Bathroom Renovation - Contractor Screwup

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vincenzo Corleone ... 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. ...

Personally I would not come to that conclusion without at least seeing what the GC has to say.

[NgineER]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter Personally I would not come to that conclusion without at least seeing what the GC has to say.

+1 Might give you a break on the cost of your project. Something like that is very eye catching and I would hate it...

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter Personally I would not come to that conclusion without at least seeing what the GC has to say.

Agreed. He may look at it and agree with you that is isn't up to snuff. He might even want to get it fixed, so it doesn't reflect poorly on his quality (even if you decide you can live with it).

I've seen work that friends have proudly shown us, and I'm thinking to myself "Find out who their contractor was, and make sure to never hire them!" Something that looks OK to the owners might look awful to me.

Personally, I think that tile looks pretty bad, maybe the 'pie slices' against the wall more so than the drain. I would want it fixed.

-ERD50

[finnski1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Agreed. He may look at it and agree with you that is isn't up to snuff. He might even want to get it fixed, so it doesn't reflect poorly on his quality (even if you decide you can live with it). I've seen work that friends have proudly shown us, and I'm thinking to myself "Find out who their contractor was, and make sure to never hire them!" Something that looks OK to the owners might look awful to me. Personally, I think that tile looks pretty bad, maybe the 'pie slices' against the wall more so than the drain. I would want it fixed. -ERD50

+1 on all your comments!

[txtig]

We totally remodeled all four of our bathrooms about a year ago. Two baths had a diverter valve controlling the flow between the fixed overhead shower and a secondary handheld shower. The plumber installed both diverter valves incorrectly and it wasn’t discovered until the tile guys had completed their work. The fix was to rip out the tile and the concrete backer board, reposition the valve, and reinstall backer board and tile. The plumber picked up the cost of the re-work by the tile guy. No push back or arguments by any of the parties involved.

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by txtig We totally remodeled all four of our bathrooms about a year ago. Two baths had a diverter valve controlling the flow between the fixed overhead shower and a secondary handheld shower. The plumber installed both diverter valves incorrectly and it wasn’t discovered until the tile guys had completed their work. The fix was to rip out the tile and the concrete backer board, reposition the valve, and reinstall backer board and tile. The plumber picked up the cost of the re-work by the tile guy. No push back or arguments by any of the parties involved.

Nice - great outcome. But a bit different from the fully cosmetic problem with the OP

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by COcheesehead We had a backsplash with a pattern installed in our new house. It took about six months to discover it, but my wife found one tile installed upside down. Now that we know it’s there we see it all the time. It makes for a good party trick though, asking guests to find the upside down tile. We also had a house years ago where they screwed up the rise and run of the staircase. There was about a 6” deep by 36” wide bump out in the ceiling below the stairs and it broke the plane. Stuck out like a sore thumb. I used to ask guests if they could find the “glaring” error in the room. Most never saw it. I looked at it everyday. Poop happens.

+1. When we had our tongue and groove bamboo floors installed there was one board where they screwed up on the nailing and jury rigged a fix that was never quite right and ended up with a 1/2" long blemish the width of a nail. By the time I saw it the floors were done and it would have been a big deal to tear it out to fix it. For a while, it seemed like that fault caught my eye every time that I walked past it. Now, I hardly ever notice it.

For construction projects, the serenity prayer is a useful tool.

[Vincenzo Corleone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski +1. When we had our tongue and groove bamboo floors installed there was one board where they screwed up on the nailing and jury rigged a fix that was never quite right and ended up with a 1/2" long blemish the width of a nail. By the time I saw it the floors were done and it would have been a big deal to tear it out to fix it. For a while, it seemed like that fault caught my eye every time that I walked past it. Now, I hardly ever notice it. For construction projects, the serenity prayer is a useful tool.

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.

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vincenzo Corleone ... I'll try to get him to cut his price to compensate us.

Negotiation technique suggestion: Explain the problem to him, then go quiet and wait for his reaction and suggested remedy. Bring up alternatives only after you have explored whatever his proposals are and rejected all of them. By proposing a price reduction right away, you may end up precluding something better.

[COcheesehead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter Negotiation technique suggestion: Explain the problem to him, then go quiet and wait for his reaction and suggested remedy. Bring up alternatives only after you have explored whatever his proposals are and rejected all of them. By proposing a price reduction right away, you may end up precluding something better.

Yes, silence is powerful.

[aja8888]

We have been in our 2,000 SF house for 7 years and it's 22 years old now. The only upgrade we did was install granite countertops, a new double sink, some new plumbing fixtures and a special backsplash tile. After everything was done, and months later, I noticed a defective tile on the backsplash at the sink. Also, the sink faucet hot/cold lever hits the backsplash when moving to all cold.

And I have found other "deformaties" throughout the house that probably were the fault of the original builders.

I call all these abnormalities "character flaws" and let it go.

We don't live in a perfect world and all these houses we live in are not perfect if one looks close enough!

[RobbieB]

Y'all have heard of our "home improvements" for a long time now and with good reason. The only thing I've done since buying was "the mechanical plant"

Roof, toilets, sinks and faucets, HVAC. Everything else was over 30 years old. Paint, carpet and the dirt yard. Not to mention houses shift and settle. The granite guys had to caulk in a 3/8" gap from the backsplash to the wall. I'm sure the granite was flat.

Yeah 38 year old tract house, still going strong. Just a little "bent" in places -

[Ronstar]

I'm like OP. No way would I accept that drain and tile as in the pics. I have ocd when it comes to things lining up, and being plumb and level.

When we first built our house, DW hired a painter to do faux painting, etc. Part of it included a mural with fence pickets. The pickets were a little off plumb and I had her redo it.

And the kitchen faucet did not line up with the center of the window above the kitchen sink. That bugged me for 27 years until we remodeled. Now they line up.

A few years ago, we had a new roof installed. I could see where a few rows of shingles near a gable didn't look right. The exposed portion of shingles was not consistent with rows farther up and down. I told the owner of the roofing company and he fixed it.

My previous boat dock suffered from years of frost heave that made it about an inch or 2 out of level. That bothered me so much that I ripped it out last year and replaced it with a floating dock.

We were looking to move to Arizona a few years ago. DW found the perfect house for her. But a few things bothered me - I could see that the drapery rods were not level - off by an inch or so. We put in an offer for the house, but did not get the house. If we had, I would have redone all of those drapery rods before we moved in.

I have several pictures, photos and maps hanging on walls in our house. They are level. I had to re-level some pictures at MIL's again today. I don't know how they become out of level, but I have to adjust them about weekly.

So OP - don't fret over telling the contractor to fix the drain/ tile issue. If it doesn't get fixed, it will bother you every day for as long as you are living in the house.

[RobbieB]

Floating docks yes, OCD no.

[COcheesehead]

My wife is super anal on things that don’t really matter. Drives her nuts. Drives me nuts. Most things really do not matter.

[WhenIsItTime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vincenzo Corleone 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]

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]

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.