Absolute worst tile finishing job

[pitterpat]

Folks I looked at the absolutely WORST tile finish job today. Got a call from a guy and he said that he didn't think the guy that did the work did it right. Anyway I went to look at it and the guy that tiled this house did the ABSOLUTEY WORST tile finishing job that I have ever seen.

Walked in the house and the 1st problem was the entry, the tile looked ok but the guy did not take up the qtr rnd when he tiled and tiled right up to it and then grouted the tile to the qtr rnd. He did that in every room that he tiled (kitchen, hall bathroom, master bathroom and laundry room)and he did not even get all of the grout wiped up. To make matters worse he didn't even put down the correct color grout. Also in the master bathroom he left a bucket of grout, did not wipe up all the grout (like in the closet) , so I will have to use some grout remover to get that grout up.

For the qtr rnd the best I can do is to chip out all of the grout and thinset from the qtr rnd (which is really shoe molding) and put in the largest qtr rnd that I can find. I told the customer that there would be some places that I would not be able to cover the gap w/ the new qtr rnd but I would do the best I could.

For the wrong color grout I'm going to color some of it and in the entry way take out that grout because it was not very hard anyway and put in the correct color.


Here's some pictures, sorry for the size, had to use came from my cell phone.

This guy was a total finisher looser.....there's also some drywall tht I have to finish

[pitterpat]

Everything the guy did he did could not finish it properly. Have to put a threshold between the kithen tile and the fam room wood floor. This guy was a real hack. As you can see in one of the opictures, when came back to scratch out the grout to change the color he cut into the threshold between the tile and the wood floor

More pictures

[dbol]

Pat,
I can see the "jitters" in his wipes on the grout. the bar was opening at noon and all of contacts would be there. He could not miss out on future work.

[John Bridge]

Pat, you're gonna hafta start bringing your camera with you. The cell phone ain't quite doin' it.

[pitterpat]

I know that cell phone camera sucks!! My main camera is in the shop "warranty" repair. Been in the shop for 3 wks, what a bummer. My other camera is big and bulky and I got spoiled on the one I can carry in my pocket. I'm sure I'll get this job.....don't I always get these crappy ones, ha, ha, ha. I'll take pictures when I start the job.

There's about 200 LF of qtr rnd to replace. Which means there is about 200 LF of grout to chunk out, yuck!!!

[Tool Guy - Kg]

It could be worse. I used to have a Sony Mavica. I think it was the first digital camera ever. Prolly, 5" x 5" x 1 1/2" thick. The thing actually had a slot for a 3 1/2" floppy disk to slide it! I gave it away...not sure they appreciated it, though. What a piece that was.

[pitterpat]

Kurt, When I used to work @ UPS we had those things.

[opiethetileman]

Pat if you are cutting out the quater round that is put down now. Go get the bosh flush cut saw and use that it will save ya lots of time.

[bctile601]

Rather than scratching out the wrong color grout, why not color the grout with a colorant / sealer ? Easy to do.

[pitterpat]

Opie,

How will that saw help me....I'm not sure how to use it on the qtr rnd. Do I slip the blade between the trim and the qtr rnd or 2. do I slip the blade between the qtr rnd and the floor? Thanks.

Brian, I will color some of the grout but the grout in the entry he did such a bad job of it, it needs to be taken out. The grout in the entry was so bad I could scratch it out w/ my pocket knife.

[bctile601]

Given all of the issues you have raised about how the gentleman ' finished ' the tile jobs, this concerns me as to how he installed the tile. I would not want to spend a good amount of money to have somebody hack in a tile job, only to leave more work to be done and more cost , BUT I also would not want to cut any other corners at this point and would strongly be considering removal of the entire project and begining from scratch with a new product and reputable contractor.

[guitarsman]

Hi Pat. I've seen a lot of your posts and you do get the tough ones. How are you going to dig out the grout? I use a Dremmel with the grout removing kit, it works fast .

[John Bridge]

Kurt, I've still got my Mavica. Thing cost a thousand dollars when it was new. It's to expensive to just give away.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

I give you 2 bits for it.....my final offer. I'll send it to Opie for target practice.

[pitterpat]

Phil,

I'll use my Fein Tools Multimaster w/ diamond blade; it vibrates and does not create a lot of dust.

John & Kurt,
Just got off the phone w/ Cannon repair, mins., and they don't know when the part is coming in to repair the camera. The call got escalated all the way from cust svc, to ops mgr, to cust relations. Final outcome from cust. relations is that if by tomorrow he does not know when the part will be in he will order me a new camera (order camera from Chicago or CA, it goes to Va, then he sends it to me in Indy). Doesn't it make more sense to just order from CA or Chicago and have them send it to me? . That's what I told him....also I told him I know that his hands are tied and he just has to do what he is told, not use common sense.

Pat