Pic of the WORST tile job?

[gueuzeman]

Bill, good to know you worked there. I was thinkin' it's kind creepy how you got pictures of our hotel room......

gueuze

[rocjr]

Hello All,

Last year a tile pal gives me a call. Sez he has a nice job in a nice town, and that I should come along because he has a feeling there will be something there for me. Great. So, we get there, meet the couple, then take a walk into the master bedroom. When we finally walk in to the bath I'm stunned. It's all brand new. 12' x 14' with an alcove for a toilet and another for a Bain Ultra air tub. A serious hardwood vanity with exotic carvings fitted with a pretty granite counter. Top of the line stuff. Slate floors and full wrap on the walls.

The thing was, this was the most unbelievable disaster of a stone install I'd ever seen. So bad in fact that I was speechless.

When we first walked in I said nothing. Neither did anyone else. They just stood there watching me look around. After about a minute, I held stare with them and they finally asked the question: What do you think? My pal was standing behind them. He was clearly biting his cheeks trying not to bust out. For a minute I actually thought I was on candid camera. This installation truly went beyond bad into bizarre.

On top of the fact that you could trip over many of the tiles, there was a heavy grey glaze on all of the stone. Huge gaps in spots. You name it.

When I finally did ask them if I was on candid camera, I really did, they smiled and said no, and asked me what I thought. I was honest. There was simply nothing salvageable except for the accessories. Even the miters on the door casing looked like they were done with a chainsaw.

The reason for the grey caked on haze was that the guy grouted with unsanded poly grout and didn't wipe it. He actually told the homeowner that he'd do it the next day. After they kicked him out, they spent $400 trying to get it acid washed. That stone mason told them that he thought that it all had to go.

Anyway, during the rip out we found many whacky things. One is what's shown in the photos. This is a 4' x 6' two curb shower stall. This guy's approach to a shower pan was to simply lay the liner on the subfloor, nail two sides to the wall studs about 2" higher than the pan on one side, a few inches higher on the other, then roll a 2" X 4" around the short side. The 6' run was simply pan height butted against stacked 2" x 4"s lined with Durock.
Nails at tile height. No preslope. Silicone in the weepholes. On and on. They're lucky they never ran the shower, or wet tested it. Their antique dining room set below would've been kindling. There was so much more that was wrong with this installation. There's really no such thing as anything worse. Trust me.

Enjoy!

[Bill Vincent]

I had to redo a steamshower like that years ago for the owners of a lakeside resort up here. They'd had this steamshower for several years when it started going to hell on them, so they called in some schmoe who went ahead and tore the whole thing out put up cement board with not even so much as a vapor barrier, plywood seat with no waterproofing at all, flat bottomed copper pan, and set the tile with mastic. Of course, within the first few times they used the shower, it leaked to the point where the downstairs ceiling caved in on top of a very ornate cherry dining room set (what made me think of it). Unbelieveable, the people who have the audacity to call themselves tile installers. Of course, the resort's maintainer should share a little bit in the blame. When he had me come out and look at it, he never told me it was a steam shower. I noticed the pipe sticking out of the base of the wall and asked him, and his response was "Oh yeah-- it IS a steamshower."

[Gary D]

Unfortunately, I don't have pics, but my neighbors rented house has a white 12x12 ceramic kitchen floor someone tried to set with no grout joint at all. Of course, since the tile isn't exactly same size or square, it goes all over the place. To top it off, there is NO grout in the small joints, just horrible, uneven black shadows...
The landlady who owns the place called me asking if I would do some work there, I just hung up and RAN in the other direction!

[ceramictec]

no pics...yours don't count!

[dhagin]

no wall waterproofing, pan liner fail, nails in liner, bad tile coverage, adjacent underlayment damage, subfloor damage, other bad stuff... sad and very costly.

[Levi the Tile Guy]

Dana, where did you get pictures of my custom work?

[Brian@BC contracting]

Well Dana,at least they didnt skimp on what appears to be a delta mixing valve... sweet Jesus. thats a rough one..

[John K]

Craigslist

[muskymike]

Here is a bath that I just looked at. It was just done, now the HO want's me to tear it out and redo it.

[ceramictec]

[gueuzeman]

Sqeezin' a nickel till Jefferson yells" - Phil Cody

Yikes!

gueuze

EDIT- Big Sexy hair product and Laticrete notepad, lol

[tilelayer]

i had a backsplash to do and there was no way to bring the tile past the outlet, so i should get frowned on too but i made my cuts tighter. I still get nightmares about it.

[muskymike]

Gueuze, the Laticrete note pad was mine but the big hair spray wasn't
I thought those corners were nice.

[madronatile]

Check out the "waterproofing" between the tile and the cement board.

Corrugated cardboard is an approved membrane, right?