Flawed
Contrary to what regular readers of my blog may believe this is not a page about my personality. This is a page with photos of improper tile installations. Please do not make the same mistakes. At the bottom of this page you will find information about, well, this page and how it came about.
If you have arrived at this page without searching for something akin to ’tile butchery’ please realize these are not correct installation procedures! The captions beneath the photos are my smart-ass remarks – they are not serious advice. 
It is simply how I tear out crap like this without my head exploding. I’m certain by now this is a very long page – don’t worry, it’ll be like a train wreck – you just can’t stop looking.
And I made ‘em big – real big. Hey, don’t complain! I’m the one that had to tear all this crap out. I did it so you can partake in the full glory of what happens when your contractor either doesn’t know better or just doesn’t care. If you’re warped like me you can click on each image for a very, very large version of each photo.
This is why I have Guedo. 
Enjoy.
1. Incorrect substrate for Ditra - that's not gonna stick!
2. Incorrect substrate for Ditra - See - No adhesion
3. Sloppy tile placement - spot for used razor blades I guess
4. Do not install tile while drunk!
5. Inconsistent grout lines, lippage
6. Inconsistent grout lines, lippage, not even, etc., etc...
7. Hey look! More crap work.
8. Just lousy installation, lack of detail - somebody didn't care.
9. One inch grout line against ceiling - lack of planning
10. Crap cuts around door jamb - not undercut. Just fill that in with grout.
11. Crap cuts around door jamb - just plain sloppy
12. One inch grout line under, well, half of the curb????
13. Absolutely zero coverage!
14. Half on, half off???
15. Just put those screws wherever you want
16. Just put those screws wherever you want - it'll hold
17. Seriously incorrect curb waterproofing technique
18. Pre-slope? Who needs a pre-slope? See the big hump in the middle? That's the bottom of the drain!
19. The incorrect way to seal your tub spout
20. Ummm, it won't stick - really, it won't stick
21. Why is my grout cracking? I don't get it...
22. Wood doesn't move, does it? That'll be fine...just stick the tile right to it.
23. Little bit of lippage
24. See - lippage.
25. Just go ahead and tape that down, tile doesn't need to stick there.
26. Ummm, no. It's two screws fer cryin out loud! Just remove it!
27. And still didn't get it in one piece.
28. Just go from the backerboard straight onto chipboard - it'll be fine.
29. Yup, that'll stick just fine...
30. Just cut that wherever, nobody will notice
31. Forgot to put the bolts in? Just cut it out and put 'em back.
32. Nah, the tile must be flawed. The installation is perfect.
33. Yup, just substandard tile. No reason to see what's under it...
34. I guess it will transfer the crack through - if you use straight concrete
35. That's right - straight concrete. Just say no!
36. We don't need no steeenking pre-slope. See the shiny stuff? Water...See the big hump it the middle? BOTTOM of the drain flange...
37. Must be substandard grout. Yeah, nothing wrong with the substrate...
38. Yeah see, the grout is flawed.
39. I'm tellin' ya, the grout is crap. It has nothing to do with the substrate...
40. See, all of it. Flawed. The grout, it's crap...
41. Yup, the grout, it...shit. Nevermind...
42. If you're gonna screw through the liner you may as well use pressure treated lumber
43. Yes, that is water. Sitting stagnant on the floor, beneath everything...
44. Put a lot of screws in there, make sure it doesn't fly away...
45. And yes, that is water, again - or still
46. I've aaaahhh, run out of words.
47. I chipped it out and water rushed out - seriously. It's called releasing static pressure
48. Water will never get there, don't worry about it.
49. As long as you think its sealed up tight...
50. See that space between the concrete and wall? It's full of water. Just sitting there.
51. Just nail that up there reeeeeeeeeal goooood.
52. How's it gonna rust, it's waterproof, right?
53. Just nail it up there so it doesn't fly away - get it flat
I have searched about every online thesaurus I could find for a name for this page. Nothing really seemed to fit perfectly. I call it hackery, but outside of my particular profession the depth of that word is lost. So ‘flawed’ is what I’ve decided to go with, although it barely conveys the absolute shit work you see on this page. Below I have listed some of what I’ve found, if you can think of anything better please feel free to leave it in the comments below.
I hope I haven’t ruined your dinner.
Synonyms for ‘Shit work’
- Batter
- Butcher
- Deface
- Disfigure
- Dismember
- Distort
- Lame
- Mangle
- Mar
- Mess Up
- Ravage
- Spoil
- Assault
- Clobber
- Maul
- Mutilate
- Pummel
- Ruin
- Thrash
- Damage
- Impair
- Maim
- Scar
- Smudge
- Sully
- Taint
- Tarnish
Add a Brilliant Retort
← Previous Comments
Hi I am looking for advice on how to go about getting our tile fixed. We hired a tile contractor to install tile in our entire house – 1400 sq foot. He just finished the job on Thursday 5/16/13. As my husband and I are started moving the furniture and everything else back in the house we are noticing quite a few tiles are very high. High enough that the furnitire gets caught on it instead of just sliding across the floor and high enough that I actually stubbed a toe on one of them. He was very hard to deal with when he was doing the job and when we questioned him he just blew us off and blamed the tile. We live in Florida and I would like to know what recourse I have now. We have already paid him as we know that is the law but now what. We feel like he just did a sub par job and ruined our floors, I would like to call and make him come back but my husband doesn’t want him back and honestly I don’t see him admitting any of it was his fault. Can you give any advice?
Hi Marianne,
Well, it does sound like an inferior installation and absolutely his fault. I do not, however, know anything at all about the laws down in Florida, they vary even city to city. I would begin by contacting your local building department and they can tell you the steps you need to take to remedy it. The tile (unless it is natural stone which can be refinished) is not fixable at this point, it needs to be replaced.
I was surprised! I thought these were pictures of my bathroom and shower! This is exactly what our demo looked like tearing out our black mold riddled master bath that the previous “owners” had installed. The best part was when one turned the shower on, the water would cascade like a water feature through the bench seat n the shower out into the laundry room because there was no waterproofing at all…. I was pregnant at the time so when we found the black mold, I actually had to leave my house and stay at my parents for a week! The people who sold us the house just disappeared, so we had no recourse. Par for the course.
Roger,
We’ve had a crap job done on our tile surround. I purchased the glass tiles like the one in your “# 19 The incorrect way to grout a tub spout” Like what was used as the accent. The tiler put no trim around the edge so it’s very crooked. Is there any way to take it back 1/4- 1/2″ and then put a glass tile around it to frame it. Someone told me to take a Dremel and sand it back. Is this possible? We really don’t want to tear the whole thing off the wall
and start over again.
Thanks,
Penny
Hi Penny,
A dremel can cut into tile and do what you want. It will take a bit of time and patience, though. And you may end up going through several bits depending on your particular tile. I use a rotozip (it’s a dremel on steroids) for small defined work like that. I would probably use my grinder with the diamond wheel to get most of it out, then use the rotozip or dremel to get the ends where the round wheel won’t really go.
Roger, I’ve enjoyed reading your comments, but I haven’t seen my problem. The guy who grouted my granite/glass mosaic kitchen backsplash 4 days ago wiped off too much grout and consequently the tile is rough. I’d like more grout between the tiles. Since it was grouted so recently, can more grout be added over the existing new grout?
Hey Judy,
On the backsplash you may get away with it if you do it SOON! I would spray the grout first with water and wipe it down until it’s all wet (usually darker) then grout it making sure you get it embedded in there well. While not technically proper, it should work.
Thanks, Roger. I’m going to try that today. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Roger, I did what you said. The section I forgot to spray did not stay when I wiped it down so the next day I touched it up. It looks good and feels so much better. Thanks again. Judy
Roger,
I’m no stranger to thinset yet I am clearly an amateur after 3 bathroom floors, a shower and a kitchen floor of tiling.
I’m working on my second shower and I filled the joints between hardibacker a few days ago and now some of it is dry and sandy to where I can rub it off the walls with my fingers. I’m guessing that I mixed it too dry since I only needed a small batch, and didn’t measure the water or I didn’t let it slake long enough?
The question is, do I need to scrape off as much of the improperly mixed thinset as I can (get between the joints) or can I just tile over it and forget it?
Hi Nah,
It may not be improper mixing. It may just be the backer sucking moisture from the thinset prematurely. You should sponge down the backer before putting thinset on it. I would scrape down the thinset that scrapes off easily and sponge it down. Then place alkali-resistant mesh tape (if you haven’t yet) and go over it with thinset again. You can also do that as you tile.
I just started installing some Kerdi in my shower and it seems as though I might have damaged it. Not a pinhole or cut just some fleecing. The kerdi is on the wall not the floor.
I think my thinset was too thick and I had to give some extra pressure to lay it down.
What would you do?
Geez I used my Ditra trowel instead of kerdi trowel…Not much bigger though 4.5mmX4.5mm instead of 3.17mm X 3.17mm for kerdi trowel…Volume wise it is double the thinset … It does some appropriately bonded.
It does *seem* appropriately bonded *to drywall*
Provided it’s bonded well it will be fine. As long as you didn’t remove the fleece in a very large area. It’s there to give the thinset something to bond to well when setting tile, not for waterproofing purposes.
Horrible. Sentence. Structure. I think I need a beer…
Our contractor has replaced the bathroom wood subfloor with 1×6 pine planks. We are having ceramic tile floor. He has a felt liner over the pine planks, then durock over it without any plywood or thinset etc. Good or bad?
Hey Pam,
That particular preparation is just fine for a full mud bed, not for cement board. It may be fine if there is thinset beneath the backer, but it would be better with additional plywood over the pine, then thinset, then backerboard.
Thanks. Yeah, that’s what I had read, but he is laying the tile today without plywood or thinset beneath the Durock saying he has been doing this for years and the plywood will make it too tall and thinset is not needed. UGH!! What is generally the minimum subfloor thickness to support tile floors in bathrooms?
Minimum subfloor thickness is 1 1/4″ double layer of plywood.
Hi Roger,
Love your webpage! Super helpful and quite entertaining.
I’m a DIYer and decided to try tiling my basement bathroom floor because I’m sick of walking on a cement slab. I have two dilemna’s I can’t quite figure out and don’t want to end up on your “flawed” section.
1) Conflicting opinions on if its better to tile up to the toilet flange, or underneath (toilet flange on top of the tile). Some say should be level, lower, or higher. What’s your recommendation? I may buy a new toilet, so not concerned about fitting the depth of my existing one.
2) The room is approx 10x8ft, with about a 4×4 cove. Tiles are 12×24 porcelain. My issue is that i have about 4″ gap on one side horizontally, and again 4″ gap vertically. I dont want to split the difference and do 2 ” tiles… so planning to use a full tile on one side (next to bathtub), 4″ tile on the other (toilet/sink side)…. The problem is if a lay a full tile vertically (long side) next to the bathtub (first thing you see), I have a 4″ long gap that’s 1/2″ wide (bathtub line basically has a bend. I dont want to fill the gap w a small piece of tile.. So would it look best to use a full tile in that area, then cutoff 1/2″ on the remaining tiles that line up with it? Basically would have 2 11.5 x24″ tiles in the row, a 3rd with one tile having a notch to fill in the space, then a 4th full size tile in that row so the length almost reaches the door). These are the first tiles you see in the room, so I dont want an eyesore later.
3) any suggestions on preventing lippage with these large tiles? Floor is as flat/level as I can get it, and has Ditra over the cement.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Hey Michelle,
1. Ideally, and the technically correct method, is to have the flange on top of the tile. That rarely happens. If you don’t have the flange installed yet, tile under it and install it afterwards. If it’s already in – leave it. Added wax ring thickness can make up for any lowered heights.
2. Don’t split the difference as you’ve mentioned, split it by moving the entire installation 1/2 tile width away from the four inch cut – minus two inches. In other words centered. You can center an installation two ways. From your center line you can have a grout line right against each side of it, or you can have the center of the tile along the center line. If you shift it to the other choice you should have an 8″ cut on each side. That should solve your tub dilemma as well, if I’m understanding it correctly. No matter how your tub bends or curves the tile should be cut to fit it and you should not have any small slivers filling it in. Leave the 4″ row where it is on the opposite wall of the door. In the doorway you should have either a full tile or, if you’re doing a running bond (brick) pattern you should have alternating full and half tiles.
3. Yes, take your time.
And read this: How to install absolutely flat floor tile.
Great – thank you for the suggestions!! I hadn’t come across that write up yet, but that is very helpful as well. Great tips! Thanks again!
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