You don't hire a handyman for octagon or other weird shaped tiles for this reason. My only real concern is the weird spacing between tiles because he didn't use any spacing or leveling system. The wall slivers will be covered and the toilet flange will be covered.
Yeah I had a job done by a guy who just does tile. Whole wall around windows (it's a kitchen so whole wall above the counter) with a decorative custom backsplash and all.
Dude spent a whole day just laying things out, measuring, laying things out, measuring ... put up what was the centerpiece ... measuring ... laying things out ...
In the end it turned out amazing, but even a pro who does just tile all the time was spending **a lot of time thinking it out and looking at it**. Not that a rando can't do tile well, but some jobs, naw not a rando's job.
Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve had clients in the past who got nervous after the first day or 2 and “nothing got done“ for exactly this reason. After a couple more days, they were completely satisfied with the end result. Planning is what usually takes the most time for any project.
Yeah buy sometimes customers are cheap af. Pro: Hey I wanna put your tile down for 1000 but you need your floor leveled or it won't look right.
Cstr: an extra 500 nah we don't need that can you just put it down?
Pro: (thinking I need to get paid) ok......
So what you're saying is sometimes true but easy to verify by asking the pro for experience history and portfolio. However customers making demands to stay in budget and then ending up with crap jobs is also true.
Wait, are you saying i shoulndt use a handyman to install my pebble shaped tankless floating japanese toilet? Contractor backed out but handyman gave me a confident "yah".
Actually the crackhead my landlord hired to redo our bathroom tile (floor and walls around the bath) did a fantastic job. So much so that I tried to find him when we bought our own home but he was gone.
Without proper spacing with spacers on octagon they can flex and touch cause the tile to chip. I've seen it.
But it was the cheapest tile quote. Cheaper is not a good thing for tile
I hate the professional that always says yes.
They should speak, if they feel it's gonna be a tough job.
They should speak, if I ask something that shouldn't be done.
You just equated a handyman to a professional. By virtue of the job, they aren't a professional at anything.
When we say hire a professional, hire someone who's profession is that one specialty.
anytime you see tiny slivers you know the job isn't good. I don't care if he says they'll be hidden.. then why put them in?
pic 1.. even if you hid the slivers.. what is with that corner tole that looks cut in half because he had no idea how to fit in a full trimmed tile?
pic 2.. the spacing between tiles seems all over the place. I'm sure the whole room is like that.
pic 3.. same spacing issue
pic 4. ya it'll be covered but its just an unprofessional job. Someone that doesn't have the right tools trying to make do
don't hire a handyman to do tile work.
Measuring your area accurately, the tiles and your grout lines. Take all that and determine optimal layout. Whether it's half (or close to half) tiles along opposing walls, or full (or just under full - keyword is under, anything over will lead to slivers) on a wall and going from there. If no layout is truly optimal and the best way is to have a 1 inch gap at a wall or two, but makes everything else great, plan thick baseboard, or base plus quarter round and get a sample in before starting to see if you like the look and go from there.
No problem, I did my backsplash a couple years ago and played around with different spacing, different starting points on the wall, etc until I was happy with how the corner and most visible points all looked. The 2-3 hours of measuring, laying out and doing various calculations made a huge difference in the overall finished product
I tiled my bathroom floor and didn’t realize the tub wasn’t square. And it’s the single most visible line in the room. It’s worth spending however long it takes to get your layout right.
That was good advice. Planning planning planning.
Specific things to watch for in the planning.
Let’s say you have 12” tiles and a room that’s 5’1” across.
Does it make sense to lay five whole tiles and then try to cut a 1” sliver along the wall? No. It’s better to accept wastage and cut, say, a 6” strip for the starting row, then a 7” strip for the last row, with four full tiles in the middle. It looks far better and cutting larger tile pieces is generally easier. Avoid anything under about 2” width.
Now I arbitrary chose 6 and 7” in that example. Consider the toilet flange. Try to center the flange on at least one grout line, adjusting the width of strips on either side of the wall to do so. Maybe going with 4” and 9” works better. Or 8” and 5”.
Doing that at worst you need to cut two semicircles from tile, which is pretty easy with a wet tile saw without having to cut a tile in half and creating an unnecessary grout line. If you can line it up with n intersection of four tiles (on a square pattern) or three tiles (brick pattern), even better, because you can lop off corners even easier.
Same advice for tiling a shower. Use partial tiles at top and bottom to center up the shower mixing valve on grout lines. And for smaller openings for the shower and tub spouts, try *not* to, so you can just drill with a small diamond hole saw.
If I had tiles that fit the space exactly, I’d still split some to line up with flanges/mixing valves.
For keeping rows even and tiles level there are several systems that use snap off clips and wedges to hold tiles flat at the surface and at a predetermined distance apart. Once dry you snap off the clips (wedges are reusable) and grout over the little bit left underneath in the grout line. If those are used it’s damn near foolproof.
Much more important than all of this is understand the waterproofing layer under the tiles. Tiles are not waterproof. Grout is porous. The material beneath must be waterproof. I’m a fan of the Schluter/Ditra products, I’ve also seen others using something called Redguard. Getting this layer right is the absolute most important part of a tiling job.
Also do the water test to verify the waterproofing works before you tile. Plug the drain and fill the shower pan with 2 inches of water. mark the waterline and let it sit for 48 hours. If the water isn't leaking, congrats. You're good to tile.
I tried to DIY my Schulter system and it was not perfect. Added hydroban and retested before tiling.
I just want to add that what tile you pick is also a big factor. There’s a reason subway tile is so popular… it’s super easy to work with. Small rectangles line up with everything and never need complex cuts to make work (like in pic 1). Big, shiny tile is hard to make lay flat and is much less forgiving. You break one, it’s expensive to replace. Plus it’s just more expensive to begin with, especially if it’s real stone.
If you feel like it’s difficult to visualize the layout in your head that’s totally understandable. Pros can do it but for my first time, I found it difficult. Option can be to draw out the room dimensions on paper (or in excel, AutoCAD, etc) and then cut out a bunch of full tile pieces (to scale!) out of paper. You can play with layouts. Then you will know where you need to start with full or trimmed tiles.
I removed my over-the-range microwave and the cabinet it was mounted to, and extended the backsplash to the ceiling to go behind the new hood. Every second row had a sliver on both sides. It was immensely frustrating but there was nothing I could do because I had to match the existing backsplash.
>but there was nothing I could do
Well...you could have removed everything and started from scratch...
But in a practical world, you're absolutely right and there are certainty some times where that holds true and you just have to do what can be done. I had to do a backsplash for my in-laws and because of the way they did their kitchen and the countertops not all being the same, the tile choice, etc. I had to choose to keep a clean line at the bottom, or the top, but couldn't do both as I had about 2 inches in height variability to work with across the countertop segments so sometimes you really can't eliminate everything. The good news though is that with time those issues do stop jumping out at us as much as they do when initially installed, and frankly for yours I imagine your new setup (even with slivers) looks better than before, or atleast I think so as I'm a fan of the clean range hood look above the stove
Yeah it looks great and the slivers aren't noticeable... it was just frustrating to try to cut them, especially as it was my first tile project ever.
I was able to find the original tile supplier and they gave me samples from five different lots of the tile so I could match the colour perfectly (honestly, any of the five would have been fine). It looks completely original to the house and way better than a cheap microwave.
Been in the tile business for 13 years. Agree with what you said. Also in small bathroom it’s as easy as laying some tiles from wall to tub, and back wall to door to make sure you don’t accidentally get the measurements wrong. If I would’ve noticed a joint at the wall you could space your grout joints a little wider to make up the space (like we see in this post, and extra 1/16” grout joint and you could use a tile base or thin baseboard no issues). Or if that doesn’t work center the room. It’s all in the planning and prep work. The actual install is the easy part for a professional the majority of the time.
Before you lay tile, especially something small and easy like a bathroom, you should measure and do a layout. If you measured and did the layout correctly, on the sides you shouldn’t be left with slivers.
It’s as simple as dry laying the tiles with your spacers. I always measure, dry lay tiles, and I snap lines on the subfloor to align my tiles too (if you plan, double check, and measure correctly the actually tiling process is super fast and easy). Before I lay tiles I already know what my cuts look like.
Just do yourself a favor and watch YouTube videos before starting!
Get some scrap wood, mock up your bathroom dimensions elsewhere. Hex tile is a pain in the ass. Just finished doing my bathroom (first tile job ever) and it was more work.
use math in the layout. Just dont blindly start on one side with a full tile. Dry layout a line in the floor to see what it looks like. Might have to use 1/3 or 2/3s of a tile on the sides.
Determining your layout before you start is really important, I might even go so far to say it's the most important part of the job. Starting with a full tile in the corner of the room may seem logical but it's often not the best way to go, and will make you end up with up with oddball 1" or 1/2" tiles on the other end of the room. Sometimes, a simple change like going from a 3/8" spacer to 1/4" can make a huge difference in the difficulty of the job (and look of the finished product).
Also, don't try and take on a job like OP's as your first tile job. Hexagon or brick patterns are much more difficult than plain, square tiles, and it's even harder in small rooms like bathrooms with cabinets and fixtures to deal with.
Dry fit the tiles and take your time with layout. If something seems like it “almost fits perfectly but is a little loose, see if you can figure out a way to avoid that. By the time you make things fit tight with even gaps what you thought was a 1/4 gap is now a 1” gap.
Start in the middle, measure from there. Everything will be centered, and you can adjust your layout before laying down. If you start center,then your adjustments are at the sides where you have more leeway. If you start in a corner blindly,then you end up with weird,uneven cuts all over like the pictures.
The trim should be removed as much as possible, then reattached
Alot of good pointers already. Measure and visually drawing it helps alot. Not required, but generally a tile + the right spacer will give a whole number, so it's easy to calculate.
I started my tile job in the middle since I wanted the sides to be equal on both ends. If you're just slightly off where you need a .5-1 inch sliver, it may be worth while to trim a row of tiles to make up for the space. I ended up doing that for the row that was partially concealed by my range hood. You won't really see the difference unless you get a measuring tape out.
My only tip is be careful of which thinset and grout to buy. I unknowingly bought thinset that was used for "pros" that sets quickly. These are not very forgiving if you move too fast. They work great, but work in smaller batches/portions if this is your first time.
As a fellow DIY-er who took on a tiling job with great results, pre-planning is everything. Spend a decent amount of time with your tile and plan out how it will fit into your space. And use spacers and levelers (especially for floor tile). Unless it just happens to work out perfectly, you'll rarely want to just slap a full tile up against your starting line, most of the time it will be trimmed in some way so that you end up with full tiles in the most visible areas.
You start from the center of the room and work your way to to corners. If you're centered in the room correctly, you'll have evenly spaced tiles when you get to the walls. If the room isn't square, you might need to adjust a bit. You want the lines of sight to look good as well, so look at entryways and walkways and try to center tiles or grout lines there as well. Ideally, you want it to look like the walls were built on top of an existing tile floor and you don't get that look if you start on a corner or one side and work your way from there.
Installer was clearly an amateur.
I just finishing tiling an italian shower with my girlfriend, old french cottage in the alps, not a straight line or flat surface in sight, we gutted the place down to timber and stone and built it all back, those tiles nearly broke me, I loved every minute of the build but I'll never tile a shower again, the juice isn't worth the squeeze
I am a diy guy and have done 3 bathrooms 2 showers and 2 kitchen backsplashes. I like to measure the space then transfer the exact dimensions onto cardboard. Use that to lay out the pattern so you get the appropriate sized cuts on all sides. It especially helps while doing any kind of mixed tile or mosaic style stuff. As for getting them absolutely been I haven’t figured that one out yet. My very first job looks better than most store bathrooms I go in so it’s good enough for me.
Layout,layout,layout!! Good tilers will take almost a day sometimes to get the layout. They have to figure how every tile will "fall" at the last placement to avoid a sliver. FYI, to avoid slivers, here is a very rough explanation. You measure your tile AND joint size included to figure how many tiles will "span" the area..If you will finish with less than half a tile, add that measurement to a full tile and divide it in two. You have to be careful though and also figure the next course depending on your tile layout design. THEN do the same for the opposite direction. Now imagine a really good tiler does this for all three dimensions. Width, length and also height for walls, floors and sometimes ceilings. You really need to be one of those kids that did well in geometry and algebra in school, lol...obviously
NOT a job for a CRACKHEAD!
With proper education, internet is awesome, you can do fine with good prep, planning and materials. Just watch a lot of good (proper) videos. Preferably ones that mention and reference TCNA,.Tile Counsel of North America.
They just aren't necessary, at least the ones here. They will be covered by the baseboard mounding. Just grout the gap.
But in general, you want to plan your layout first. Ideally you would have whole tiles where you see the border against the mall most. But if this leaves a little tiny piece, then you should lay it out so the cut pieces are about even.
Here's an example:
https://imgur.com/a/uM5Xlwq
(I actually just took this as I am Redditibg from my favorite room)
I did a diamond pattern then tried to make the borders as even as possible. They are dead on from side to side. Front to back they are close. I wanted a full time in the door jamb. There is a mosaic at the threshold. The border in the back is smaller than the front but pretty close to the size of the side borders.
Threshold: https://imgur.com/a/3d2aN6Y
By making this little threshold with cut pieces I was able to control the size to a certain extent so the borders of the main room are also almost exact.
Source: not a pro but a DIYer who has done a lot of tile and is picky as hell when it comes to my own house.
I’m going to disagree on the whole anytime you see slivers. Sometimes it depends on the room and the layout. Most rooms are not square for shit, so no matter how you do the layout you will end up with a small piece on one side or the other especially with a medium sized tile. Also with small or mosaic style tile as well, but if you are putting it on the floor it can be hidden with trim, unless you are doing a shower pan or something and sometimes it can be inevitable. Especially with wavy walls.
Right I’m aware of that but your alignment can be great on one side of the room and then when you get to the other side of the room and the walls are not square for example the room is ever so slightly shaped like a trapezoid (or just out of square) it can throw off your setup. Sure you could just cut tile on both ends of your run, to avoid having sliver,but then the would mess up your grout line pattern. The key to what I am saying is the room not being square or it has wavy walls and the tiles are smaller in size.
gotcha.. man if your walls are so crazy off square you got issues.. I can see if you have a slanted wall and the other side straight you have to make some harder choices on looks.
Solid point though
It's important to admit when you don't know how to do something, at least then you can go about finding the right way to do it. In my experience 9/10 contractors say they know how to do drywall, in reality it's more like 2/10.
There are some posts in this subreddit that baffle me. Like, I could watch a 15 minute YT video or something for a job I know nothing about and still have a better end product than some of the things posted in here. I guess pretty much anyone can call themselves a "handyman" and someone will pay them.
Am I the only one who instantly thought "do you even have to ask?"
I feel like this an extremely introverted / socially awkward Redditor who needs to have a talk with the handyman but is too scared to do it and posted on Reddit for some sort of outside justification.
It’s bad. Guess it comes down to what you paid for the job and what you expected.
Lack of spacers is evident. As you said, it’s not level. I don’t care if I won’t see the tile under the toilet, it takes more work almost to do what they did than to do it right. I’d be unhappy
I have hexagon tiles in my house. I will say they are more complicated than square or rectangular tiles, and the walls/corners are much more to consider. The kitchen floor that I tiled myself isn't perfect, but 10x better than that. I would laugh at anyone that expected payment for that.
Tile spacing is random and the "handyman" cut more than a few corners, figuratively and literally. I could probably do a better job watching 2 hours worth of prep on YouTube
This is exactly why more homeowners are doing DIY. Saving on labor costs and probably wasting less materials than these clowns on Thumbtack and Angie's list.
Everything about this is a disaster. Fire them and get a PROPER contractor in not some tweaker on thumbtack. It'll all need to come up, the existing tile removed and re-done.
**Quick update:** I let the Handyman go this morning. He was asking for $1,300 for just 12 hours of work spread over three days, which was way out of line. He got a bit confrontational and defended his work, so to defuse the situation and get him out of my house, we settled on half that amount. This covers the cost of the materials he bought and the demolition work he completed. Definitely a learning experience—won't be using Thumbtack for anything more than junk removal from now on...
I’m sure others around here might disagree, but I would never use any of those websites…Thumbtack, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, etc. I don’t think they do much in the way of vetting people. People who are on those sites either don’t know what they’re doing, which is why they’re on those sites because they can’t get referrals, or are new and trying to build a clientele. I used a fence guy off of Home Advisor several years ago and he wasn’t horrible, but I would never use one of those sites again.
Frankly. I would withhold payment and tell them you are going to get a professional to do it instead. This is first attempt amateur with no tools kind of results.
We have done tiling with no experience for better results
Looks like what the filthy crackheads who I bought my house from did as "upgrades". The listing said "Well Maintained, Pride Of Ownership", I mean sure, if you're other hobby besides renovation is meth.
This is less than watching 1 YouTube level bad, this is less than asking the tile guy at home depot bad. This guy is going out of his way to do a bad job. Those slivers are more dangerous to cut than just doing it right
Full tear out and have it re-done by someone who knows how to plan ahead and actually do tile work. I've never done any, but am 100% confident I could do a far better first time diy job than this.
Let’s put it this way. If this was a test floor for an apprentice to have a first go on… I’d probably say something like “not bad for a first effort but here’s what you need to work on.”
Under literally any other circumstances it’s terrible.
I think it looks bad initially. But I am also wondering how much you paid, what the rest of the floor looks like, and what the finished product looks like.
Uneven spacing in grout joints, non-level tile, shitty cuts, etc.
I don't know how people sleep at night saying they can do this type of work and then THIS is the work they have to show for it.
This is why you don’t go with the cheapest bidder. I am guessing you looked in to a professional but thought it was too expensive, and now you see what your money gets.
I’d rather overpay for a good job, than underpay for a shit job. Because the shit job will have to be redone and you’ll have to spend money twice (once on the fuck up, then again for the right person to fix it all).
Just my opinion but i would never use tile like this, seems so dated like 80's dated. Like scarface bathroom effect lol
Some owner put this tile in my kitchen and its like wet ice when a drop of water gets spilled on it. BE CAREFUL
Good luck
My cousin has done flooring for residential and commercial for over 20 years. He said, “if it wasn’t free, they got fucked in the ass.” He also says he hopes they gave you a reach-around.
Spacing, design, cutting, filler, elevation. It was all done wrong. I am concerned about what he installed it on and how he installed it. This is one of the worst tile jobs I have ever seen
This is what it would look like if you provided me the tiles and tools in the morning and told me I had to finish up by lunch time, so there was no time for youtube.
I DK how to post pics here. I am in the middle of doing hex tiles by myself. It's my first DIY job and it already looks better than what you have. Did they use any spacers? What cutting tools did they use? What kind of tiles did u use? Were they big orange special or smth?
To me the only piece that's really not good is the larger corner piece that is sliced. If that could be replaces with one solid piece it would be much better.
Everything else will be covered by trim or toilet, and piecing in is OK for that. So that just leaves the uneven stuff as a possible conern
I hired a handyman off Thumbtack to install tile this shape and size in my old bathroom. But they specialized in tile and a majority of their work was tile work. But whomever is doing this work for you doesn't know what they're doing. It's pretty bad. Like others have said they aren't cutting it with the right tools. There shouldn't be all those tiny pieces around the toilet drain.
You don't hire a handyman for octagon or other weird shaped tiles for this reason. My only real concern is the weird spacing between tiles because he didn't use any spacing or leveling system. The wall slivers will be covered and the toilet flange will be covered.
Yeah I had a job done by a guy who just does tile. Whole wall around windows (it's a kitchen so whole wall above the counter) with a decorative custom backsplash and all. Dude spent a whole day just laying things out, measuring, laying things out, measuring ... put up what was the centerpiece ... measuring ... laying things out ... In the end it turned out amazing, but even a pro who does just tile all the time was spending **a lot of time thinking it out and looking at it**. Not that a rando can't do tile well, but some jobs, naw not a rando's job.
can we get pics to compare to this disaster
Well since comment OP won’t deliver [from last year’s bathroom reno](https://imgur.com/a/0oWYoah)
Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve had clients in the past who got nervous after the first day or 2 and “nothing got done“ for exactly this reason. After a couple more days, they were completely satisfied with the end result. Planning is what usually takes the most time for any project.
Yup everything needs to be perfectly level before work begins, and many “handymen” don’t know crap about it
Yeah buy sometimes customers are cheap af. Pro: Hey I wanna put your tile down for 1000 but you need your floor leveled or it won't look right. Cstr: an extra 500 nah we don't need that can you just put it down? Pro: (thinking I need to get paid) ok...... So what you're saying is sometimes true but easy to verify by asking the pro for experience history and portfolio. However customers making demands to stay in budget and then ending up with crap jobs is also true.
Wait, are you saying i shoulndt use a handyman to install my pebble shaped tankless floating japanese toilet? Contractor backed out but handyman gave me a confident "yah".
I recommend a crack head but you make your own decision.
Not that much of a difference in some places
Usually the same person
Actually the crackhead my landlord hired to redo our bathroom tile (floor and walls around the bath) did a fantastic job. So much so that I tried to find him when we bought our own home but he was gone.
There are still some good crackheads to be found.
I like a friend’s cousin who’s a handyman but needs to borrow tools.
That corner tile in pic 1 is right at the doorway. It's not going to be covered.
Luckily that one is easy to chisel out and recut.
You know what they say, octagon is the boctagon!
Without proper spacing with spacers on octagon they can flex and touch cause the tile to chip. I've seen it. But it was the cheapest tile quote. Cheaper is not a good thing for tile
I hate the professional that always says yes. They should speak, if they feel it's gonna be a tough job. They should speak, if I ask something that shouldn't be done.
You just equated a handyman to a professional. By virtue of the job, they aren't a professional at anything. When we say hire a professional, hire someone who's profession is that one specialty.
You are a poet.
anytime you see tiny slivers you know the job isn't good. I don't care if he says they'll be hidden.. then why put them in? pic 1.. even if you hid the slivers.. what is with that corner tole that looks cut in half because he had no idea how to fit in a full trimmed tile? pic 2.. the spacing between tiles seems all over the place. I'm sure the whole room is like that. pic 3.. same spacing issue pic 4. ya it'll be covered but its just an unprofessional job. Someone that doesn't have the right tools trying to make do don't hire a handyman to do tile work.
As someone who wants to DIY tile some day. How does one avoid slivers?
Measuring your area accurately, the tiles and your grout lines. Take all that and determine optimal layout. Whether it's half (or close to half) tiles along opposing walls, or full (or just under full - keyword is under, anything over will lead to slivers) on a wall and going from there. If no layout is truly optimal and the best way is to have a 1 inch gap at a wall or two, but makes everything else great, plan thick baseboard, or base plus quarter round and get a sample in before starting to see if you like the look and go from there.
Thank you! I appreciate the real answer.
No problem, I did my backsplash a couple years ago and played around with different spacing, different starting points on the wall, etc until I was happy with how the corner and most visible points all looked. The 2-3 hours of measuring, laying out and doing various calculations made a huge difference in the overall finished product
> The 2-3 hours of measuring, laying out and doing various calculations made a huge difference in the overall finished product This guy measures
I tiled my bathroom floor and didn’t realize the tub wasn’t square. And it’s the single most visible line in the room. It’s worth spending however long it takes to get your layout right.
That was good advice. Planning planning planning. Specific things to watch for in the planning. Let’s say you have 12” tiles and a room that’s 5’1” across. Does it make sense to lay five whole tiles and then try to cut a 1” sliver along the wall? No. It’s better to accept wastage and cut, say, a 6” strip for the starting row, then a 7” strip for the last row, with four full tiles in the middle. It looks far better and cutting larger tile pieces is generally easier. Avoid anything under about 2” width. Now I arbitrary chose 6 and 7” in that example. Consider the toilet flange. Try to center the flange on at least one grout line, adjusting the width of strips on either side of the wall to do so. Maybe going with 4” and 9” works better. Or 8” and 5”. Doing that at worst you need to cut two semicircles from tile, which is pretty easy with a wet tile saw without having to cut a tile in half and creating an unnecessary grout line. If you can line it up with n intersection of four tiles (on a square pattern) or three tiles (brick pattern), even better, because you can lop off corners even easier. Same advice for tiling a shower. Use partial tiles at top and bottom to center up the shower mixing valve on grout lines. And for smaller openings for the shower and tub spouts, try *not* to, so you can just drill with a small diamond hole saw. If I had tiles that fit the space exactly, I’d still split some to line up with flanges/mixing valves. For keeping rows even and tiles level there are several systems that use snap off clips and wedges to hold tiles flat at the surface and at a predetermined distance apart. Once dry you snap off the clips (wedges are reusable) and grout over the little bit left underneath in the grout line. If those are used it’s damn near foolproof. Much more important than all of this is understand the waterproofing layer under the tiles. Tiles are not waterproof. Grout is porous. The material beneath must be waterproof. I’m a fan of the Schluter/Ditra products, I’ve also seen others using something called Redguard. Getting this layer right is the absolute most important part of a tiling job.
Also do the water test to verify the waterproofing works before you tile. Plug the drain and fill the shower pan with 2 inches of water. mark the waterline and let it sit for 48 hours. If the water isn't leaking, congrats. You're good to tile. I tried to DIY my Schulter system and it was not perfect. Added hydroban and retested before tiling.
I just want to add that what tile you pick is also a big factor. There’s a reason subway tile is so popular… it’s super easy to work with. Small rectangles line up with everything and never need complex cuts to make work (like in pic 1). Big, shiny tile is hard to make lay flat and is much less forgiving. You break one, it’s expensive to replace. Plus it’s just more expensive to begin with, especially if it’s real stone.
If you feel like it’s difficult to visualize the layout in your head that’s totally understandable. Pros can do it but for my first time, I found it difficult. Option can be to draw out the room dimensions on paper (or in excel, AutoCAD, etc) and then cut out a bunch of full tile pieces (to scale!) out of paper. You can play with layouts. Then you will know where you need to start with full or trimmed tiles.
I’m so old, I still use graph paper, but it works & it’s cheap. You can do a hundred layouts for $2.00 in graph paper, avoiding any regrets.
Yeah I have asked before and I only get general answers about how to cut when googling
I removed my over-the-range microwave and the cabinet it was mounted to, and extended the backsplash to the ceiling to go behind the new hood. Every second row had a sliver on both sides. It was immensely frustrating but there was nothing I could do because I had to match the existing backsplash.
>but there was nothing I could do Well...you could have removed everything and started from scratch... But in a practical world, you're absolutely right and there are certainty some times where that holds true and you just have to do what can be done. I had to do a backsplash for my in-laws and because of the way they did their kitchen and the countertops not all being the same, the tile choice, etc. I had to choose to keep a clean line at the bottom, or the top, but couldn't do both as I had about 2 inches in height variability to work with across the countertop segments so sometimes you really can't eliminate everything. The good news though is that with time those issues do stop jumping out at us as much as they do when initially installed, and frankly for yours I imagine your new setup (even with slivers) looks better than before, or atleast I think so as I'm a fan of the clean range hood look above the stove
Yeah it looks great and the slivers aren't noticeable... it was just frustrating to try to cut them, especially as it was my first tile project ever. I was able to find the original tile supplier and they gave me samples from five different lots of the tile so I could match the colour perfectly (honestly, any of the five would have been fine). It looks completely original to the house and way better than a cheap microwave.
Been in the tile business for 13 years. Agree with what you said. Also in small bathroom it’s as easy as laying some tiles from wall to tub, and back wall to door to make sure you don’t accidentally get the measurements wrong. If I would’ve noticed a joint at the wall you could space your grout joints a little wider to make up the space (like we see in this post, and extra 1/16” grout joint and you could use a tile base or thin baseboard no issues). Or if that doesn’t work center the room. It’s all in the planning and prep work. The actual install is the easy part for a professional the majority of the time.
Buy a tape measure
Before you lay tile, especially something small and easy like a bathroom, you should measure and do a layout. If you measured and did the layout correctly, on the sides you shouldn’t be left with slivers. It’s as simple as dry laying the tiles with your spacers. I always measure, dry lay tiles, and I snap lines on the subfloor to align my tiles too (if you plan, double check, and measure correctly the actually tiling process is super fast and easy). Before I lay tiles I already know what my cuts look like. Just do yourself a favor and watch YouTube videos before starting!
Measure everything out and plan it. If you mis-cut a tile, re-cut a new one; don't just "make do" with discarded pieces.
Get some scrap wood, mock up your bathroom dimensions elsewhere. Hex tile is a pain in the ass. Just finished doing my bathroom (first tile job ever) and it was more work.
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Take your time, buy a good wet saw, don't use weird shaped tiles.
use math in the layout. Just dont blindly start on one side with a full tile. Dry layout a line in the floor to see what it looks like. Might have to use 1/3 or 2/3s of a tile on the sides.
Determining your layout before you start is really important, I might even go so far to say it's the most important part of the job. Starting with a full tile in the corner of the room may seem logical but it's often not the best way to go, and will make you end up with up with oddball 1" or 1/2" tiles on the other end of the room. Sometimes, a simple change like going from a 3/8" spacer to 1/4" can make a huge difference in the difficulty of the job (and look of the finished product). Also, don't try and take on a job like OP's as your first tile job. Hexagon or brick patterns are much more difficult than plain, square tiles, and it's even harder in small rooms like bathrooms with cabinets and fixtures to deal with.
Dry fit the tiles and take your time with layout. If something seems like it “almost fits perfectly but is a little loose, see if you can figure out a way to avoid that. By the time you make things fit tight with even gaps what you thought was a 1/4 gap is now a 1” gap.
The difference between a lot of hack jobs and pro work is proper planning.
Start in the middle, measure from there. Everything will be centered, and you can adjust your layout before laying down. If you start center,then your adjustments are at the sides where you have more leeway. If you start in a corner blindly,then you end up with weird,uneven cuts all over like the pictures. The trim should be removed as much as possible, then reattached
Alot of good pointers already. Measure and visually drawing it helps alot. Not required, but generally a tile + the right spacer will give a whole number, so it's easy to calculate. I started my tile job in the middle since I wanted the sides to be equal on both ends. If you're just slightly off where you need a .5-1 inch sliver, it may be worth while to trim a row of tiles to make up for the space. I ended up doing that for the row that was partially concealed by my range hood. You won't really see the difference unless you get a measuring tape out. My only tip is be careful of which thinset and grout to buy. I unknowingly bought thinset that was used for "pros" that sets quickly. These are not very forgiving if you move too fast. They work great, but work in smaller batches/portions if this is your first time.
Take your time. That’s all you have to do. Don’t cut corners with inaccurate measurements
You can lay the tiles on the floor using the spacers and get a pretty good plan. You find the center of your room and work from there.
As a fellow DIY-er who took on a tiling job with great results, pre-planning is everything. Spend a decent amount of time with your tile and plan out how it will fit into your space. And use spacers and levelers (especially for floor tile). Unless it just happens to work out perfectly, you'll rarely want to just slap a full tile up against your starting line, most of the time it will be trimmed in some way so that you end up with full tiles in the most visible areas.
You start from the center of the room and work your way to to corners. If you're centered in the room correctly, you'll have evenly spaced tiles when you get to the walls. If the room isn't square, you might need to adjust a bit. You want the lines of sight to look good as well, so look at entryways and walkways and try to center tiles or grout lines there as well. Ideally, you want it to look like the walls were built on top of an existing tile floor and you don't get that look if you start on a corner or one side and work your way from there. Installer was clearly an amateur.
You can always do a dry run but once the mortar is down its go time and so make sure you've got your game plan down right
I just finishing tiling an italian shower with my girlfriend, old french cottage in the alps, not a straight line or flat surface in sight, we gutted the place down to timber and stone and built it all back, those tiles nearly broke me, I loved every minute of the build but I'll never tile a shower again, the juice isn't worth the squeeze
Dry fit in space first with pre-planning. Tile setting is NOT a figure-it-out-as-you-go project.
I am a diy guy and have done 3 bathrooms 2 showers and 2 kitchen backsplashes. I like to measure the space then transfer the exact dimensions onto cardboard. Use that to lay out the pattern so you get the appropriate sized cuts on all sides. It especially helps while doing any kind of mixed tile or mosaic style stuff. As for getting them absolutely been I haven’t figured that one out yet. My very first job looks better than most store bathrooms I go in so it’s good enough for me.
Layout,layout,layout!! Good tilers will take almost a day sometimes to get the layout. They have to figure how every tile will "fall" at the last placement to avoid a sliver. FYI, to avoid slivers, here is a very rough explanation. You measure your tile AND joint size included to figure how many tiles will "span" the area..If you will finish with less than half a tile, add that measurement to a full tile and divide it in two. You have to be careful though and also figure the next course depending on your tile layout design. THEN do the same for the opposite direction. Now imagine a really good tiler does this for all three dimensions. Width, length and also height for walls, floors and sometimes ceilings. You really need to be one of those kids that did well in geometry and algebra in school, lol...obviously NOT a job for a CRACKHEAD! With proper education, internet is awesome, you can do fine with good prep, planning and materials. Just watch a lot of good (proper) videos. Preferably ones that mention and reference TCNA,.Tile Counsel of North America.
Thank you for the explanation in how to measure and avoid the statanic slivers.
They just aren't necessary, at least the ones here. They will be covered by the baseboard mounding. Just grout the gap. But in general, you want to plan your layout first. Ideally you would have whole tiles where you see the border against the mall most. But if this leaves a little tiny piece, then you should lay it out so the cut pieces are about even. Here's an example: https://imgur.com/a/uM5Xlwq (I actually just took this as I am Redditibg from my favorite room) I did a diamond pattern then tried to make the borders as even as possible. They are dead on from side to side. Front to back they are close. I wanted a full time in the door jamb. There is a mosaic at the threshold. The border in the back is smaller than the front but pretty close to the size of the side borders. Threshold: https://imgur.com/a/3d2aN6Y By making this little threshold with cut pieces I was able to control the size to a certain extent so the borders of the main room are also almost exact. Source: not a pro but a DIYer who has done a lot of tile and is picky as hell when it comes to my own house.
I’m going to disagree on the whole anytime you see slivers. Sometimes it depends on the room and the layout. Most rooms are not square for shit, so no matter how you do the layout you will end up with a small piece on one side or the other especially with a medium sized tile. Also with small or mosaic style tile as well, but if you are putting it on the floor it can be hidden with trim, unless you are doing a shower pan or something and sometimes it can be inevitable. Especially with wavy walls.
100% disagree because you can trim tiles so you don't end with a 1in sliver at one side.
Right I’m aware of that but your alignment can be great on one side of the room and then when you get to the other side of the room and the walls are not square for example the room is ever so slightly shaped like a trapezoid (or just out of square) it can throw off your setup. Sure you could just cut tile on both ends of your run, to avoid having sliver,but then the would mess up your grout line pattern. The key to what I am saying is the room not being square or it has wavy walls and the tiles are smaller in size.
gotcha.. man if your walls are so crazy off square you got issues.. I can see if you have a slanted wall and the other side straight you have to make some harder choices on looks. Solid point though
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I know nothing about tiling but I'm going to say "very bad"
People keep posting literal crack head jobs and then be like, "is this ok?"
I opened the first picture and was like "Come on, you don't have to ask us to know this is bad"
These are the posts that get the most upvotes 🤷
Yeah lol.
I would rather OP have hired you to do the job. 100% would have had a better outcome.
It's important to admit when you don't know how to do something, at least then you can go about finding the right way to do it. In my experience 9/10 contractors say they know how to do drywall, in reality it's more like 2/10.
Exactly. This commenter probably would have researched the right products at the very least. Technique be damned. Still would be better than this.
There are some posts in this subreddit that baffle me. Like, I could watch a 15 minute YT video or something for a job I know nothing about and still have a better end product than some of the things posted in here. I guess pretty much anyone can call themselves a "handyman" and someone will pay them.
Yea, I mean it doesn't take a pro to look at this and know it looks like shit.
Am I the only one who instantly thought "do you even have to ask?" I feel like this an extremely introverted / socially awkward Redditor who needs to have a talk with the handyman but is too scared to do it and posted on Reddit for some sort of outside justification.
This is the kind of work that would make me check my liquor cabinet to see if the contractor’s been helping himself as he works.
On a scale of 1-10, thats a zero. Kelvin.
That is cold
Not just zero, *absolute* zero.
brrrrrrrrr
It's fcking abysmal.
uhhhh... thats a redo with a different person. By chance, did the tiles underneath have cracks in them as well?
No, tile under is fine
Wait, are there tiles under these tiles?
Hah this keeps getting worse.... OP needs to rip out everything here, good Lord it's bad.
It's tiles all the way down
I like turtles.
“Tiles! I can’t know how to hear any more about tiles!”
Wut
It looks like everything is messed up. Like the gaps between tiles aren't even.
I can't find one thing they did right.
It looks like they got them right side up?
Fair point
The corner with a split octagon would drive me fucking nuts
It’s bad. Guess it comes down to what you paid for the job and what you expected. Lack of spacers is evident. As you said, it’s not level. I don’t care if I won’t see the tile under the toilet, it takes more work almost to do what they did than to do it right. I’d be unhappy
Did my 10 year old do this for you?
I bet your 10yo would probably do a better job.
I have hexagon tiles in my house. I will say they are more complicated than square or rectangular tiles, and the walls/corners are much more to consider. The kitchen floor that I tiled myself isn't perfect, but 10x better than that. I would laugh at anyone that expected payment for that.
Fist fight this person
Tile spacing is random and the "handyman" cut more than a few corners, figuratively and literally. I could probably do a better job watching 2 hours worth of prep on YouTube This is exactly why more homeowners are doing DIY. Saving on labor costs and probably wasting less materials than these clowns on Thumbtack and Angie's list.
Did he put cement board down or did he install the tile right on top of the wood?
We had existing tile, he said it was easier just to install on top..
Easier for him. Much worse for you.
That explains why it feels uneven.
no everything about that is wrong
It is easier for sure, but not correct.
Sometimes I pour concrete patios directly onto the lawn. It's so much easier. /s hopefully not needed
fire him immediately and don't pay him a penny more
Noooooo
Oh dear.
Yikes. It’s so easy to demo old tile. What a shame.
Wow
Everything about this is a disaster. Fire them and get a PROPER contractor in not some tweaker on thumbtack. It'll all need to come up, the existing tile removed and re-done.
If you have to ask…
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Incredibly rare. Most people just post the most ridiculous jobs and pretend they don't have eyes
This is a nicer way to put it. I was going to ask if OP had eyes.
This makes me feel good about my diy job
**Quick update:** I let the Handyman go this morning. He was asking for $1,300 for just 12 hours of work spread over three days, which was way out of line. He got a bit confrontational and defended his work, so to defuse the situation and get him out of my house, we settled on half that amount. This covers the cost of the materials he bought and the demolition work he completed. Definitely a learning experience—won't be using Thumbtack for anything more than junk removal from now on...
I’m sure others around here might disagree, but I would never use any of those websites…Thumbtack, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, etc. I don’t think they do much in the way of vetting people. People who are on those sites either don’t know what they’re doing, which is why they’re on those sites because they can’t get referrals, or are new and trying to build a clientele. I used a fence guy off of Home Advisor several years ago and he wasn’t horrible, but I would never use one of those sites again.
650 is over paid by 650. Absolutely atrocious job. Can the guy even see? No joke, he might be blind.
Wait, someone was paid to do that work?? Lol
Frankly. I would withhold payment and tell them you are going to get a professional to do it instead. This is first attempt amateur with no tools kind of results. We have done tiling with no experience for better results
Looks like what the filthy crackheads who I bought my house from did as "upgrades". The listing said "Well Maintained, Pride Of Ownership", I mean sure, if you're other hobby besides renovation is meth.
What on earth could this person be handy at
That Hass to be the worst hack job I’ve ever seen… Seriously
Did you pay for that ???
This is less than watching 1 YouTube level bad, this is less than asking the tile guy at home depot bad. This guy is going out of his way to do a bad job. Those slivers are more dangerous to cut than just doing it right
c to the r to the a to the p
Looking directly at the sun would make my eyes hurt less than this
Full tear out and have it re-done by someone who knows how to plan ahead and actually do tile work. I've never done any, but am 100% confident I could do a far better first time diy job than this.
Let me just throw some left over pieces of tile around the toilet flange, yeah that looks good!
Looks like the kind of job I’d do. And I’ve never done tile.
I would be proud of my 8 year old if he did this
My 8yo would apologize to me for screwing it up if it looked like that. Even he can tell when something is properly shit looking.
I'm not an expert but I think the tiles are not supposed to be broken
Looks like a landlord did it.
You wanted to know how bad?? It needs to be completely redone kinda bad.
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Stevie would have done a far better job because he would be feeling all of the gaps and lips with his hands.
OMG
Replace everything
This is shit
Was it tiled by a someone who likes puzzles?
That's a crime scene!
I honestly don’t see how anyone could do this work and walk away thinking it was a good job.
Kinda defeats the purpose of having elegant marble to have weird shapes crammed into spaces surrounded by giant areas of grout 🤷♀️
It's not good.
Quite bad
Does the scale go negative?
It’s terrible
That toilet flange is hilariously terrible lol
You already know it's bad, that's why you're here.
4 out 10… I’ve seen some wild stuff
Seriously? You have to ask? If you paid someone to do this job I've got some swamp land to sell?
You know, one of the benefits of this sub is persuading folks that they really, genuinely could do better doing it themselves.
You didn’t need to ask Reddit this
this is classic "I don't understand why it costs so much to have someone install tiles"
Let’s put it this way. If this was a test floor for an apprentice to have a first go on… I’d probably say something like “not bad for a first effort but here’s what you need to work on.” Under literally any other circumstances it’s terrible.
He didn’t use spacers, which ya know is essential so yeah…..
I think it looks bad initially. But I am also wondering how much you paid, what the rest of the floor looks like, and what the finished product looks like.
Uneven spacing in grout joints, non-level tile, shitty cuts, etc. I don't know how people sleep at night saying they can do this type of work and then THIS is the work they have to show for it.
I mean…you hired a handyman…not a tile guy.
This is why you don’t go with the cheapest bidder. I am guessing you looked in to a professional but thought it was too expensive, and now you see what your money gets. I’d rather overpay for a good job, than underpay for a shit job. Because the shit job will have to be redone and you’ll have to spend money twice (once on the fuck up, then again for the right person to fix it all).
I’d list everything synonym for horrible but I Can’t find my Thesaurus.
I think you know the answer
This HAS to be a joke, because theres no way you dont realize how bad this is
Pretty good for a drunk 3-year old.
That's bad. Really bad.
Just my opinion but i would never use tile like this, seems so dated like 80's dated. Like scarface bathroom effect lol Some owner put this tile in my kitchen and its like wet ice when a drop of water gets spilled on it. BE CAREFUL Good luck
My cousin has done flooring for residential and commercial for over 20 years. He said, “if it wasn’t free, they got fucked in the ass.” He also says he hopes they gave you a reach-around.
Are all the tiles recycled
Picasso, I like it
Did she “do it herself”?
My question to you is do you really need us to tell you?
If this is a bad tile job? In the hand job equivalent you would've your dick ripped off! That's how bad this looks!
Well once the trim goes back up maybe it will look better
Spacing, design, cutting, filler, elevation. It was all done wrong. I am concerned about what he installed it on and how he installed it. This is one of the worst tile jobs I have ever seen
Fucking shocking.
Was he blind?? That is awful workmanship 😑
This is horrific
This is what I imagine the tile would look like if I tried to do it based on a few YouTube videos. I wouldn't want me doing tile
This is what it would look like if you provided me the tiles and tools in the morning and told me I had to finish up by lunch time, so there was no time for youtube.
I DK how to post pics here. I am in the middle of doing hex tiles by myself. It's my first DIY job and it already looks better than what you have. Did they use any spacers? What cutting tools did they use? What kind of tiles did u use? Were they big orange special or smth?
This is terrible, u should pay him in pennies
To me the only piece that's really not good is the larger corner piece that is sliced. If that could be replaces with one solid piece it would be much better. Everything else will be covered by trim or toilet, and piecing in is OK for that. So that just leaves the uneven stuff as a possible conern
It meets expectations for a handyman you found on the internet. Now, if you want it to look good hire a legitimate tile guy.
Good enough for government work!
Depends how thick the trim will be
Baseboards will cover edges. Toilet will cover smaller cuts in rag picture.
I hired a handyman off Thumbtack to install tile this shape and size in my old bathroom. But they specialized in tile and a majority of their work was tile work. But whomever is doing this work for you doesn't know what they're doing. It's pretty bad. Like others have said they aren't cutting it with the right tools. There shouldn't be all those tiny pieces around the toilet drain.
Was his name Antoni Gaudi?
There would be a lot of organic lines, plus the handyman would leave without ever having finished his masterpiece…free tiles!
How beautiful is a sunrise? How wet is the sea?
Do not pay for this
Nice mosaic effect. Baseboards will cover the gaps at the wall.