What do you think of this and can it be fixed?

[CoJ]

I had someone come and do a project involving engineered wood that meets a ceramic tile and I think the transition just looks terrible. The schluter is all off kilter and the way the wood was cut looks crappy in my opinion. Maybe I'm just being too picky but this doesn't scream "quality" to me.

If I came to you and hired you to fix it what would you do?

 

[Mark Brown]

Yeah that definitely looks terrible, more so because it is so up close, bit that would look bad far away too. That fellow was set up for failure if that tile edge was already installed but they sure didn't help themselves.

There is no good fix other than to do it over again.... or use an overlay but that isn't the same thing....

ewwww.

was the tile edge already installed I assume? Best case would be to raise the hardwood up a hair and cut it pretty but it's too late for that

 

[CoJ]

Yep the tile edge was already installed. It is about a 6x6 pad that a wood stove sits on in the living room. We had one company do the whole thing but they had their tile crew come first and then the wood guys came a month later. There was really no communication between the teams and they made all these cuts "on the fly" by hand with an oscillating saw and they just weren't careful.

The rest of the wood floor looks really good but I'm just not happy with how this edge looks at all.

 

[Mark Brown]

No, I wouldn't be happy either.....
It needs to be redone, there is nothing more to really say. The fact that the same company did it makes me really wonder because I would have rejected that schluter too. There really isnt anything a guy can do to make those lines work with wood when they do not work in the metal, don't get me wrong, it could sure look a lot better than that, but holy hell that is just a mess.

There are two viable options available, that is to redo it all which probably will be an uphill battle, or to use an overlay.

Does the tile stick up over the metal all over the place or am I just seeing things, and is the grout already falling out or again, seeing things=?

 

[CoJ]

Yeah there are a couple spots with uneven height, it looks worse in the pictures than it is but the grout is definitely already falling out. The owner of the company is giving me some BS about how he will only consider a discount if I can get another flooring company to put in writing that it doesn't meet NTCA standards. Of course nobody wants to touch that job, I've called every flooring company in town and they won't do it. He is sending the "field manager" next week to replace a tile in a different part of the house and I'm going to give that guy an earful about it...

 

[CoJ]

I should add that I wouldn't necessarily mind an overlay but it needs to be as close to flush as I can get it because I don't want it to be a trip hazard. Do they make some super thin material for this purpose?

 

[Mark Brown]

I can send you a letter in writing from a red seal certified floor covering mechanic that states that all hard joints in tile shall not be filled with grout and shall have elastomeric fillers, that should just about sum it up, and that is from the TCNA, or from schluter that you should buy the right damn trims for your tile height, or that cutting hardwood with a bloody chainsaw is no way to create finishes.

Schluter, on the other hand, knows there are lots of these guys out there and in your particular circumstance they have created the Reno-T. It is an ultra small overlay that can either be installed by removing that grout... you might have enough room, or by cutting the hardwood back.... I have added a link.

https://www.schluter.ca/schluter-ca...-height-Transitions/Schluter®-RENO-T/p/RENO_T

 

[Mark Brown]

Since we are adding things, I might like to add that there is nothing that makes me angrier than tile dummies that use the wrong height trims.... ok there is one thing, tile dummies that use the wrong height trims and then do a piss poor job of actually finishing them. There is a reason they are called FINISHES, there is nothing that comes after and that means everyone will see it forever.

 

[CoJ]

Thank you!! I'm pretty livid about this. As soon as this is all said and done I'm going to make it my life's mission to absolutely roast this joker all over the internet. These photos will be going up everywhere I can think of to put them. All because he is taking a hard stance and says we just have a "difference of opinion" about what looks good.

That Reno-T looks like exactly what I want. Thanks a lot for that link!

 

[Mark Brown]

Its one thing to have a bad day and do a not so great job, for what its worth I have seen a lot worse. The part that always gets me is when people are dismissive of concerns of their clients. Even if I think you are dead wrong and a pain in my ass I will generally pretend to give a hoot about what you think and I might even pretend to try and fix something only to do nothing and try and convince you it is better

I hope that maybe the Reno-T can get you some closure, it is a simple fix for a complicated problem. A problem that if I were taxed with fixing I would go to the ends of the earth to hard sell you on that T so I could get out of the work involved in actually making that tile and the wood right.

 

[CoJ]

Yeah, I hear you and appreciate that. I hate to say it but this guy is going to be sorry he didn't just offer me 500 bucks off the job to cover the cost of hiring someone to fix it. I could probably do the Reno-T myself but the wife has other ideas so I guess I'm in the market for a carpenter or something.

But I'm also the kind of person who wouldn't bat an eye at spending a couple thousand bucks on a front page newspaper ad disparaging a company... I'm just saying

 

[Mark Brown]

I am also that guy, so I can appreciate where you are coming from. I work hard for my money, as I am going to presume you do as well and when I am willing to give it up for a service rendered, I expect that service to be rendered to a satisfactory level. I am not talking like Taj Mahal kinda stuff either here, just some good ol' fashioned honesty in craftsmanship. You did not get that. I mean hell, you cannot finish that edge with some chintzy oscillating tool, that is not what that is for.

Good for you for being that guy!! GO GET EM' TIGER!!!

Wanna tell me why a tile popped?? Got a picture of it?? I bet we can find some examples of what the TCNA would have to say about their methods just by looking at the mortar on the back of it. I do so love a game of to catch a ..... well, I wont say those words here

 

[CoJ]

Oh it didn't pop. Man, the stories I could tell you...

So this company did a whole upper floor for us: bathroom, wood stove, and stairs landing all done in tile. 3 bedrooms of carpet. And the kitchen, hallways, and living room all engineered wood. About $22k worth of work altogether.

Most of it was satisfactory but there were a couple of tiles in the bathroom that were cut poorly and they sent a guy back out to replace them.

So that guy comes and starts hammering on the tiles to break them out, and he is hammering so hard that a candlestick falls off a shelf in the bathroom and lands on a different tile, cracking it. We didn't notice at the time because it's a hairline crack but a couple hours after he left I noticed it. So they're coming back to replace that one and hopefully they don't break anything else.

And that's not even the half of it. The guys who did the wood left little dime-size drops of dried glue EVERYWHERE. Literally dozens of little drops. The Mrs. and I spent about two hours walking around peeling it off the floor. They even managed to splatter some on my walls and we had to sand and repaint the drywall... They were just sloppy from start to finish. Not careful at all.

Lots of little things like that, it just felt like they didn't bother to pay attention to detail. Really disappointing experience.

 

[C.J.]

Hopefully you didn’t pay them in full. Much easier to get dude to agree to fix something if he’s still owed money than it is to try and get money back after the fact.

Sadly this level of crap quality is what is being passed off as acceptable these days. The American standard ain’t as great as everyone thinks it should be.

 

[CoJ]

Oh yeah, I've only paid half. He's crazy if he thinks he's getting the full amount.

 

[Mark Brown]

This is getting interesting. I like a good story.

 

[CoJ]

Lol. I could go on. At one point I had to clean grout off the ceiling. Don't ask me how it got up there, I don't know.

 

[Mark Brown]

LOL!!
You know, personally I have caused all manner of havoc and mayhem in my day but I can honestly say I have never gotten grout on the ceiling, unless of course I was tiling a wall or for that matter the ceiling.

I suppose one could take a small bit of solace in the fact that you had a lot of your home done and there are only a few smaller issues that you are dealing with and not the entirety of the home in shambles. Not that it really helps with the issues that you currently have.

I want to know how a tile cracked because something fell on it. Tile should not crack when installed correctly, just is not a thing. Oh well..... suppose I will never know.

 

[C.J.]

Doesn’t sound like the company you hired is even capable of that kind of fine finish work and what you have just may very well be the best they can do. Hopefully you took plenty of pictures. If push comes to shove those pictures will be very helpful. Communication by email for documentation purposes with pictures attached is also helpful.

I dealt with a crappy paint job that my dad got and I blasted dude on Yelp. He responded and sent another crew out to fix a bunch of stuff. In the end I was satisfied with the fix but unfortunately that’s how it seems to be now. Slam it in and send someone out to polish the turd.

 

[C.J.]

So if dude is gonna hold you to TCNA standards you can hold him to them as well. Take a golf ball and bounce it on every single tile that was installed and make note of how many are hollow sounding. I guarantee none of them were back buttered and that’s exactly how a candle cracked a tile. Is that a floating floor or a nail down floor. Floating floor needs to be flat, generally 3/16” over 10’. Lay a straight edge on the floor and document any areas not within tolerance. Nail down floor, get you some of them micro magnet things and find every fastener. Document the placement and spacing. Play dude at his own game. I’m pretty sure you can win.