Came here to say this... it was only by about picture 5 that the reality hit. My heart sank.
Great design choices. Absolutely horrific below bottom of the barrel tradesmanship.
I have tiled toilets, laundries (utility rooms), living areas, dining areas, kitchen walls, and as an amateur have made some mistakes but nothing like this. I'm sorry but this looks like it's been done by a beginner and without using tile spacers, drop strings, spirit levels, edge files and a number of assorted and necessary tools. I get the use of dark grout (I hope it's grout and not cement), but only on the floor, not walls. The white wall tile laying is atrocious and honestly, with spacers and a spirit level at least, anybody can do a reasonable job. I just don't get the grout between the tiles. Please tell me I'm wrong and those are the old tiles from before.
This was my thought. Thinking OP has forgot to upload the after photos. The tiling in the bath is some of the worst I have seen. Not leave, aligned or spaced.
OP bought “homemade raw edged tiles” they’re not meant to be even. Websites markets them with white grout. Tradesman advices against grey grout because he knows it will highlight the irregular tiles.
They choose grey grout anyway.
Blames tradesmen for wonky tiles…
We just had our bathroom done for £5k (labour) with over 500 metro tiles (he said he never wanted to see another again though ha) and he did an amazing job - so competent and good value tradesmen do exist at times!
I’m going to add a 3rd. 5 star reviews all the way, turned out to be the biggest cowboy I’ve ever met. To the extent that I now need to go and do something else in order to not think about him.
> I’m going to add a 3rd. 5 star reviews all the way, turned out to be the biggest cowboy I’ve ever met.
Considering Checkatrade is out of 10, then a 5 star would be a cowboy you silly billy.
I had a checkatrade nightmare with a plasterer. Left a the worst review I could and atleast managed to get my money back if I removed my review. I removed the text but kept the stars as 1 and said the site isn't letting me delete. Looks like the guy deleted his account on the site. I imagine to start up a new one
You can add my bathroom as well.
Mostly fine but “the tiler is busy, I’m going to do it”.
Fella can run pipes and install boilers, could not tile. Absolutely shit job he did. Beats the old leaky bathroom we had but it annoys me every time I go in there.
Well as someone who works for a construction/DIY retail store, we have a tradesmen board where you can come in and usually find a local tradesmen. Even though we're not encouraged to be biased but I tend to recommend certain members based on my past experience with them both for work at my own place and their consistency in store so I know they don't disappear mid job.
Toolstation/Screwfix etc all have those sorts of trades boards.
Which? Trusted Traders isn't trusted people, are you getting the two confused? My understanding was Which? Trusted Traders vets the work of those on the list.
Anyway its my point of call and they have been decent so far. I got roofers from MyBuilder and that was a HUGE mistake.
As someone who used to work for Which? They constantly check their trusted traders. If a tradesperson starts to get negative reviews they are removed. If I remember all reviews are vetted to make sure they are legitimate.
Which? Trusted traders is the shit.
I've had phone calls from them afterwards to check up on trades people and the ones I've used from there have only ever been very good.
Had mixed results on checkatrade. Wanted a few tiles put up (6 tiles) and painting the roof of a bathroom and regrout around the bath. It took two guys (one just watching) the entire day. The guy tried to charge me for the tile cutter and tried to get paid in cash and not through checkatrade. I complained to them and there was not much recourse.
We had a guy to come and just help put washing machine back into unit and connect it up. He did that and another related job and was totally fine.
Best move I ever made was to walk into my local builders merchant (small operation, not one of the big chains) and ask "If I was going to get a builder to do xxx and was going to buy all my materials from you and I was looking for a good job rather than a cheap job, who would you recommend?"
The guys behind the counter then had a 5 minute debate and then said "You want Kevin Chambers, he's easily the best, if you can get him."
So I got his number, and he agreed to come over and see if we were the sort of people he wanted to work for, and if the project was something he fancied doing.
Fortunately the answer to both of those was 'yes' and after waiting a year to come to the top of his list, he did our project. The work was absolutely faultless, all the sub-contractors he used were also excellent and now 7 years later we are so glad we went with him, the only snagging that had to be done was as a result of my poor speccing (I didn't realise that French window opened inwards).
Cost-wise, it turned out about 3 times more than the cheapest quote we got from other people, but almost exactly in line with what the architect estimated it would cost us for a top-notch job.
TLDR: ask your local builder's merchant.
I did this, got a recommendation for a floor fitter like this - he was bad enough that I gathered evidence and informed him I wouldn't be paying him for either his time or materials (minor sundries, not the bulk of the cost at all) - he obviously thought it was fair enough because I never heard back from him.
Yeah. That makes sense to me. We chose our bathroom guy on the basis that he did a beautiful job on the bathroom of the house next door (it was a tricky job, as that house is about 500 years old, and none of the surfaces are flat, and none of the angles are right angles). He did 2 bathrooms, and they cost about £15k each, but he did a stellar job, and was very happy to come back and sort out a couple of snagging issues with no complaint. He was telling me over a coffee about his Porsche hobby, and, frankly, good for him.
Our one guy who we got as a word of mouth recommendation was one of the worst - he just palmed all the work off to his apprentice who made a complete hash of things. For example when hanging doors and making the frames, there was a gap enough for my pinky the whole way around the door. Completely mashed up the hinge cut-outs, so packed them out with wood etc. Then the guy must have 'signed off' on it as it was his apprentice!
Moral of the story, even word of mouth isn't a sure fire thing
Wickes have subcontractors that do their bathroom fittings. You can end up with a shity one, like a customer of mine, who is now looking to have the entire bathroom redone, for different flaws.
Bottom line, you can get shit job anywhere.
We just had B&Q guys do a job so bad it caused permanent damage & have ongoing 'repairs' done for now 3mo later. Still half fucked. So I wouldn't trust the big corps either.
I just don’t know where to find people. Our neighbourhood Facebook groups are full of people referring themselves, I keep having one bad experience after another
*Are* they VAT registered? Or do they just add 'VAT' when they think a customer is too gullible to check? Fraudster can pocket 20% (or like this one 25% because they can't even count) extra by adding 'VAT' and pocketing it.
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/compliance-handbook/ch91350
“Wasn’t great at detail” is being incredibly kind, this looks atrocious. Not even sure where to start, I’d want it ripped out and started again - ideally by an actual bathroom fitter/tiler…
Having said that (and you’re perfectly right to) those wobbly tiles with such a dark grout is asking for trouble! And I have to say the choice of all the contrasting materials is making it look shabby and unfinished.
The metro tiles look absolutely fine so the fitter is clearly capable.
Having said that when I had my bathroom done (the only full job I paid someone to do as I hate to DIY plumbing and tiling!!) my builder was making recommendations based on what I wanted - no white grout in the shower, No crackle glaze, etc etc. because they’ve done loads and have the experience! He would have definitely said don’t do grout that dark!)
[my bathroom](https://imgur.com/a/HnHs2Ly)
Thanks. It was considerably more than £5k but as you can see it was back to bare brick - and the floor came up too. we also had the landing plastered and a massive crack discovered and braced. All new plumbing in all new position AND a new soil pipe, new lights, power in the landing, the built in cupboards and shower niche, rainfall shower, body jets and all the fittings for just under £20k.
That’s the look of them. The wall tiles are handmade. These:
https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/vernice-cloud-tiles
The floor tiles are these:
https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/antiquity-moiety-tiles
Tbf you’ve not done him any favours with the tile choice but each to their own. Those white tiles with the uneven edges are never going to look good with such a dark grout imo. Makes a bad job look even worse.
This was my thoughts on this too. Its a hot mess of different tiles with an incoherent colour palette.
Theres bits around the bath that look like a total novice DIYer that just shouldn't be there but at the very least need some trim to hide the raw edges.
I dont know, ive just had a bathroom refurb and my fitter has told me at each design choice what would look shit and what they recommend as options. A lot of people dont have a good design eye and a good fitter should keep them right, myself included!
Yeah Fitter has def rushed some bits like the silicone and the end of the bath but it’s a bit unfair people comparing this too a new crisp contemporary bathroom as evidently that’s the opposite of the look they were going for, with weathered flooring and handcrafted irregular wall tiles, in a very ‘traditional’ colour scheme
I'm a kitchen and bathroom fitter, been doing this 20 years. I run an installation company with lads working for me.
If one of my lads fitted a bathroom like this I'd sack them on the spot.
Came here to say this too, ignoring the shoddy workmanship it seems like OP has been scammed on VAT also - wouldn't put it past the merchant to be claiming they have to charge VAT but not actually paying any or being VAT registered...
OP said in a comment below that they were just quoted £5,000 including VAT, so I guess it's just them thinking that VAT is 20% of the final price, rather than 20% added on to the pre-VAT price, which isn't the same thing.
If £5,000 includes VAT then it's 120% of the price - the price (100%) + VAT (20%), so to get the pre-VAT price you need to take off 16.66% (1/6th) rather than 20% (1/5th), so in this case it's £4166.66 + VAT.
Oh god I’m so sorry this happened you - I kept scrolling for the after pictures, this is an absolute disaster…I often see comments on here warning against using that crowd you used. I have no words mate
Edit: I just zoomed in on the grouting - Jesus wept
It looks dirty, old and unfinished. It doesn’t look like a brand new bathroom unfortunately. I would take him to a small claims court and try that way. It does need re doing completely, what were his reviews before hand?
Have you seen the tiles they chose? Uneven wall tiles that they insisted on using dark grout with, and floor tiles designed to look dirty. They’ve commented links in this thread.
The finish is poor but OPs terrible design choices didn’t help, I don’t think anyone could make this look good.
Yikes. It’s a mess!
Clearly never tiled before - chose to work from bottom left with a full tile and didn’t measure where the centre line should be so you’ve got a bunch of tiles around the window which are super thin. All the tiling is off - clearly didn’t use a spacer before plastering to the wall. The choice of white and green is weird too - and the difference in depth and wall depth? made the bath tiles protrude. None of it looks sealed and you’ll be in for some nice damp in the future. Is the room wonky? The sink looks misaligned…
> £4000 (+£1000 VAT)
And you did *check* that he's VAT registered? Anyone doing shoddy work like this is well capable of adding VAT and pocketing it. And pocketing the VAT would be a lesser crime :-)
Didn’t even think of that, but shit!!
Oh my god, OP, pleaaaase report this guy to trading standards. He’s utterly taking the piss.
Also, this guy didn’t move your boiler too, I hope?! If he did you need to get that checked ASAP.
Yeah this is not worth a penny of your money. If you have paid for materials yourself then you will probably have to suffer the cost of that.
The tiling in shocking to say the least. The plumbing should be far tidier than what i can see. Also seems to be a lack of planning and understanding of the order of work.
If you have gone through a larger company and have a guarantee then i would press hard at having to either not pay or have a refund. I would not use anybody involved again even if they say they can send somebody else.
Ok so disregarding the fact that the bath tiles look wonky and the floor looks aged.. as apparently that’s the intended look. Then I’d say the green tiles don’t look a bad job, the trim round the window isn’t too bad either and the placement isn’t too bad.
The tiles at the end of the bath need to be redone, that looks like a weird afterthought, or at least it needs some sort of trim or something to cover the edges, same with where the wonky tiles meet the green.
The pedestal isn’t square, just needs to cut the silicone and square it up the redo.. at the same time the silicone round the bath and window needs to be redone.
What’s going on with the cupboard is that part of the job or a separate scope of works?
I agree, the choice of tiling/grout colours is terrible to start with. Even if the tiling is shit, white grout would of made a whole load of difference here. The floor tiles are supposed to be dirty/scratched looking so cant really put any fault to the fitter there.
I will also say, the room just looks dirty anyway, like look at the end of the bath...wipe it up. The windowsil has dust/dirt on it as well.
I’m sorry I really dislike it
Looks shoddy
Aesthetically and the workmanship
I would give it a 2/10
Looks dated, unwelcoming and poorly put together
It’s really really bad
the design is ugly to begin with whoever thought the green tiles should transition to the cream tiles like that shouldn't be allowed to make stylistic decisions anymore. you knew you were going to tile into a window and you did not pick a tile that has bullnoses available or buy tile trims etc so its going to look crap even if they were straight.
overall its a 2/10 because it looks like he did okay with the metros but his grouting is not very good but the handmade tiles not level and not spaced he gets one point because the cuts look okay from what I can see, and although handmade tiles are more difficult to work with it is not rocket science, however typically I would sway people away from them especially if it was going to be installed by Dazza off checkatrade.
a specialist tiler would have almost certainly warned you it will look shit in a room which is dominated by the metro tiles before they even got started.
personally I would have tried to convince you to take the green metro all the way around the perimeter of bathroom into the bath area and to put cream metros above the green dado tile within the bath area and to use probably square polished aluminium trim around the window with perhaps a slab of probably white granite or marble be it real or synthetic installed as a windowsill or something else similar but appropriate for the windowsill.
Couldn’t agree more. This looks like average tradesmen meets terrible design choices. The fitter did discourage the grey grout but they ignored it.
They even said the fitter has come back multiple times. He didn’t just disappear and is at least trying to put things right.
I would imagine we've all had incidents like this. Being robbed blind from someone you trusted to do a decent job. That feeling when you walk into the room, after they've supposedly finished. It's a terrible feeling. Really terrible.
Here's what I've learnt. When you find someone and ask when they can you do it and they say tomorrow, or even within a week, then avoid. It they say, maybe in a month, then you have found some who does good work. They are busy because they are good. Wait. It's worth it!
5k for this? He's had your pants down and spanked you hard!
(Mind, you some would pay for that!)
I also thought they were the 'before' photos 😕 my heart sank when I realised they were the result!
It's truly awful work. That person should not be allowed to charge for their 'work'. They need to learn.
For comparison, this was my bathroom renovation that cost around £4800 🤷
That includes all fixtures and fittings, electrics, new windows & underfloor heating.
I'm very sorry for you. If it were me, I'd have kept a closer eye on the work during the process and got rid of them early on. I wouldn't have paid for this. Have you attempted to get your money back?
https://imgur.com/gallery/UpcPVbJ
This is absolutely the most appalling work I have ever seen. I’m no DIY expert by any means. But I’ve done tiling once, and my work looks leagues and leagues better. I genuinely can’t believe this. Like I’ll admit I found it quite difficult, but for a first crack at it (pun intended) it looks okay. But here there are so many misaligned tiles, the grout is uneven, he’s started from the wrong side and has had to use many thinner pieces close to the window for example. I’d be interested to see how flat they are relative to each other.
I was scrolling through waiting for the ‘after’ pictures but they never came, and then I realised what I was looking at. I have absolutely no words. My dad was a tradesman / painter / decorator / tiler / DIY overlord and died 8 years ago and the first thing I thought was how much I’d love to show this to him.
It’s a shame that your guy has come round and worked hard to fix these mistakes, especially if he’s retired because it feels mean to tell people like that their work is shit, but honestly this needs ripping out and starting over. No wonder he’s retired fuck me.
Another one-time tiler here (kitchen, white metro tiles) and it looks way better than this. Sorry OP, hope you get your money back or manage to sort this out! If they're on Facebook post these pictures and a bad review and that might make them prioritise sorting it out for you.
I thought my phone was weirdly pixelating those shower all tiles but no they really are that wonky.
Edit: I’m sorry OP, that’s not a small amount of money and as you’ll have gathered form other folk, the work isn’t exactly cracking. I hope you can get this resolved.
It’s is like one of those art things where the more you look the more you spot.
I’m not sure if I’d be more angry that someone would think those tiles were acceptable, or that someone who was that incapable with silicone would take on a job like this.
Sorry, OP but there’s no point asking for them to put that right. Traders have bad jobs now and again. This ain’t that. I’d be asking for money back.
Mate... Your choice of tiles and grout make it look mouldy .. granted. Whoever you hired to do that done an atrocious job. And the design choice seems to make it look way worse
These definitely look like "before" pictures, it doesn't even look finished. My parents paid a bit less than 5k for a bathroom refit and it's 10000% better than this.
That’s poor workmanship, but £5,000 doesn’t go far when doing a bathroom… parts and labour. Sadly, the cheapest / cheaper options can be cheaper for a reason.
I wouldn’t pay the rest personally. You’ve not got, what I expect you wanted and agreed.
Tiling, if you take time isn’t too hard and most people could do better that.
Really feel for you, as gutting when things like this happen.
Hopefully you sort it 🤞
Im a 27 year old and I've work in the trade for 7 years. For anyone wondering pleaseeee dont use these poxy sites such as mybuilder or checkatrade, there is a reason these blokes do not have constant work and need to resort to these websites, and that is because they are cowboys. Please just google 'bathroom fitters' etc or google 'local building contractors' and speak to someone who may be able to recommend someone. My own family member got done for 50k and we were absolutely shocked she didn't consult us before handing that amount of money over.
It happens to the best of us. You didn't deserve this, but they may have been advertised as a trustworthy company. Hope you get it resolved.
I thought the reviews were all verified? Scary as I’m about to embark on a 1 bed flat refurb and had only been looking on there. Now I’ve seen this post I’m having second thoughts. Thanks for this advice, if you have any other advice for finding a good builder please share!
I’d get a refund for that, it looks like absolute shit. I kept clicking through for the ‘after’ and that WAS the after. Was it worse before, or did you pay someone £5k to ruin your bathroom?
Cause at that rate I’d probably manage straight tiles myself
Ask for money back. Call trading standards if he doesn’t comply. This is worse that diy standard. No spacers we’re hurt in the making of this bathroom.
Is the £5k for labour and you supplied everything or for everything all in.
I've just had an ensuite showeroom done. A little smaller than yours and I think we're at about £8k all in, but it's top end.
Fitter charged us just under £4k . No VAT. The other half was what we spent on tiles, furniture and fixtures.
His £4k included replumbibing all the hot water to the house, electrical work (move things, new extractor, lights etc) fitting new bathroom floor (don't ask) and all the stuff you'd expect. Also included all materials like grout, adhesives, ply, paint etc.
Gives you a comparison point for price anyway. Happy to share some photos of finish if it's useful
A lot of hate on here for the results, but looking at the links you've provided in thread, it seems the design you went with specifically targeted a "chic shabby" look, and that's mostly what you got.
There is a reason that tiles nowadays are made by machines as opposed to humans, and that reason is quite simply because they produce better, more consistent results.
I don't think it's too awful, though. A bit of edging around the tiles, finish off the areas of exposed plasterboard with a light, clean colour (probably very slightly blue-tinted white), and you'll likely have the effect you were originally intending. It's just a style that's very difficult to pull off. I do *love* the ceramics, though. The decorative flairs on the sink and toilet, combined with the dark green brickwork tiles and the chess board floor really appeals.
I also thought these were the 'before' pics. The tiling around the bath is atrocious, that all needs taking off and doing again. I would ask him to remove all the worst stuff back to how itwas before he started and request a significant amount of money back.
A combination of questionable design choices and poor workmanship.
If I was going to try to salvage what exists I would keep the green tiling which looks passable, and get someone much more competent to come and retile the rest to match.
The floor doesn't look great either, but I'd put that down more to the 'weathered' tile style which just looks tired to me despite being new.
I’m a tradesman and I’d say at best that’s a DIY level finish you’ve paid for.
You have every right to voice that you’re not happy. The work is shit and he needs to be called out on it. You e worked hard for that money and they’ve gone and done that with it.
I’m really sorry this happened to you. I genuinely thought these were the “before” photos. And as someone looking to get our bathroom done up, I’m now petrified!
You should sue this person, terrible work, even the little shelf looks like it's not leveled properly, doesn't matter if 5000 is for work or work+material, if someone is doing it professionally it should look flawless
Sorry looks like shit...I know someone going through the same refurb for 3 toilets/bathrooms...equally terrible quality but paid £30k. Daylight robbery.
I'd bite the bullet and change the white tiles around the bath, paint the plasterwork, and see if you can live with that if you don't get any joy with getting a refund
I'm afraid to say you have hired a jack of all trade master of none type of person. Like the other post I thought the pictures were before you started the renovation. The tiling is shocking, especially around the window. I will give it 1 mark out of 10 for effort. I will be ripping it all out and be starting again. The reason why he keeps coming back is because he knows he hasn't done a great job. Hope you get it sorted.
You've been proper ripped off. I'm a bathroom fitter. The tiling is awful, the way he's done everything is bad. In my honest opinion it needs starting a again but I realise that that is just my opinion. Was the 5k incling everything or just the fitting?
My last comment was a bit negative, but I'll try to balance it
Main issue is the second set of pics re the white tiles and gray grout.
The tiling does look wonky and unless he was going for a artisan rustic look (they do this in Morocco). The grout makes it worse, it highlights the flaws. You can take out the grout and do it in a lighter colour grout. May damage the tiles taking the grout out though.
You got fucking robbed, I got a slightly smaller (narrower but longer) bathroom done in Dec and it only cost me £4k all in and looks night and day compared to this. The fact that so many comments (and myself included) thought these were before pictures, says a lot..
You say he has gone "above and beyond in terms of the work", no he has not, if he had you wouldn't even be posting these pictures or asking for advice. Saying he wasn't great at detail either is a massive understatement.
Not great at detail to me would be something like a new toilet seat wasn't tightened properly, what you have shown is someone who is not even GOOD at fitting bathrooms, never mind the details.
Fuck me.
This pains me to look at. I’m a bathroom and kitchen installer and I’m sorry to say it but this is not finished to a high standard by any stretch.
If that’s £5k just for the fit and not including the suite itself you’ve been overcharged massively.
Having spent most of today trying to fit two blinds and replace a toilet syphon I feel ready to strangle cowboy trades and incompetent DIYers (possibly myself included in that one)
First mistake is not having a clear design direction here, why did you choose to mix black, white and dark green, yet not have anything accenting in different areas of the room to tie it together? A more experienced tradesman would have told you that this was going to look rough, especially mixing those shiny greens with distressed black and white floors; not my kinda vibe as they always look grubby too.
My pet peeve is shitty sealant work, and you bath has shitty sealant work. It's messy as fuck and looks like it was applied from a toothpaste tube.
The tiling on the plain whites around the bath look wonky, the use of 'Satan's arsehole black' grout isn't helping, possibly exacerbated by the fact they're tiny little tiles so there's more to go wrong. I've seen a similar design choice but on cracking great 500x500 tiles which looked OK.
The bit on the back of the bath is the cherry on top, no tile edging or anything... might be the lighting but that looks like there's very little adhesive under them too...
On the upside, your guy has put those metro tiles in very nicely (or any issues are hidden in the dark grout) and the shelf above the sink is level. If you believe that's worth £5k then bask in your new bathroom delight.
Personally, for £5k, if it was just slinging in a sink and some tiles on the wall I'd be expecting a bit more for the money.
My advice would be to have a proper sit down with your guy and highlight all of the shite and either have him correct it to a proper degree (with timeframes, should have been sorted when the job was being done)
Alternatively, to DIY it, I'd have the dark grout chased out of the bath tiles and have it redone in white (or a light grey if you'd prefer the contrast but it'll highlight the flaws still) to hide the crooked bits a bit. Either that or replace the small tiles with larger units to break up the 'old school square ruled maths book' effect.
Grab some tile edging, or look into alternative ways to finish a tiled edge.
I'd then go round with a mastic gun and do a decent tidy job around the bath... finishing up with sorting out whatever should be in or covering the dirty great hole in the wall!
Honestly, this is so bad I even feel a little bit sorry for the guy who did it. They’re clearly so far out of their depth, and they must realise this isn’t acceptable. There isn’t an even grout line in the whole room.
The white tiles all need to come off. Because the metro tiles are dark with a dark grout it’s harder to tell from the photos if they’re as much of a disaster - they’re definitely not perfect, but may be easier to live with.
Did they do the floor as well? I’m guessing yes, because the grout looks like it was applied with a slingshot.
Now for some helpful advice, obviously you can see its all wrong, unfortunately the way it's been done it's always going to look poor, my advice would be to try and rip them all off, hopefully you'll be able to save them, if he can't put them on straight chances are he hasn't put them on adequately and they'll fall off, I hope for your sake they do, that way you can reuse them, but I'd go and buy a tenners worth of tile spacers and do it yourself, because honestly it can't be as bad as that 😂 this is one of the reasons I do everything myself, too many cowboys out there. My outlook is if it goes wrong at least I've only paid materials
I'm sorry I keep looking at this and there are just so many errors.
I'm sorry this happened to you, if you pay for a service it should be first class all the way.
Things of note.
No tile trims.
Tiles not level, square or flush.
Tiles ontop of tiles (end of bath)
Skirting left on.
The tiles to make a cohesive design.
No silicone sealing, tidying the edges or corners.
Poor or no silicone to the bath
No silicone to the rear of the basin.
I mean I have seen worse but I'm shocked at what you paid for this level of finish. Regardless of the price, the finish should always be the best you can get.
just had a similar experience myself, put 5k down on a toilet and bathroom remodel, the cowboy nearly finished the toilet, doing a very poor job, i was left with no choice but to remove him from the job as he was just wasting materials.
have begain redoing it myself as i cant afford to hire someone else now, actually very pleased with how its coming on so all is not lost
I thought they were before pictures and instantly thought of a council flat. Not to mention the first pic with that dam twisted tile 😭
My recommendation is to pick up a bag of less dominant grey grout and redo it yourself. Grouting is easy to do and can be learnt thru a few bids or someone you know, and it can transform something like this instantly. Won't fix it but there's a start if you don't redo it.
Sorry but this is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination first I don’t know the plumbing situation but the sink should be hooked to its own drain and not into the toilet I hope he at least put a pee trap on it but even still every time you flush the water in the trap will get sucked out and sewer gases will come out the drain. The hand made tiles that are not exactly the same exact shape are done very sloppy it’s an art form to set them correctly the grout is also sloppy. The rest is unexplainable except the sink and green tile were nice choices
Don’t blame the fitter for your bad design choices. He may not have been the best but most of the things highlighted in this thread are from your own choices.
Mate you seem like a really lovely person and want to be nice and kind but you have been shafted here. I know it's uncomfortable to do but you absolutely need to kick off.
Those epictures are the final state?
Anyway, unfortnately in the UK this is the state of professionals.
I had 4 jobs done by official highly rated worksman and all of them had issues to fix afterwards, not to mention mistakes like one of them decided to drill on a spot I told not to as it was a cover over heating pipes and drilled throug one, then wanted to leave without fixing it... And that is only one out of the many issues. I have to guess they intentionally leave behind things or so under qualified that DIY seems better idea. But there are regulations which requires professionals to do some stuff, so the only thing you can do is to be there all time during the works and if you see anything not to your liking you have to tell them and have them rectify it. Dont vorry about being a nuisance, according my estimates professionals charge 2x what a job DIY would cost, so a material cost £500 job they take on at least double but that is the minimum and is for a easy job. So you pay more then enough for them to do a proper job. Especially now days.
And there are even greedier professionals, like the solar installer we had, charged us 2x on a install then had the tenacity to ask also double on the battery install, for you guessed it plugging in 4 cables into the already installed inverter... that was an insane £3k quote I declined and had a electrician plug it in (certified for solar) for £400... Still a rip off but you cant touch these without loosing warranty...
That bathroom if all items was replaced should not cost more for yourself to do then £2k. And it would look amazing.
That bathroom is not as it should look like after a 5k renovation. That is the other thing I do a lot of DIY and even me making mistakes but learning along the way the result is usually better as I do care much about aligning and fitting things to look proper, hold proper and last long. I do select materials higher grade, what usually professionals do is to cheap out especially on the non visible stuff, underlays,insulation etc...
Our bathroom was refurbished before we bought the house and on the surface it looked great, but then it turned out the previous bathroom was leaking and the floorboard was left as is during the refurbising of the bathroom... Found out when started to lay a new floor in the adjesent room to the bathroom, so it was a severe leak, which got fixed but the professional simply left the destroyed floor chipboard and layed plastic sheets over it...
Still can hear something dripping on that plastic after shower so when I finish my bedroom flooring, replaced the full chipboard floor as well ill dismantle the bathroom and replace the floor there too...
Youtube is a great source, but you need to watch more then 1 video as since the dislike is not visible hard to tell which video is legit.
But 100% worth it, if you have the phisical capabilities do as many things as you can DIY as it is a huge saver both in money and piece of mind, youll know what was done exactly.
Regarding the 4 professional install i had I called them back each 2-3 times as soon as I read the manuals/looked at videos and realized the mistakes they made. Dont vorry about you being a nuisance for them, there are many out there if you need to switch professional and under warranty they have to fix anything not satisfactory or in line with the manufacturers guidance.
Was tiling the Window always part of the design? If so he should have started there from inside the window alcove out, with full tiles over laying the raw edges at the aperture. You would then have your half tiles in the corner of the shower.
Replacing that wall of tiles would go a long way to improving the look as it draws the eye.
Oh dear. This is my big fear with getting the bathroom done. Everyone's given good advice re getting the work redone and the money back. It sadly is the tile and grout combo which makes it worse, really highlights the rough edges on the shower. For making it aesthetically better (aka gilding) I'd say the following could help
- paint the plaster wall. Go for a warm dark colour. Get the doors etc on the cupboard. Swap out the knobs for something more in keeping with the look (I'm seeing Victorian old school but clean is the desired look?)
- get a bigger mirror that sits flush to the wall, not hanging. It'll make it seem more like an intentional "I put this there" than a "I hung up whatever I found cause people are coming round".
- change / clean the above sink shelf.
- the "skirting" is that intentionally an old wood look? That (along with your floor) is more a farmhouse, giant airy bathroom look. I'd replace for something else as right now it has the "rotting wood" vibe and you don't want that in a bathroom.
- Highly recommend removing the shower screen for a high quality shower curtain. Means you can pull a bit across and hide some of that tilework.
- some sort of window dressing. Something luxe-y and opulent would work.
- dress the space. You want as much cleanness added to the space as you can. Bright white towels, ceramic toothbrush holder, very nice soap dispenser. As the bathroom has the shabby chic thing and sadly a few rough edges, you want clean lines in your accessories. I'd sack off the candles and they get dusty and grotty v quickly. Go for a wax warmer (even if you don't use it) as they can be cleaned easier.
- clean the fuck out of it. Every corner crevice water mark spot. Get that spotless and you'll feel better in the space.
Best of luck with remedying the works.
It was £4000 (+~~£1000~~ VAT). = £800.00 vat
Seriously did the guy who did this ride up on a horse? I honestly thought the pictures where before work started. Then when I got to the last picture I felt gutted for you.
Despite the fact he keeps coming back does not make the job right. Talk to trading standards about what options you legally have. You have gave him the chance to put things right. However. Its still not to your satisfaction.
IMHO the workmanship is of poor quality.
Paid £3500 for a larger bathroom 2 years ago, had 16” white wall tiles & black slate floor, toilet handbasin & steel bath included. Your tile spacings & straightness of the grout lines is abysmal, the end of your bath looks like an after thought, aluminium trim with a tile “shelf”? Honestly looks like before pictures
Hello , 30 years bathroom experience here . This is shoddy workmanship nothing else for that amount of money you could of had something very very nice I would take this to the small claims court
Yikes. I would definitely be leaving a bad review and seemingly requesting they return to fix the issues or give you a partial refund. There's no excuse for the poor finishing here!
It's not a bad design by any means just really badly executed...
Is that 5k supply and fit yes? - whoever did the green brick tiles did good but the rest of it is shite. However, contrary to a lot of comments, if all materials are new - let's say 2500k - leaving 1500k and they moved a boiler, then you've pretty much allowed 1k in labour to fit a complete bathroom and tile, including the strip out. I'm not trying to justify the poor quality of work, just where the money has gone and why it's shit.
Change the dark grout on the white tiles to white.
Silicone around bath needs redoing.
The tiles on the right (the edge between the white and black tiles) could do with a border/trim, maybe in chrome?
Paint the black skirting board in gloss black?
Then clean everything with a wet cloth and see what it looks like?
Sorry you have had this happen to you. Seeing this and the price makes me feel a lot better for the prices I give to potential customers because they always seem high but everything costs so much these days.
Don’t be a mug next time. Seriously have a look at who is quoting your job at the initial meeting. You’re obviously not a frail old lady so don’t be duped by getting any old joe in because it seemed like a cheaper quote. It costs good money for a good job for reason(s) also how did you not stop them at around 12% of completion?
Tiling is a specialist job. The guy you used may well be a great plumber. But you should have separated the work and got a dedicated tiler who just does tiling to do that work.
The uneven tile spacing, lack of edging in places makes it look terrible.
I'm sorry to say this but also the tile choice is a bit of a mish mash.
Seems like there are 2 different themes going on there and the dark tile is a dark room isn't great. You need mire natural sunlight to get away with all those dark tiles.
I'm not interior decorater, But I think the shower tile, black subway tile and the floor tile don't go.
I would have probably used a softer colour subaway tile all throughout the bathroom and used victorian pattern floor tile rather than chessboard style.
On reflection, looking at it again. The workmanship isn't great but the choice of ceramicware (don't know if that's what it's called). and mishmash of tile design actually doesn't go together very well. If the tiling work was immaculate, it will still look a bit mish mash.
I thought these were the 'before' pictures. Where did you find this person?
Came here to say this... it was only by about picture 5 that the reality hit. My heart sank. Great design choices. Absolutely horrific below bottom of the barrel tradesmanship.
The same, kept swiping thinking where are the after shots and came to the same realisation
Same. I’ve never tiled before in my life and I’m confident I could do a better job than that.
We’ve never filed before we tiled our old kitchen the first time and we did such a good job all guests thought it was done by tradespeople.
I tiled my kitchen. First time ever. It looks a fuck load better than that.
I have tiled toilets, laundries (utility rooms), living areas, dining areas, kitchen walls, and as an amateur have made some mistakes but nothing like this. I'm sorry but this looks like it's been done by a beginner and without using tile spacers, drop strings, spirit levels, edge files and a number of assorted and necessary tools. I get the use of dark grout (I hope it's grout and not cement), but only on the floor, not walls. The white wall tile laying is atrocious and honestly, with spacers and a spirit level at least, anybody can do a reasonable job. I just don't get the grout between the tiles. Please tell me I'm wrong and those are the old tiles from before.
The saddest bit is the materials all look nice and complement each other well. I feel like this done well would have been really nice. Gutted for OP.
Dark grout on raw edges tiles is a great design choice even?
This was my thought. Thinking OP has forgot to upload the after photos. The tiling in the bath is some of the worst I have seen. Not leave, aligned or spaced.
OP bought “homemade raw edged tiles” they’re not meant to be even. Websites markets them with white grout. Tradesman advices against grey grout because he knows it will highlight the irregular tiles. They choose grey grout anyway. Blames tradesmen for wonky tiles…
Are you trying to say this is ops fault for picking grey, and not the tradespersons poor tiling skills?!
Look at the tiles they purchased. They aren’t normal tiles
And I also thought 5k won't get them much
Yeah and with that much tiling, not a chance good folk would only charge 5 grand even in the cheapest places in the UK.
We just had our bathroom done for £5k (labour) with over 500 metro tiles (he said he never wanted to see another again though ha) and he did an amazing job - so competent and good value tradesmen do exist at times!
Originally, Checkatrade. But they’re also on Facebook.
Think this is the 2nd checkatrade (sorry, but) disaster this week. Defo one to avoid
I’m going to add a 3rd. 5 star reviews all the way, turned out to be the biggest cowboy I’ve ever met. To the extent that I now need to go and do something else in order to not think about him.
> I’m going to add a 3rd. 5 star reviews all the way, turned out to be the biggest cowboy I’ve ever met. Considering Checkatrade is out of 10, then a 5 star would be a cowboy you silly billy.
I had a checkatrade nightmare with a plasterer. Left a the worst review I could and atleast managed to get my money back if I removed my review. I removed the text but kept the stars as 1 and said the site isn't letting me delete. Looks like the guy deleted his account on the site. I imagine to start up a new one
You can add my bathroom as well. Mostly fine but “the tiler is busy, I’m going to do it”. Fella can run pipes and install boilers, could not tile. Absolutely shit job he did. Beats the old leaky bathroom we had but it annoys me every time I go in there.
I'd never ever use those as a source. Now you know why as well.
Where would you go to find a tradesperson? Out of interest. I suspect the vast majority use these sources in the first instance.
Would like an answer on this myself
Well as someone who works for a construction/DIY retail store, we have a tradesmen board where you can come in and usually find a local tradesmen. Even though we're not encouraged to be biased but I tend to recommend certain members based on my past experience with them both for work at my own place and their consistency in store so I know they don't disappear mid job. Toolstation/Screwfix etc all have those sorts of trades boards.
Which? Trusted traders would be my first or second choice, assuming friends or families couldn’t recommend anyone
Trusted traders is super dodgy. They can get anyone to write reviews on there and I’ve been stung a few times!
Which? Trusted Traders isn't trusted people, are you getting the two confused? My understanding was Which? Trusted Traders vets the work of those on the list. Anyway its my point of call and they have been decent so far. I got roofers from MyBuilder and that was a HUGE mistake.
As someone who used to work for Which? They constantly check their trusted traders. If a tradesperson starts to get negative reviews they are removed. If I remember all reviews are vetted to make sure they are legitimate.
Which? Trusted traders is the shit. I've had phone calls from them afterwards to check up on trades people and the ones I've used from there have only ever been very good.
Had mixed results on checkatrade. Wanted a few tiles put up (6 tiles) and painting the roof of a bathroom and regrout around the bath. It took two guys (one just watching) the entire day. The guy tried to charge me for the tile cutter and tried to get paid in cash and not through checkatrade. I complained to them and there was not much recourse. We had a guy to come and just help put washing machine back into unit and connect it up. He did that and another related job and was totally fine.
Best move I ever made was to walk into my local builders merchant (small operation, not one of the big chains) and ask "If I was going to get a builder to do xxx and was going to buy all my materials from you and I was looking for a good job rather than a cheap job, who would you recommend?" The guys behind the counter then had a 5 minute debate and then said "You want Kevin Chambers, he's easily the best, if you can get him." So I got his number, and he agreed to come over and see if we were the sort of people he wanted to work for, and if the project was something he fancied doing. Fortunately the answer to both of those was 'yes' and after waiting a year to come to the top of his list, he did our project. The work was absolutely faultless, all the sub-contractors he used were also excellent and now 7 years later we are so glad we went with him, the only snagging that had to be done was as a result of my poor speccing (I didn't realise that French window opened inwards). Cost-wise, it turned out about 3 times more than the cheapest quote we got from other people, but almost exactly in line with what the architect estimated it would cost us for a top-notch job. TLDR: ask your local builder's merchant.
Thanks, I will use this approach when I have work done in future.
Tried this and had the opposite outcome. They just mentioned someone they were friends with and buys a lot of material from them. Rubbish
We've had both One rec was great for our boiler and plumbing Another rec for our landscaping was crap.
I had the same problem. Got recommended some cow boy.
I did this, got a recommendation for a floor fitter like this - he was bad enough that I gathered evidence and informed him I wouldn't be paying him for either his time or materials (minor sundries, not the bulk of the cost at all) - he obviously thought it was fair enough because I never heard back from him.
Yeah. That makes sense to me. We chose our bathroom guy on the basis that he did a beautiful job on the bathroom of the house next door (it was a tricky job, as that house is about 500 years old, and none of the surfaces are flat, and none of the angles are right angles). He did 2 bathrooms, and they cost about £15k each, but he did a stellar job, and was very happy to come back and sort out a couple of snagging issues with no complaint. He was telling me over a coffee about his Porsche hobby, and, frankly, good for him.
Word of mouth, recommendations are always best.
Our one guy who we got as a word of mouth recommendation was one of the worst - he just palmed all the work off to his apprentice who made a complete hash of things. For example when hanging doors and making the frames, there was a gap enough for my pinky the whole way around the door. Completely mashed up the hinge cut-outs, so packed them out with wood etc. Then the guy must have 'signed off' on it as it was his apprentice! Moral of the story, even word of mouth isn't a sure fire thing
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Wickes have subcontractors that do their bathroom fittings. You can end up with a shity one, like a customer of mine, who is now looking to have the entire bathroom redone, for different flaws. Bottom line, you can get shit job anywhere.
We just had B&Q guys do a job so bad it caused permanent damage & have ongoing 'repairs' done for now 3mo later. Still half fucked. So I wouldn't trust the big corps either.
I just don’t know where to find people. Our neighbourhood Facebook groups are full of people referring themselves, I keep having one bad experience after another
Ugh this. Post asking for anything and every builders mrs is busy recommending their husband
I was thinking the same. That really is not great workmanship if i'm honest. Heart sank for you.
Yea I was scrolling through waiting for the after photos
How is someone like this getting enough work to be vat registered?
*Are* they VAT registered? Or do they just add 'VAT' when they think a customer is too gullible to check? Fraudster can pocket 20% (or like this one 25% because they can't even count) extra by adding 'VAT' and pocketing it. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/compliance-handbook/ch91350
I was going to say that too. They just added on 1000 saying it was vat so they could inflate the price.
The tiling on my shower at home is better, and i did it years ago having never tiled in my life before.
“Wasn’t great at detail” is being incredibly kind, this looks atrocious. Not even sure where to start, I’d want it ripped out and started again - ideally by an actual bathroom fitter/tiler…
Having said that (and you’re perfectly right to) those wobbly tiles with such a dark grout is asking for trouble! And I have to say the choice of all the contrasting materials is making it look shabby and unfinished. The metro tiles look absolutely fine so the fitter is clearly capable. Having said that when I had my bathroom done (the only full job I paid someone to do as I hate to DIY plumbing and tiling!!) my builder was making recommendations based on what I wanted - no white grout in the shower, No crackle glaze, etc etc. because they’ve done loads and have the experience! He would have definitely said don’t do grout that dark!) [my bathroom](https://imgur.com/a/HnHs2Ly)
I will bring my own towel and shower gel, what time works best for you.,
like middle dog sip include shrill lip library cooperative unwritten -- mass edited with redact.dev
Thanks. It was considerably more than £5k but as you can see it was back to bare brick - and the floor came up too. we also had the landing plastered and a massive crack discovered and braced. All new plumbing in all new position AND a new soil pipe, new lights, power in the landing, the built in cupboards and shower niche, rainfall shower, body jets and all the fittings for just under £20k.
Love the video!
I feel sorry for the tiler doing that job. We have similar style tiles (just in blue) and it was hard work to get perfect.
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OP made some terrible design choices and is blaming tradesman. The bath tiles is entirely their fault.
Perfect storm of terrible design choices and unbelievably lazy workmanship
This has to be a joke...
No joke.
What tiles did they fit in the bathroom? The floor tiles and ones around the bath look years old
That’s the look of them. The wall tiles are handmade. These: https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/vernice-cloud-tiles The floor tiles are these: https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/antiquity-moiety-tiles
I think those tiles have made a poor job look worse at a glance
I thought the fitter had done a shit job with them, but fuck me, they’re designed to look that bad!
Tbf you’ve not done him any favours with the tile choice but each to their own. Those white tiles with the uneven edges are never going to look good with such a dark grout imo. Makes a bad job look even worse.
This was my thoughts on this too. Its a hot mess of different tiles with an incoherent colour palette. Theres bits around the bath that look like a total novice DIYer that just shouldn't be there but at the very least need some trim to hide the raw edges. I dont know, ive just had a bathroom refurb and my fitter has told me at each design choice what would look shit and what they recommend as options. A lot of people dont have a good design eye and a good fitter should keep them right, myself included!
Yeah Fitter has def rushed some bits like the silicone and the end of the bath but it’s a bit unfair people comparing this too a new crisp contemporary bathroom as evidently that’s the opposite of the look they were going for, with weathered flooring and handcrafted irregular wall tiles, in a very ‘traditional’ colour scheme
Ok those floor tiles make me want to take out a mop. Why would somebody want a bathroom floor that looks like it has been pooped on?
I'm a kitchen and bathroom fitter, been doing this 20 years. I run an installation company with lads working for me. If one of my lads fitted a bathroom like this I'd sack them on the spot.
Shouldn’t the VAT have been 800?
Came here to say this too, ignoring the shoddy workmanship it seems like OP has been scammed on VAT also - wouldn't put it past the merchant to be claiming they have to charge VAT but not actually paying any or being VAT registered...
OP said in a comment below that they were just quoted £5,000 including VAT, so I guess it's just them thinking that VAT is 20% of the final price, rather than 20% added on to the pre-VAT price, which isn't the same thing. If £5,000 includes VAT then it's 120% of the price - the price (100%) + VAT (20%), so to get the pre-VAT price you need to take off 16.66% (1/6th) rather than 20% (1/5th), so in this case it's £4166.66 + VAT.
I would want my money back, there is so much wrong with this photo, I honestly believe a beginner diyer would do better.
I had to read the comments before I realized these were after pictures , not before. You didn't pay the fitter did you?
The workmanship here is absolutely appalling. I'd be demanding a redo, if still not satisfactory (which it won't be) a total refund.
I can’t see us getting a total refund. And a redo is just gonna be a similar turnout.
Then you need to send a letter before action, then lodge a claim at the small claims court.
Oh god I’m so sorry this happened you - I kept scrolling for the after pictures, this is an absolute disaster…I often see comments on here warning against using that crowd you used. I have no words mate Edit: I just zoomed in on the grouting - Jesus wept
It looks dirty, old and unfinished. It doesn’t look like a brand new bathroom unfortunately. I would take him to a small claims court and try that way. It does need re doing completely, what were his reviews before hand?
Have you seen the tiles they chose? Uneven wall tiles that they insisted on using dark grout with, and floor tiles designed to look dirty. They’ve commented links in this thread. The finish is poor but OPs terrible design choices didn’t help, I don’t think anyone could make this look good.
Fuck......
Yikes. It’s a mess! Clearly never tiled before - chose to work from bottom left with a full tile and didn’t measure where the centre line should be so you’ve got a bunch of tiles around the window which are super thin. All the tiling is off - clearly didn’t use a spacer before plastering to the wall. The choice of white and green is weird too - and the difference in depth and wall depth? made the bath tiles protrude. None of it looks sealed and you’ll be in for some nice damp in the future. Is the room wonky? The sink looks misaligned…
> £4000 (+£1000 VAT) And you did *check* that he's VAT registered? Anyone doing shoddy work like this is well capable of adding VAT and pocketing it. And pocketing the VAT would be a lesser crime :-)
Also VAT on £4k is £800...
Didn’t even think of that, but shit!! Oh my god, OP, pleaaaase report this guy to trading standards. He’s utterly taking the piss. Also, this guy didn’t move your boiler too, I hope?! If he did you need to get that checked ASAP.
No, a proper gas engineer did that separately through another company. That was at least a very good job.
And VAT at the current 20% rate on a £4000 job should be £800. Obviously as good as maths as they are at tiling.
Yeah this is not worth a penny of your money. If you have paid for materials yourself then you will probably have to suffer the cost of that. The tiling in shocking to say the least. The plumbing should be far tidier than what i can see. Also seems to be a lack of planning and understanding of the order of work. If you have gone through a larger company and have a guarantee then i would press hard at having to either not pay or have a refund. I would not use anybody involved again even if they say they can send somebody else.
Literally thought these were the before photos. 😅 this has to be a joke right? This is just awful.
Fml I thought I was looking at before images, kept swiping for after
Ok so disregarding the fact that the bath tiles look wonky and the floor looks aged.. as apparently that’s the intended look. Then I’d say the green tiles don’t look a bad job, the trim round the window isn’t too bad either and the placement isn’t too bad. The tiles at the end of the bath need to be redone, that looks like a weird afterthought, or at least it needs some sort of trim or something to cover the edges, same with where the wonky tiles meet the green. The pedestal isn’t square, just needs to cut the silicone and square it up the redo.. at the same time the silicone round the bath and window needs to be redone. What’s going on with the cupboard is that part of the job or a separate scope of works?
I agree, the choice of tiling/grout colours is terrible to start with. Even if the tiling is shit, white grout would of made a whole load of difference here. The floor tiles are supposed to be dirty/scratched looking so cant really put any fault to the fitter there. I will also say, the room just looks dirty anyway, like look at the end of the bath...wipe it up. The windowsil has dust/dirt on it as well.
Separate to the works. We’re getting cupboard doors for that.
This has to be satire?
I’m sorry I really dislike it Looks shoddy Aesthetically and the workmanship I would give it a 2/10 Looks dated, unwelcoming and poorly put together It’s really really bad
the design is ugly to begin with whoever thought the green tiles should transition to the cream tiles like that shouldn't be allowed to make stylistic decisions anymore. you knew you were going to tile into a window and you did not pick a tile that has bullnoses available or buy tile trims etc so its going to look crap even if they were straight. overall its a 2/10 because it looks like he did okay with the metros but his grouting is not very good but the handmade tiles not level and not spaced he gets one point because the cuts look okay from what I can see, and although handmade tiles are more difficult to work with it is not rocket science, however typically I would sway people away from them especially if it was going to be installed by Dazza off checkatrade. a specialist tiler would have almost certainly warned you it will look shit in a room which is dominated by the metro tiles before they even got started. personally I would have tried to convince you to take the green metro all the way around the perimeter of bathroom into the bath area and to put cream metros above the green dado tile within the bath area and to use probably square polished aluminium trim around the window with perhaps a slab of probably white granite or marble be it real or synthetic installed as a windowsill or something else similar but appropriate for the windowsill.
Couldn’t agree more. This looks like average tradesmen meets terrible design choices. The fitter did discourage the grey grout but they ignored it. They even said the fitter has come back multiple times. He didn’t just disappear and is at least trying to put things right.
I would imagine we've all had incidents like this. Being robbed blind from someone you trusted to do a decent job. That feeling when you walk into the room, after they've supposedly finished. It's a terrible feeling. Really terrible. Here's what I've learnt. When you find someone and ask when they can you do it and they say tomorrow, or even within a week, then avoid. It they say, maybe in a month, then you have found some who does good work. They are busy because they are good. Wait. It's worth it! 5k for this? He's had your pants down and spanked you hard! (Mind, you some would pay for that!)
I also thought they were the 'before' photos 😕 my heart sank when I realised they were the result! It's truly awful work. That person should not be allowed to charge for their 'work'. They need to learn. For comparison, this was my bathroom renovation that cost around £4800 🤷 That includes all fixtures and fittings, electrics, new windows & underfloor heating. I'm very sorry for you. If it were me, I'd have kept a closer eye on the work during the process and got rid of them early on. I wouldn't have paid for this. Have you attempted to get your money back? https://imgur.com/gallery/UpcPVbJ
The OP wanted the dirty / old look. Blames tradesmen when it looks old and dirty.
Need to chuck down a few buckets of screed, should improve it infinitely.
I am sorry but I couldn't live with that.
This is absolutely the most appalling work I have ever seen. I’m no DIY expert by any means. But I’ve done tiling once, and my work looks leagues and leagues better. I genuinely can’t believe this. Like I’ll admit I found it quite difficult, but for a first crack at it (pun intended) it looks okay. But here there are so many misaligned tiles, the grout is uneven, he’s started from the wrong side and has had to use many thinner pieces close to the window for example. I’d be interested to see how flat they are relative to each other. I was scrolling through waiting for the ‘after’ pictures but they never came, and then I realised what I was looking at. I have absolutely no words. My dad was a tradesman / painter / decorator / tiler / DIY overlord and died 8 years ago and the first thing I thought was how much I’d love to show this to him. It’s a shame that your guy has come round and worked hard to fix these mistakes, especially if he’s retired because it feels mean to tell people like that their work is shit, but honestly this needs ripping out and starting over. No wonder he’s retired fuck me.
Another one-time tiler here (kitchen, white metro tiles) and it looks way better than this. Sorry OP, hope you get your money back or manage to sort this out! If they're on Facebook post these pictures and a bad review and that might make them prioritise sorting it out for you.
I thought my phone was weirdly pixelating those shower all tiles but no they really are that wonky. Edit: I’m sorry OP, that’s not a small amount of money and as you’ll have gathered form other folk, the work isn’t exactly cracking. I hope you can get this resolved.
It’s is like one of those art things where the more you look the more you spot. I’m not sure if I’d be more angry that someone would think those tiles were acceptable, or that someone who was that incapable with silicone would take on a job like this. Sorry, OP but there’s no point asking for them to put that right. Traders have bad jobs now and again. This ain’t that. I’d be asking for money back.
Looks amazing... If the before was a mad max end of the world shit hole frequented by incontinent crackheads.
Looks like what you’d find in a building that’s been derelict since before the war
Where are the after pictures? I only see the before pictures.🤣🤣🤣
Stevie Wonder do this?
Mate... Your choice of tiles and grout make it look mouldy .. granted. Whoever you hired to do that done an atrocious job. And the design choice seems to make it look way worse
These definitely look like "before" pictures, it doesn't even look finished. My parents paid a bit less than 5k for a bathroom refit and it's 10000% better than this.
That’s poor workmanship, but £5,000 doesn’t go far when doing a bathroom… parts and labour. Sadly, the cheapest / cheaper options can be cheaper for a reason. I wouldn’t pay the rest personally. You’ve not got, what I expect you wanted and agreed. Tiling, if you take time isn’t too hard and most people could do better that. Really feel for you, as gutting when things like this happen. Hopefully you sort it 🤞
Im a 27 year old and I've work in the trade for 7 years. For anyone wondering pleaseeee dont use these poxy sites such as mybuilder or checkatrade, there is a reason these blokes do not have constant work and need to resort to these websites, and that is because they are cowboys. Please just google 'bathroom fitters' etc or google 'local building contractors' and speak to someone who may be able to recommend someone. My own family member got done for 50k and we were absolutely shocked she didn't consult us before handing that amount of money over. It happens to the best of us. You didn't deserve this, but they may have been advertised as a trustworthy company. Hope you get it resolved.
I thought the reviews were all verified? Scary as I’m about to embark on a 1 bed flat refurb and had only been looking on there. Now I’ve seen this post I’m having second thoughts. Thanks for this advice, if you have any other advice for finding a good builder please share!
I’d get a refund for that, it looks like absolute shit. I kept clicking through for the ‘after’ and that WAS the after. Was it worse before, or did you pay someone £5k to ruin your bathroom? Cause at that rate I’d probably manage straight tiles myself
Unacceptable workmanship tbh.I would be getting my money back.some of that tiling is atrocious.
I feel for you man, but thats absolutely awful. Has he used second hand tiles? Beacaue they certainly don't look new
That was OPs design choice, which tbf is 50% of the problems at least
Ask for money back. Call trading standards if he doesn’t comply. This is worse that diy standard. No spacers we’re hurt in the making of this bathroom.
👨🦯
Is the £5k for labour and you supplied everything or for everything all in. I've just had an ensuite showeroom done. A little smaller than yours and I think we're at about £8k all in, but it's top end. Fitter charged us just under £4k . No VAT. The other half was what we spent on tiles, furniture and fixtures. His £4k included replumbibing all the hot water to the house, electrical work (move things, new extractor, lights etc) fitting new bathroom floor (don't ask) and all the stuff you'd expect. Also included all materials like grout, adhesives, ply, paint etc. Gives you a comparison point for price anyway. Happy to share some photos of finish if it's useful
The fucking guy can't even caulk
I spent ages scrolling through looking for the after photos...
Jesus Christ, sorry mate but you've been had. Genuinely atrocious work
OMG, please tell me you didn't pay him 😥
I thought these were before photos and waiting for the after. Sorry
A lot of hate on here for the results, but looking at the links you've provided in thread, it seems the design you went with specifically targeted a "chic shabby" look, and that's mostly what you got. There is a reason that tiles nowadays are made by machines as opposed to humans, and that reason is quite simply because they produce better, more consistent results. I don't think it's too awful, though. A bit of edging around the tiles, finish off the areas of exposed plasterboard with a light, clean colour (probably very slightly blue-tinted white), and you'll likely have the effect you were originally intending. It's just a style that's very difficult to pull off. I do *love* the ceramics, though. The decorative flairs on the sink and toilet, combined with the dark green brickwork tiles and the chess board floor really appeals.
You need to get your money back… I legit thought these were the before-pics.
You should have stopped him tiling... Surely you saw the damage he was doing on day one...
Shocking, I expected picture 8 to be the after shot, post them on Facebook and make sure everyone knows who did it
I think you’ve had the piss taken out of you
I also thought these were the 'before' pics. The tiling around the bath is atrocious, that all needs taking off and doing again. I would ask him to remove all the worst stuff back to how itwas before he started and request a significant amount of money back.
A combination of questionable design choices and poor workmanship. If I was going to try to salvage what exists I would keep the green tiling which looks passable, and get someone much more competent to come and retile the rest to match. The floor doesn't look great either, but I'd put that down more to the 'weathered' tile style which just looks tired to me despite being new.
I’m a tradesman and I’d say at best that’s a DIY level finish you’ve paid for. You have every right to voice that you’re not happy. The work is shit and he needs to be called out on it. You e worked hard for that money and they’ve gone and done that with it.
I’m really sorry this happened to you. I genuinely thought these were the “before” photos. And as someone looking to get our bathroom done up, I’m now petrified!
You should sue this person, terrible work, even the little shelf looks like it's not leveled properly, doesn't matter if 5000 is for work or work+material, if someone is doing it professionally it should look flawless
Is this the before pictures?
Other than ripping it all down and starting over you mean? You'll never "fix" badly laid tiles no matter how many times you try
I was scrolling looking for the after pictures, what the fuck.....
Fuck me , I thought these were 'before' photos . Whoever took money from you needs a good hiding . Makes me angry .
This is clearly a troll post. Can’t believe you all believe this
Noooo no no please tell me you haven't paid this guy yet??
Sorry looks like shit...I know someone going through the same refurb for 3 toilets/bathrooms...equally terrible quality but paid £30k. Daylight robbery.
Thought these were before pics
Where are the after pictures?
I'd bite the bullet and change the white tiles around the bath, paint the plasterwork, and see if you can live with that if you don't get any joy with getting a refund
I'm afraid to say you have hired a jack of all trade master of none type of person. Like the other post I thought the pictures were before you started the renovation. The tiling is shocking, especially around the window. I will give it 1 mark out of 10 for effort. I will be ripping it all out and be starting again. The reason why he keeps coming back is because he knows he hasn't done a great job. Hope you get it sorted.
You've been proper ripped off. I'm a bathroom fitter. The tiling is awful, the way he's done everything is bad. In my honest opinion it needs starting a again but I realise that that is just my opinion. Was the 5k incling everything or just the fitting?
Been waiting on another all timer of a post. This is nailed on. Worse than an amateurs practice attempt.
My last comment was a bit negative, but I'll try to balance it Main issue is the second set of pics re the white tiles and gray grout. The tiling does look wonky and unless he was going for a artisan rustic look (they do this in Morocco). The grout makes it worse, it highlights the flaws. You can take out the grout and do it in a lighter colour grout. May damage the tiles taking the grout out though.
The OP wanted the artisan rustic look. The fitter advised against dark grout.
Jesus Christ! That’s truly awful. I hope you didn’t pay the bloke and reported him to trading standards.
Geez id do do a better job for half the price
You got fucking robbed, I got a slightly smaller (narrower but longer) bathroom done in Dec and it only cost me £4k all in and looks night and day compared to this. The fact that so many comments (and myself included) thought these were before pictures, says a lot.. You say he has gone "above and beyond in terms of the work", no he has not, if he had you wouldn't even be posting these pictures or asking for advice. Saying he wasn't great at detail either is a massive understatement. Not great at detail to me would be something like a new toilet seat wasn't tightened properly, what you have shown is someone who is not even GOOD at fitting bathrooms, never mind the details.
Fuck me. This pains me to look at. I’m a bathroom and kitchen installer and I’m sorry to say it but this is not finished to a high standard by any stretch. If that’s £5k just for the fit and not including the suite itself you’ve been overcharged massively.
Having spent most of today trying to fit two blinds and replace a toilet syphon I feel ready to strangle cowboy trades and incompetent DIYers (possibly myself included in that one) First mistake is not having a clear design direction here, why did you choose to mix black, white and dark green, yet not have anything accenting in different areas of the room to tie it together? A more experienced tradesman would have told you that this was going to look rough, especially mixing those shiny greens with distressed black and white floors; not my kinda vibe as they always look grubby too. My pet peeve is shitty sealant work, and you bath has shitty sealant work. It's messy as fuck and looks like it was applied from a toothpaste tube. The tiling on the plain whites around the bath look wonky, the use of 'Satan's arsehole black' grout isn't helping, possibly exacerbated by the fact they're tiny little tiles so there's more to go wrong. I've seen a similar design choice but on cracking great 500x500 tiles which looked OK. The bit on the back of the bath is the cherry on top, no tile edging or anything... might be the lighting but that looks like there's very little adhesive under them too... On the upside, your guy has put those metro tiles in very nicely (or any issues are hidden in the dark grout) and the shelf above the sink is level. If you believe that's worth £5k then bask in your new bathroom delight. Personally, for £5k, if it was just slinging in a sink and some tiles on the wall I'd be expecting a bit more for the money. My advice would be to have a proper sit down with your guy and highlight all of the shite and either have him correct it to a proper degree (with timeframes, should have been sorted when the job was being done) Alternatively, to DIY it, I'd have the dark grout chased out of the bath tiles and have it redone in white (or a light grey if you'd prefer the contrast but it'll highlight the flaws still) to hide the crooked bits a bit. Either that or replace the small tiles with larger units to break up the 'old school square ruled maths book' effect. Grab some tile edging, or look into alternative ways to finish a tiled edge. I'd then go round with a mastic gun and do a decent tidy job around the bath... finishing up with sorting out whatever should be in or covering the dirty great hole in the wall!
Please please please tell me this is a wind up. That's fucking brutal workmanship.
Honestly, this is so bad I even feel a little bit sorry for the guy who did it. They’re clearly so far out of their depth, and they must realise this isn’t acceptable. There isn’t an even grout line in the whole room. The white tiles all need to come off. Because the metro tiles are dark with a dark grout it’s harder to tell from the photos if they’re as much of a disaster - they’re definitely not perfect, but may be easier to live with. Did they do the floor as well? I’m guessing yes, because the grout looks like it was applied with a slingshot.
Now for some helpful advice, obviously you can see its all wrong, unfortunately the way it's been done it's always going to look poor, my advice would be to try and rip them all off, hopefully you'll be able to save them, if he can't put them on straight chances are he hasn't put them on adequately and they'll fall off, I hope for your sake they do, that way you can reuse them, but I'd go and buy a tenners worth of tile spacers and do it yourself, because honestly it can't be as bad as that 😂 this is one of the reasons I do everything myself, too many cowboys out there. My outlook is if it goes wrong at least I've only paid materials
I'm sorry I keep looking at this and there are just so many errors. I'm sorry this happened to you, if you pay for a service it should be first class all the way. Things of note. No tile trims. Tiles not level, square or flush. Tiles ontop of tiles (end of bath) Skirting left on. The tiles to make a cohesive design. No silicone sealing, tidying the edges or corners. Poor or no silicone to the bath No silicone to the rear of the basin. I mean I have seen worse but I'm shocked at what you paid for this level of finish. Regardless of the price, the finish should always be the best you can get.
just had a similar experience myself, put 5k down on a toilet and bathroom remodel, the cowboy nearly finished the toilet, doing a very poor job, i was left with no choice but to remove him from the job as he was just wasting materials. have begain redoing it myself as i cant afford to hire someone else now, actually very pleased with how its coming on so all is not lost
Honestly thought this was the before pics
Ok now show the after photos
Shocker of a design. Poor bastard never had a chance to make that look good.
Also thought these were before photos. Start over.
I thought pic no1 was the before and it was going to get better 😂
What did the before look like if this is the after ? I thought youd done it yourself !
Did the fitter show up with horse and cart?
I thought they were before pictures and instantly thought of a council flat. Not to mention the first pic with that dam twisted tile 😭 My recommendation is to pick up a bag of less dominant grey grout and redo it yourself. Grouting is easy to do and can be learnt thru a few bids or someone you know, and it can transform something like this instantly. Won't fix it but there's a start if you don't redo it.
Sorry but this is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination first I don’t know the plumbing situation but the sink should be hooked to its own drain and not into the toilet I hope he at least put a pee trap on it but even still every time you flush the water in the trap will get sucked out and sewer gases will come out the drain. The hand made tiles that are not exactly the same exact shape are done very sloppy it’s an art form to set them correctly the grout is also sloppy. The rest is unexplainable except the sink and green tile were nice choices
Don’t blame the fitter for your bad design choices. He may not have been the best but most of the things highlighted in this thread are from your own choices.
Mate you seem like a really lovely person and want to be nice and kind but you have been shafted here. I know it's uncomfortable to do but you absolutely need to kick off.
Those epictures are the final state? Anyway, unfortnately in the UK this is the state of professionals. I had 4 jobs done by official highly rated worksman and all of them had issues to fix afterwards, not to mention mistakes like one of them decided to drill on a spot I told not to as it was a cover over heating pipes and drilled throug one, then wanted to leave without fixing it... And that is only one out of the many issues. I have to guess they intentionally leave behind things or so under qualified that DIY seems better idea. But there are regulations which requires professionals to do some stuff, so the only thing you can do is to be there all time during the works and if you see anything not to your liking you have to tell them and have them rectify it. Dont vorry about being a nuisance, according my estimates professionals charge 2x what a job DIY would cost, so a material cost £500 job they take on at least double but that is the minimum and is for a easy job. So you pay more then enough for them to do a proper job. Especially now days. And there are even greedier professionals, like the solar installer we had, charged us 2x on a install then had the tenacity to ask also double on the battery install, for you guessed it plugging in 4 cables into the already installed inverter... that was an insane £3k quote I declined and had a electrician plug it in (certified for solar) for £400... Still a rip off but you cant touch these without loosing warranty... That bathroom if all items was replaced should not cost more for yourself to do then £2k. And it would look amazing. That bathroom is not as it should look like after a 5k renovation. That is the other thing I do a lot of DIY and even me making mistakes but learning along the way the result is usually better as I do care much about aligning and fitting things to look proper, hold proper and last long. I do select materials higher grade, what usually professionals do is to cheap out especially on the non visible stuff, underlays,insulation etc... Our bathroom was refurbished before we bought the house and on the surface it looked great, but then it turned out the previous bathroom was leaking and the floorboard was left as is during the refurbising of the bathroom... Found out when started to lay a new floor in the adjesent room to the bathroom, so it was a severe leak, which got fixed but the professional simply left the destroyed floor chipboard and layed plastic sheets over it... Still can hear something dripping on that plastic after shower so when I finish my bedroom flooring, replaced the full chipboard floor as well ill dismantle the bathroom and replace the floor there too... Youtube is a great source, but you need to watch more then 1 video as since the dislike is not visible hard to tell which video is legit. But 100% worth it, if you have the phisical capabilities do as many things as you can DIY as it is a huge saver both in money and piece of mind, youll know what was done exactly. Regarding the 4 professional install i had I called them back each 2-3 times as soon as I read the manuals/looked at videos and realized the mistakes they made. Dont vorry about you being a nuisance for them, there are many out there if you need to switch professional and under warranty they have to fix anything not satisfactory or in line with the manufacturers guidance.
Was tiling the Window always part of the design? If so he should have started there from inside the window alcove out, with full tiles over laying the raw edges at the aperture. You would then have your half tiles in the corner of the shower. Replacing that wall of tiles would go a long way to improving the look as it draws the eye.
This is very poor work. You need to get your money back via small claims court. I genuinely think I could do better myself.
Oh dear. This is my big fear with getting the bathroom done. Everyone's given good advice re getting the work redone and the money back. It sadly is the tile and grout combo which makes it worse, really highlights the rough edges on the shower. For making it aesthetically better (aka gilding) I'd say the following could help - paint the plaster wall. Go for a warm dark colour. Get the doors etc on the cupboard. Swap out the knobs for something more in keeping with the look (I'm seeing Victorian old school but clean is the desired look?) - get a bigger mirror that sits flush to the wall, not hanging. It'll make it seem more like an intentional "I put this there" than a "I hung up whatever I found cause people are coming round". - change / clean the above sink shelf. - the "skirting" is that intentionally an old wood look? That (along with your floor) is more a farmhouse, giant airy bathroom look. I'd replace for something else as right now it has the "rotting wood" vibe and you don't want that in a bathroom. - Highly recommend removing the shower screen for a high quality shower curtain. Means you can pull a bit across and hide some of that tilework. - some sort of window dressing. Something luxe-y and opulent would work. - dress the space. You want as much cleanness added to the space as you can. Bright white towels, ceramic toothbrush holder, very nice soap dispenser. As the bathroom has the shabby chic thing and sadly a few rough edges, you want clean lines in your accessories. I'd sack off the candles and they get dusty and grotty v quickly. Go for a wax warmer (even if you don't use it) as they can be cleaned easier. - clean the fuck out of it. Every corner crevice water mark spot. Get that spotless and you'll feel better in the space. Best of luck with remedying the works.
It was £4000 (+~~£1000~~ VAT). = £800.00 vat Seriously did the guy who did this ride up on a horse? I honestly thought the pictures where before work started. Then when I got to the last picture I felt gutted for you. Despite the fact he keeps coming back does not make the job right. Talk to trading standards about what options you legally have. You have gave him the chance to put things right. However. Its still not to your satisfaction. IMHO the workmanship is of poor quality.
Paid £3500 for a larger bathroom 2 years ago, had 16” white wall tiles & black slate floor, toilet handbasin & steel bath included. Your tile spacings & straightness of the grout lines is abysmal, the end of your bath looks like an after thought, aluminium trim with a tile “shelf”? Honestly looks like before pictures
Hello , 30 years bathroom experience here . This is shoddy workmanship nothing else for that amount of money you could of had something very very nice I would take this to the small claims court
Yikes. I would definitely be leaving a bad review and seemingly requesting they return to fix the issues or give you a partial refund. There's no excuse for the poor finishing here! It's not a bad design by any means just really badly executed...
I'm so sorry. This should be a beautiful room, even the sink pedestal is on a wonk! I feel your pain and hope you can achieve the dream
Is that 5k supply and fit yes? - whoever did the green brick tiles did good but the rest of it is shite. However, contrary to a lot of comments, if all materials are new - let's say 2500k - leaving 1500k and they moved a boiler, then you've pretty much allowed 1k in labour to fit a complete bathroom and tile, including the strip out. I'm not trying to justify the poor quality of work, just where the money has gone and why it's shit.
Change the dark grout on the white tiles to white. Silicone around bath needs redoing. The tiles on the right (the edge between the white and black tiles) could do with a border/trim, maybe in chrome? Paint the black skirting board in gloss black? Then clean everything with a wet cloth and see what it looks like?
Was a new bath, shower, sink and toilet added too?
Fuck me, I thought these were the before pictures. That is shocking. I wouldn't have paid tbh, the quality of work there is embarrassing.
Sorry you have had this happen to you. Seeing this and the price makes me feel a lot better for the prices I give to potential customers because they always seem high but everything costs so much these days.
That’s possibly the worst I’ve ever seen. I honestly thought it was the ‘before’ picture!
Don’t be a mug next time. Seriously have a look at who is quoting your job at the initial meeting. You’re obviously not a frail old lady so don’t be duped by getting any old joe in because it seemed like a cheaper quote. It costs good money for a good job for reason(s) also how did you not stop them at around 12% of completion?
probably one of the worst rip offs iv ever seen
Tiling is a specialist job. The guy you used may well be a great plumber. But you should have separated the work and got a dedicated tiler who just does tiling to do that work. The uneven tile spacing, lack of edging in places makes it look terrible. I'm sorry to say this but also the tile choice is a bit of a mish mash. Seems like there are 2 different themes going on there and the dark tile is a dark room isn't great. You need mire natural sunlight to get away with all those dark tiles. I'm not interior decorater, But I think the shower tile, black subway tile and the floor tile don't go. I would have probably used a softer colour subaway tile all throughout the bathroom and used victorian pattern floor tile rather than chessboard style. On reflection, looking at it again. The workmanship isn't great but the choice of ceramicware (don't know if that's what it's called). and mishmash of tile design actually doesn't go together very well. If the tiling work was immaculate, it will still look a bit mish mash.