Setting goes fine
3.Sealed with Miracle 511 Impregnator
4.Grouting goes OK, (PolyBlend Color Linen 122) but initial cleanup does not seem too good
5.Next day they clean the grout haze with a floor scrubbing machine and seal with Miracle 511 Porous Plus.
6.So two weeks they are finally done. Well not exactly, they had to return the next day and clean up a good bit of haze still on the stone under the sealer, they did this with a razor blade and resealed. I noticed the grout look really white too.
7.The next the company set out some else to look at the grout, and they agreed it did look right. Then over the next 3 days they tried to fix it.
a.First they tried brushes
b.Then they applied unsanded linen grout over white grout explaining that the grout below with suck up the color then they would wipe off the grout. The also did not work.
c.I returned at the end to the day, expected to see then cleaning the grout further. Instead I see they have applied a thin layer of new linen grout over my old grout! But instead of using sanded grout these guy decided to use non-sanded grout. Needless to say I was upset and told then I wanted the same sanded grout I asked for in the first place.
d. The next day I returned to fined they had placed another layer of sanded grout over the non-sanded. While the color seemed better I not longer had the proper depth of the grout and much of that chiseled edge of the stone was hidden by grout.
e. The next day, they returned to clean and seal, I told then not to use the machine thinking this was the source of the grout color problem. They did anyway, and while the new grout did not turn white the machine did rub off much of the newly applied grout. I could not believe they would have sealed it looking as poorly as it did but they did.
f. So the following day, now week three of the product from hell, the grout had three distinct looks, linen sanded, linen none-sanded, and sanded white. At this point I am breathing fire. I stop payment of this last check.
8. I called the guy I hired the supervisor, he comes over and agrees it look really bad. (He’s really a nice guy, and is accommodating and says he will fix it.) But at this point I don’t really have any confidence in him, but he states he will supervise everything personally. He say’s it will take 3 more days. Now into week 4.
9. And to my amazement this guy is going to remove all the grout, 5 guys worked on it for 4 days and got all the grout out even out of the chisel edge. It looks like this guys is going to come through after all.
10. Now he grout, again Polyblend Linen 122. it looks pretty good wet and the initial clean up is much better, the floor is almost clean. That day I tell him, let’s let it dry more that 24hrs this time, and he returns on day two. And before I catch then they had already stated using the machine for the final clean. I stopped them before they got to far. (This is when I still thought the machine was the cause of the problem) I can’t believe they are doing the same thing and expecting a different result. It’s that the definition of insanity!
11. That day nothing really gets done, but the grout is now looking lighter and lighter. He decides to read the back of the grout, and it says something about Grout Haze and suggests cleaners. He says a little acid cleaner will return the grout color. He test and area and it seems to work pretty good. And they leave to dry until the next day.
12. I don’t like the sound of acid on natural stone. This doesn’t should right to me so I decide to do a little research of may own, I find (on this board) that the problem Efflorence.
13. I tell them I read this and that the new grout must dry for 7 days. They come back a few days later, and during that time I call Custom Building Products Tech Support line, and they suggest a non-acid cleaner, then I call Aquamix and they to recommend the same. I print out the various tech documents, and purchase the products for them to use.
14. So I think finally have this under control. New grout, a little white but fixable.
15. They proceed to use the non-acidic cleaner (mixed per the direction on the bottle) and scrub, scrub, scrub. It’s appears to work and they clean the entire floor with it. I leave to return to work. After a couple hours of letting it dry they return to fine some of the white is returning. And this is the point my nightmare became more than a bad dream. This SOB decides he is going to use a little acid.
16. I return home this evening at 9:00 pm to find the floor a little sticky under foot. My wife notices a stone at the entry looks light and cloudy, after further inspection I find 30 more like it, and many of the darker stone are now even darker than before. They seem cloudy and much higher contrast darker darks and lighter lights, my beautiful Italian creamy stone is now significantly least attractive. (Time: 5 ½ weeks)
This SOB as now F up my stone. (And the grout is still white)
So what do I do?
Should I sue this company?
Should I make them pay to have someone else repair the stone, if I can be repaired?
Should I have every last stone chipped out?
What is my recourse?
Should I just kill myself because I hired the worst tile guys on the planet? :bang: