Greetings.
We are doing a significant pool/backyard renovation. We are on the water line tile phase. We had already replaced the 1" on the spa front last year. We hired the same guy to do the 6X6 waterline tile. It's a long story but short version, due to personal reasons and time constraints the guy backed out on us but said "hey I know this other guy he does good work have him do it". We said OK. New guy wanted $1,000 to do the work - we said fine. He comes out this last weekend and does most of it. We are not happy with the work and have serious concerns on the structural integrity.
1. He did a "dollop in the middle on the back of the tile method" to install, like this guy did in this Youtube video: Dollop Method - 25:57 has a great shot of it, only our guy didn't even do it that consistently. What we are left with is voids behind the tile
2. Some of the tiles are not straight, the overflows are really bad
3. The grout work looks bad (to me). There are several areas where the grout goes over the tile, but not in a straight line, making the edges of the tiles look "wavy"
Examples are below. We told him we were not happy with the work and were going to pay someone else to rip it out and redo it. We didn't want to pay him anything. He want's $450 for his time. Questions:
1. Is the dollop method with voids actually alright, as in structurally sound? The only Youtube video I've seen where that method was used is the one I linked above and several people were ripping into that guy in the comments. Every other video I've found shows the tile going flat against the wall. We contacted another tile guy in the meantime whom is also telling us the work is Crud, dollop method is bad and will fall apart, and the tile needs to be ripped off and completely redone. That being said, this guy does have reason to 'make it worse than it is' to get the job so I'm not sure if I can trust him or not <shrug> I have serious trust issues at this point (there's been other Crud with other parts of this reno project).
2. Am I being too "picky" on how it looks? I know everything won't be dead-on perfect but this just seems unreasonably bad.
3. Would you keep this tile in or pay to redo it? Now is the time if we are going to redo it. The new coping isn't in and we are also having the PebbleSheen redone, and that hasn't been done yet either.
4. Would you pay him the $450 he is asking for, or no?
At this juncture I'm looking for validation or for someone to set me straight. I feel like the work is not good and the structural integrity is not good, like I'm going to be replacing these in a few years when they start popping off. He's ensuring us the work is solid and that he can fix any crooked tiles that "may have sagged". We are saying no, we want someone else. He want's $450 for his time. I want to counter him and tell him sure I'll give him $450 but he owes me for the wasted tile (it's all trash) which was well over $450. So he can either pay me for the tile he wasted, less his $450, or we can just go our separate ways and call it a day.
Appreciate any and all thoughts/opinions.
Edit: to be clear, the grout is not supported fully behind it due to the voids. It's a free-form concrete pool, there is no pool cover. Among other things we are worried about the water freezing (like it does every year) and putting pressure on the grout/tile, with nothing behind it to support it we are worried the grout will fail under that pressure.
He didn't measure the overflows correctly so there are gaps/missing sections. Notice the corner on this one:
This one has a huge gap to the right and the tile aren't even straight, notice where the 4 pieces intersect on the right hand side:
This is an example of the voids. Some don't go all the way thru, like the flag on the right, but some go all the way through like the one on the left. There are A LOT of these.
Tile is obviously not straight in places:
Grout going over the tile making the tile appear "wavy" along the edges. Most of the grout is like this:
Appreciate you taking the time to read this and welcome any feedback.
We are doing a significant pool/backyard renovation. We are on the water line tile phase. We had already replaced the 1" on the spa front last year. We hired the same guy to do the 6X6 waterline tile. It's a long story but short version, due to personal reasons and time constraints the guy backed out on us but said "hey I know this other guy he does good work have him do it". We said OK. New guy wanted $1,000 to do the work - we said fine. He comes out this last weekend and does most of it. We are not happy with the work and have serious concerns on the structural integrity.
1. He did a "dollop in the middle on the back of the tile method" to install, like this guy did in this Youtube video: Dollop Method - 25:57 has a great shot of it, only our guy didn't even do it that consistently. What we are left with is voids behind the tile
2. Some of the tiles are not straight, the overflows are really bad
3. The grout work looks bad (to me). There are several areas where the grout goes over the tile, but not in a straight line, making the edges of the tiles look "wavy"
Examples are below. We told him we were not happy with the work and were going to pay someone else to rip it out and redo it. We didn't want to pay him anything. He want's $450 for his time. Questions:
1. Is the dollop method with voids actually alright, as in structurally sound? The only Youtube video I've seen where that method was used is the one I linked above and several people were ripping into that guy in the comments. Every other video I've found shows the tile going flat against the wall. We contacted another tile guy in the meantime whom is also telling us the work is Crud, dollop method is bad and will fall apart, and the tile needs to be ripped off and completely redone. That being said, this guy does have reason to 'make it worse than it is' to get the job so I'm not sure if I can trust him or not <shrug> I have serious trust issues at this point (there's been other Crud with other parts of this reno project).
2. Am I being too "picky" on how it looks? I know everything won't be dead-on perfect but this just seems unreasonably bad.
3. Would you keep this tile in or pay to redo it? Now is the time if we are going to redo it. The new coping isn't in and we are also having the PebbleSheen redone, and that hasn't been done yet either.
4. Would you pay him the $450 he is asking for, or no?
At this juncture I'm looking for validation or for someone to set me straight. I feel like the work is not good and the structural integrity is not good, like I'm going to be replacing these in a few years when they start popping off. He's ensuring us the work is solid and that he can fix any crooked tiles that "may have sagged". We are saying no, we want someone else. He want's $450 for his time. I want to counter him and tell him sure I'll give him $450 but he owes me for the wasted tile (it's all trash) which was well over $450. So he can either pay me for the tile he wasted, less his $450, or we can just go our separate ways and call it a day.
Appreciate any and all thoughts/opinions.
Edit: to be clear, the grout is not supported fully behind it due to the voids. It's a free-form concrete pool, there is no pool cover. Among other things we are worried about the water freezing (like it does every year) and putting pressure on the grout/tile, with nothing behind it to support it we are worried the grout will fail under that pressure.
He didn't measure the overflows correctly so there are gaps/missing sections. Notice the corner on this one:
This one has a huge gap to the right and the tile aren't even straight, notice where the 4 pieces intersect on the right hand side:
This is an example of the voids. Some don't go all the way thru, like the flag on the right, but some go all the way through like the one on the left. There are A LOT of these.
Tile is obviously not straight in places:
Grout going over the tile making the tile appear "wavy" along the edges. Most of the grout is like this:
Appreciate you taking the time to read this and welcome any feedback.
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