Hi all
I’ve just had my bathroom totally re-done. I wanted to DIY it but in the interests of speed and hassle, we paid a plumber and tiler. In short the tiler had some personal things happen which delayed the job. So six weeks later he’s finished and it’s a really rushed job, worse than I would have DIY-ed it.

I have asked him to rectify two areas which will mean knocking off and re-doing a fair bit. He is refusing.

I’ve paid him 50% to cover materials (he did some other bits too). I’ve told him not to come back and I’m going to get another tiler in to finish the job.

What would you do? Am I a cock?

Not really, he’s refusing to do the job to an acceptable standard, so I think you should stick to your guns. It’s unfortunate that he’s had had personal issues, but that’s not your fault and it sounds like you were already quite accommodating r.e. the timescale. However, you have posted this in the bike forum, which is unforgivable. 🙂

We have a running joke at work when ever anyone (of us) points out that someone’s work looks unsatisfactory whether it be plastering, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, anything, someone will pipe up “it will look lovely once it’s grouted”.

As this was a catchphrase of a tiler who worked with us for a short amount of time (because it didn’t).
Still makes me giggle.

Sorry I have been no help , but if you’re not happy, you’re not happy. What does your wife think of the job.

Think yourself lucky in getting a tiler to turn up in the 1st place!

She agrees it isn’t good enough. Funnily enough this is what he said!^^

Murder/suicide

chip – Member
We have a running joke at work when ever anyone (of us) points out that someone’s work looks unsatisfactory whether it be plastering, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, anything, someone will pipe up “it will look lovely once it’s grouted”.

Yes. Heard that too many time also.
Grouting will hide a rough job from somebody who doesnt know what good tiling should look like.
But – a kicker tile will show a shadow with or without grout.

With the increase of people going self employed – there is a large increase in cowboys ..

we paid a plumber and tiler. In short the tiler had some personal things happen which delayed the job. So six weeks later he’s finished and it’s a really rushed job, worse than I would have DIY-ed it.

Most of us are more concerned with the tilers personal things , than his poor job, at least with personal things we can all help/interfere or just hope its not us next time.

Every so often all us self employed make a mistake upset a customer, its not done on purpose or we wouldnt get paid or get work, discuss your problems with him dont just refuse to pay him the full amount, how would you like your boss not to pay you for posting on here.

Thanks for the insight, project. I’ve given multiple opportunities for the bloke to rectify the problems, including raising my concerns 3 weeks ago. He rushed the job to get it over with. Bits left without grout, mastic looks like it was done by a child and all the beading is wonky and standing proud of the corners.

I’ve sent emails and tried to call and he is refusing to rectify them. It’s not a refusal to pay, rather me saying I’ll use what I owe you to pay someone else to do your job.

Of course he’s not doing it on purpose, why would I ever think that?

Different story now appears.

Different story now appears.

Eh?

In the first post:

So six weeks later he’s finished and it’s a really rushed job, worse than I would have DIY-ed it.

I have asked him to rectify two areas which will mean knocking off and re-doing a fair bit. He is refusing.

We had a new kitchen fitted 18 months ago, tiler was the last tradesman in. He turned up to start work 1st day, did about 2 hours then said, ‘I’m just popping round Morrisons for a bite to eat’. Must’ve been hungry cos he didn’t come back for 2 days. Then he’d tell us he’d be back at X O’clock but didn’t turn up till Z O’clock, bloody nightmare. He finally finished at about 15.00 hrs on Xmas eve, Took 12 days to tile about 5 sqm.
Recently been let down by a tiler because (obviously) the job was too small but he didn’t have the decency to tell me when he 1st priced it & agreed a start date.

We had a bloke fit a new boiler at work. Livered van/landline listed/corgi or whatever.

Jesus he was shoddy. Electric cable hanging lose from boiler to switch, exposed spur at side of sink. I thought ‘ah he must be finishing the job tomorrow’.

Nope.

We had a similar problem with our bathroom, tiling was aweful! I decided I could not live with it and we got someone else in to take off quite a few tiles and re tile.

You have given him the chance to rectify the problem, and he hasn’t (sounds like it’s not up to the standard you would expect from a tradesman). I would not pay him any more money and put that towards getting it sorted.

Simone

Thanks Simone. Did you pay the original person?

No help, but just wanted to say I must have been lucky – I wanted mosaics in my bathroom. The two separate tilers I know wouldn’t do the job, as they know how fussy I am! The bloke I tracked down was even fussier than myself and was mortified that he’d ended up with a thin sliver of tile where you can’t even see it!

It does my head in to see shoddy tiling.
I do everything as if it was my own house, which means if I’m not happy, then the customer certainly won’t be happy.
If the problems are as bad as you say, and he’s turned down the chance to rectify it himself, then I’d say you were well within your rights to get someone else in and deduct their charge from what you owe him.

Cheers dingabell. You’re not in Bristol by any chance?

OP I think you are in the right. I would have done the same.

the tiler had some personal things happen which delayed the job

Are you sure this is genuine or was he working on another (more lucrative) job? I’ve employed so many tradesman who have to attend funerals out of the blue I’ve stopped believing them. Perhaps the personal problems excuse was the first indication of the forthcoming problems.

It does my head in to see shoddy tiling.
I do everything as if it was my own house, which means if I’m not happy, then the customer certainly won’t be happy.
If the problems are as bad as you say, and he’s turned down the chance to rectify it himself, then I’d say you were well within your rights to get someone else in and deduct their charge from what you owe him.

This^^^^^

I’ve been a tiler for 20 years and I”m horrified as to the standard of tiling people managed to get paid for. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I left a job to a lesser standard than I know is achievable.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of bandits out there at the moment and tiling is one of the trades that’s fairly unregulated, you can buy a trowel and a cutter and call yourself a tiler. Most people shop by price, the amount of times I’ve gone to a quote and told x,y,z will do it for half what I’m asking. They’re cheap generally because they won’t allow the time to do the job right. I’m a tiler and I charge myself out to make a good standard of living. I’m not a fireman, handyman, miner, bloke from the pub etc….

Whatever the quality of the original job, one is only as good as one’s willingness to sort out any problems.

Too many tradesmen think they’re their own bosses, without realising that in fact, the client is their boss and they don’t walk away from a job until the client is happy and the invoice is paid.

OP, I can’t believe you’re even asking if it’s ok not to pay the bill (in a good way, not having a go…). If he’s done a crap job, and won’t sort it out, then that’s his look-out.

Sorry, not anywhere near Bristol.
There seems to be quite a glut of posts on here lately from people complaining about poor service from ‘tradesmen’.
I personally don’t understand this. Maybe in the current climate when there seems that most tradesmen have plenty of work, some of them are getting a bit complacent?
This stinks as far as I’m concerned. How anyone can take a customer for granted is beyond me, because at some point when things are maybe not so good, they’re going to need all the good feedback they can get. I do all I can to keep the customer happy, probably at the expense of taking too long on a job to get it just right. A house is a person’s single most expensive investment and everyone deserves to get a good job done, on time considering they are probably paying decent money for it. Maybe I’m never going to make as much as someone who goes in and rushes the job to make more money, but at least I know that at the end of the day the customer will be more than happy with the end result.
Sorry……rant over.

Think yourself lucky in getting a tiler to turn up in the 1st place!

My experience of Tilers is that you’re lucky if they don’t turn up.

Thanks all. I feel reassured I’m not being a total cock.

Definitely not being a cock in any way.

If you let him get away with this, it encourages him to do it again too.

OP hope you’ve taken pictures of his ‘work’ so you have evidence of his workmanship and yes don’t pay him any more.

Best to just tile over the cracks and start again, like bike shops there are good ones who sort out probs and others that dont.

Yes I have sent him loads of pictures of the stuff that isn’t good enough. He has started blaming the quality of the tiles now for the fact that he can’t produce a straight edge!

Post some pictures on here so we can see the extent of the problem.

We had this last autumn, job took forever and whilst the walls looked fine , the floor was a mess and the tile lines didn’t match up. Fortunately he put it right (and we promised him the next bathroom) but he didn’t return our calls.

The guy who did the next bathroom in the end was a million times better.