Bathroom Renovation - Contractor Screwup

[WhenIsItTime]

Regarding the boldfaced part above, this is pretty much where my wife and I are. There just seems to be too many other things that can go wrong while attempting to implement the right fix. We don't think it's worth the risk. Overall, we know the whole end result will be great.

You should ask about it. If they have any integrity and competence, it won't be a surprise and they will level (pardon the slight pun) with you.

I saw where you think its square by measuring diagonally. The grade of the floor could cause some challenge if it was historically sloped to a small drain. If they were working from scratch, this is amateur or careless work. I agree the suggestion to change the drain cover (don't use matching tile) might help conceal.

I had a large area floor in our 25 year old house re-tiled. Was 12" squares. Went to 6" x 48" tiles. I inquired about a few joints that were off. The installer said, "are you asking about in front of the entry door". I was impressed he knew the spot. He shared that the area was between two other surfaces and had severe undulations, but constrained by preserving even transitions to the other surfaces. He had spent considerable time mitigating the difference and the issue I saw was the most concealed solution in his opinion. I agreed and let it go.

 

[frances]

We just renovated three full bathrooms in our home. Started a full year ago and was a "have to" because of a leak in the first one, second one because the wet wall was against the leaky one, and ended with "might as well" on the third one.
IMO the crooked drain is COMPLETELY unacceptable and the contractor(s) responsible, be it the plumber(s) and/or tile setter(s) would completely eat the costs of all labor AND materials. Period.
And if they won't then, well, see you in court.

 

[Murph]

Huh?

Can’t even tell what I’m looking at here. What drain?

 

[Bruizer]

I would at least talk to the contractor and see what he says. Many contractors don't won't to have dissatisfied customers who won't recommend them.

 

[folly]

What is the stress worth??

We had a new house built and had so many little issues just like your drain. I think you are right, it should be done to your satisfaction, but the reality is the contractor probably has SO.... much work scheduled that he will never get to the repair. Their is a shortage of worker, if you haven't noticed. You choices will be to sue him or not pay him.
The stress revolving around those two options is ugly. Is it worth it?
Like someone else said only you will notice it. You should ask for him to lower the price he quoted. In our case, our contractor paid for some product to redo the screwed up floor. His people were committed to other jobs. We can call him and complain but nothing ever happens. He says next week, next week and next week never comes. Unfortunately he is in the same social circles as us and we do not want to blow this up into drama. Another friend just withheld a % of the money and told his contractor he would pay when the work was done to his satisfaction. There was legal letters but the contractor just gave up the money, he did not have the men to redo work.

 

[wompo]

I just don’t understand why “professionals” seem to do this kind of thing all the time. The person doing this job had to notice it was off but just did it anyway. Anybody who builds anything knows that spending a little time up front is so much easier and takes much less time and effort than doing it over. The minute you see something isn’t right you stop and figure it out or ask if what you are going to do is good enough.

I developed software for 30+ years and from day one everyone always talks about how time consuming it is to fix problems the longer down the path of development you discover the problem. Then the development starts and corners get cut to meet some arbitrary deadline and problems are pushed down the road until things start grinding to a halt. I worked with someone who always said that there is never enough time and money to do it right but always enough to do it over.

 

[Jerry1]

I just don’t understand why “professionals” seem to do this kind of thing all the time.

Because it works. He’s moved on to the next job. He doesn’t care about referrals because he has more work than he can handle. Stopping the job would have cost him a day or more that he probably would not have got paid for. The purchaser/homeowner comes to the same conclusion as we’re seeing here - that it’s not worth busting up substandard work for an unknown final result. The money the contractor give him will be less than he would have lost had he stopped the job.

Sucks, but that’s the way it is.

 

[RobbieB]

Yes. All contractors & "handymen" have more work than they can serve.

Be nice to them as you might want them to do some other work for you. Offer them beverages and snacks.

 

[Global Wizzo]

Doing the same

Yours does look a little off. One thing that might help us to redo the drain center tile so it matches and lines up with the floor.

We are redoing the shower with a linear drain as well. Ours is 12x24 tile with 1/16 grout lines. I could have done an exact center on the drain but opted to run off center to make it easier to slope the tile and not have to cut the entire slab below the shower. The tile at the end gives me a little slope to the drain

I have had some edge tile cut out to keep the grout line consistent. Here’s mine. Still a mess.

 

[68bucks]

Have you talked to the contractor about it? Did you take him in there and ask what he sees? Ask him if it would be acceptable in his house. Ask if that's the quality of work he wants attached to his name? Ask why he didn't point out the problem before he proceeded. I'm with you, beside the money aspect it would drive me nuts, forever. Put the onus on him to explain how it happened and how to correct it. Don't make threats at this point, try to work it out first. One question, did you hire the plumber or did the contractor? If you hired that job separately you have a bigger problem.

 

[COcheesehead]

Have you talked to the contractor about it? Did you take him in there and ask what he sees? Ask him if it would be acceptable in his house. Ask if that's the quality of work he wants attached to his name? Ask why he didn't point out the problem before he proceeded.

Salt vs honey. See which one gets you further.

 

[MomintheSouth]

Oh lord, that would annoy me to no end every day. Especially, as someone else pointed out, the tile pattern inside the drain does not line up with the tile pattern outside the drain. It's not even close. It might be less noticeable if they matched up. IDK. Tile setter was in a hurry (or maybe is not detail-oriented) and he/she needs to fix that before getting paid. (If all payment is going to the contractor then it's on him get a better/different tile setter to correct the problem.) Sloppy work. Pretty choice of tile though. When it's done you'll enjoy it!

 

[Pendlm]

 

[roh3]

��

^Curious first post from an 11 year member.
Perhaps he is the contractor?


I feel bad for the op in this situation, there is no easy solution.

This is exactly why I feel compelled to do everything myself. Any mistakes are corrected before they get too far, or can be rationalized away by the price of the laborer.



.

 

[Ronstar]

I'm not sure if the trench drains are similar to pvc fittings, but pvc fittings are glued together with pvc cement. The proper glue procedure is to apply cement to the male and female fittings, put together, and then twist to spread the cement making sure that you end at the proper alignment of the fittings. Then hold a few seconds until the cement sets.

It only takes a few seconds for the cement to set. Then it can't be moved. So you have to have correct alignment very quickly. If there is a mistake post glue-up, the only way to correct it is to cut it out and redo.

Again I'm not sure if OP's stainless trench drain was a pvc glue up. If so, it could be a lot of work if the drain has to be ripped out.

 

[Music Lover]

I'm not sure if the trench drains are similar to pvc fittings, but pvc fittings are glued together with pvc cement. The proper glue procedure is to apply cement to the male and female fittings, put together, and then twist to spread the cement making sure that you end at the proper alignment of the fittings. Then hold a few seconds until the cement sets.

It only takes a few seconds for the cement to set. Then it can't be moved. So you have to have correct alignment very quickly. If there is a mistake post glue-up, the only way to correct it is to cut it out and redo.

It helps to dry fit the fittings and then mark them with a pencil or sharpie before gluing.

 

[Ronstar]

^ yes it does.

 

[Slater]

I'm not really a praying man. As I type this, I'm having an Old Fashioned, which does the trick for me.

Thanks to all for your input. I'll try to get him to cut his price to compensate us.

Update?
How did it play out...
Discount?
Repaired to your satisfaction?
Neither?

 

[Cobra59]

That quarter inch wouldn't bother me a bit.

What would bother me is a low spot off the drain that just puddled water.

I agree. Life is way too short to get pissed off about something so minor. Enjoy your new bathroom.

Reminds me of how careful we are in building a new wood deck and getting everything to within less than 1/16", then the next summer after sun, snow, rain, etc. Some of the wood has warped and moved by 3/8" inch. We still enjoy our deck.

 

[Scrapr]

I developed software for 30+ years and from day one everyone always talks about how time consuming it is to fix problems the longer down the path of development you discover the problem. Then the development starts and corners get cut to meet some arbitrary deadline and problems are pushed down the road until things start grinding to a halt. I worked with someone who always said that there is never enough time and money to do it right but always enough to do it over.

the same software developers that makes users the "Beta" testers? Software engineers are in a hurry too

 

[Perryinva]

First off, one of the major points of those linear drains is that the inset tile should match the floor pan tile pattern. It clearly doesn’t because of the slant. Assuming the drain is embedded in a thinset floor pan, it ain’t moving without removal of the thinset. There are many ways nowadays to set a shower floor. Those drain tops typically have a small amount of adjustment relative to the actual drain to compensate for exactly what has happened BEFORE the pour. I don’t know if they have THAT much adjustment. Clearly the tile guy screwed up. Any tile man worth anything measures first and knows THAT ain’t gonna fly.

I put in a linear drain when I did exactly the same thing in my last house (tub to large shower, with curb and glass doorless enclosure.), but I chose a SS grill instead of the tile inlay type. The drain is properly positioned and supported before you pour the thinset. The tile guy should never had poured the thinset if the drain was crooked, plain & simple. If there was no adjustment or play in the PVC, which there usually is, he should have let the plumber know. Gotta say that the ultimate fault is whomever the supervisor is, if it’s not a one man company. I would never accept that, having done the work myself. It isn’t hard to measure twice & cut once.

 

[427Vette]

I have a hard time believing that any professional would do something like this on purpose. There is definitely an explanation as to why it ended up the way it is. I am betting it’s not because the installer didn’t see it was crooked. Keep in mind it was a remodel and there could be any number of reasons why it was installed crooked. We obviously know nothing about the project other than the obvious. Maybe there was an obstacle in the way, maybe the original drain pipe came out of the adjacent floor truss at an odd angle, maybe the conduit feeding the main electric service is right there in the way. Maybe to get it straight involved tearing up the room underneath it resulting in more expense/mess. Possibly the drain was damaged right out of the package but getting another one due to product shortages and shipping delays would take another 6-8 weeks. We simply don’t know and won’t know unless the contractor is asked about it. There is no excuse as to why this wouldn’t have been communicated as soon as the issue arose though. I would ask the contractor about it and see what develops.

 

[Badger]

... We simply don’t know and won’t know unless the contractor is asked about it. There is no excuse as to why this wouldn’t have been communicated as soon as the issue arose though...

 

[eytonxav]

I too would be annoyed by this visual imperfection. Did you sign a contract and are there any provisions in it that could give you some recourse? Certainly I would confront the contractor and tell him the work is unacceptable and see what happens. At the very least, he should realign the tile on the drain and provide a cash discount if unwilling to totally tear out to straighten the drain. If that does not work you might find some relief in small claims court.

 

[HMMY]

Our hexagonal shower tiles did not match in the corners. I told the GC it was completely unacceptable and asked what they were going to do about it. They offered to repurchase the tiles and reset it. I told them I would have them use subway tile, which they had done properly in the other bathroom. They insisted on redoing the hexagonal tile because they wanted to do it right. We get so many compliments when people see the shower.

Do not offer a solution. Let them tell you how they're going to fix it.