Page 1 of 1
We are now into our 9 th week of renovation and starting to feel very down about it all.
Our bathroom has bee tiled and shower fittings have gone in.
The problem is that our tiles on the floor .. A brown olive colour are now all milky colored. I have wiped the bathroom over 7 times now and there is still grout haze. In addition there is tile adhesive on them. Our floor tiles are RAK six sense glazed porcelain with semi polished/lappato finish.
There is gout all over and in our new vanity that is yet to have its stone top fitted.
Our new Dorf shower fittings are scratched and our new toilet has a chip out of the porcelain.
Each thing is relatively small but it adds up to disappointment when you are spending so much and just want it done.
Is this acceptable grouting? There are holes in it that make the new grout look like there is mold in it. We were told that we have told seal the grout ourselves.
Additional large amounts of silicone sealer has been used between the wall and floor tiles and in the shower niche. The silicone is coming off48 hours later..
Our expensive bathroom ss grate drain won't fit due to grout in it. Plumber tried to make it fit by stomping on it when i wasnt there. Now its bent and wont fit.
Just over everything at the moment. Camping in our house, no hot water...no kitchen. Just the pits.
I almost hate to ask......have you paid the tiler and the plumber yet?
Most trades leave a mess after they are finished...we found the plumber the worst. But the tiler is usually the fussy one, ours not only cleaned up his mess, but also left the whole bathroom spotless.
If you are in melbourne I can give you the contact details of my tiler who could fix most of what I can see in the pics, and maybe you could chase the original monkeys in small claims court or vcat.
Unfortunately you'll find this is typical of Australian tradesmen.
This is exactly why I try and do everything myself, this is totally unacceptablel!
Re the tiles, have you tried using a cement and grout residue cleaner? You can buy it from your local tile place.
Makes me sick when I see things like this. I would insist they fix it, as for the tilers haze their is a product u can buy from Aquamix that will clean it. It took forever to get ours clean, we bought a tile cleaner from Bunnings. If I were to do it over again I would have paid to have it cleaned. That grout is not acceptable.
It looks like the adhesive is showing through the grout.
Could also be air bubbles if the grout mix was too wet/sloppy
As for the damage/silicone - that's very disappointing and so unprofessional ... feel for you
Unfortunately you'll find this is typical of Australian tradesmen.
Hmmm, its not really. It might be typical of bad australian tradesmen!
There are alot of good ones out there! There is a saying though pay peanuts and get monkeys!
I have people that want a cheap and nasty kitchen but want the quality of a top end kitchen. This is not possibly and why I dont do them!
Well I didn't pay cheap..quite the contrary.. On the plus side I have them all coming back to rectify the problems. Grout sorted out today.
On to other problems in the rest of the house.
[quote="kmcgreg"]Well I didn't pay cheap..quite the contrary.. quote]
Nor did we ... but the builder did
The tiler was amazed at how much we paid for our polished porcelain floors when he came to replace some - he told us how much he was paid and we worked out from that the builder made at least 50% profit ...
and we're now waiting to hear back from the builder re the haze on the tiles ....
Glad your problems are getting sorted ...
Yes the markups are rather chronic aren't they? However it still doesn't excuse the fact that 99% of the alleged tradies in Perth wouldn't have a job if there wasn't a mining boom.
Well I didn't pay cheap..quite the contrary.. On the plus side I have them all coming back to rectify the problems. Grout sorted out today.
On to other problems in the rest of the house.
Sorry kmcgreg I wasnt saying that you paid for cheap tradesmen.
I was just didnt like Althom statement "Unfortunately you'll find this is typical of Australian tradesmen"
Its not typical not even close. There are alot of great tradesman out there unfortunately the bad ones get more press and people talking about them than the good ones.
Being a tradesman myself, I totally agree!!
Feel for you
The grouting in my house (was my mother's at the time) had to be redone after hand-over as it was already falling out of the walls. Unfortunately it seemed the tiler kept his three-year-old amused that day by letting him/her loose with a bucket of grout and letting him/her finger-paint with it. Eventually I had to redo the non-wet areas myself as it was all over everything. It's sad that some tradespeople have so little respect for the client and for their own workmanship
Hi
The six sense series is a lapato porcelain floor tile. As it has a slighly textured surface you are seeing the grout haze in the textured fines of the surface. All you have to do is mix 10parts warm water to 1 part hydochloric acid. Give the floor a light acid wash using a nylon scorer...do 3 to 4 tiles at a time and the mop with clean water. My showroom floor is the six sense and its an amzing looking tile...You will be so suprised after just one quick acid wash. You only have to do this the once. Your tile supplier should have nmade you aware of this...we sell it a lot as clients love our floor. We make sure that they know that this has to be done after the initial cleaning is carried out.
also the tiles with the grout missing. To be what you are seeing there is the adhesive. The tiler has not properly cleaned out the tile joint when laying. This means that the depth of the joint for the grout is much less and therefore it doesnt bind in the joint. It is not mould...but adhesive you are seeing. You can tell by the black specs in the adhesive mix.
Regards
If you are having trouble removing the grout haze, try using a Phosphoric Acid based cleaner, it's a safe to use food grade acid. If acid does not remove the haze then it because the grout may contain a high level of polymers/latex, and acid does not remove polymers. There's a good chance that an abrasive cleaner such as Aqua Mix NanoScrub will remove both the cement and polymers in one go.
It looks like a rubber modified adhesive is showing in the joints, the black dots are rubber. You need to rake that out more before you re-grout so that the new grout will have enough tile edge to stick to.
Well I didn't pay cheap..quite the contrary.. quote]
Nor did we ... but the builder did
The tiler was amazed at how much we paid for our polished porcelain floors when he came to replace some - he told us how much he was paid and we worked out from that the builder made at least 50% profit ...
and we're now waiting to hear back from the builder re the haze on the tiles ....
Glad your problems are getting sorted ...
Firstly, your tiler is unprofessional for speaking to you (the client) about how much his getting paid. That tiler doesn’t deserve to work for any builders, full stop!
Secondly, without sounding like I’m personal attacking you which I’m not. Its your own fault for not shopping around yourself for the tiles and trying to find the best possible price out their. If you took the time to have a look around you would have saved yourself quiet a few $$$$.
Thirdly, yes the builder made a healthy profit but at the end of the day he is the one warranting your bathroom and tiling work in the future not the tiler.