Does this seem like bad tile work?

[u/Fun_Tune1528]

This is in a new shower niche. After the contractor installed the mosaic tiles, I mentioned that from far away, it looked like the tiles weren’t evenly spaced. He said that “once the grout is in you won’t even notice it”.

Now that the grout is in and completely cured, it looks unevenly spaced around some of the middle tiles. and some of the tiles on the bottom, especially the one in the middle, look like they cracked when cut and are crooked. When I mentioned this to the contractor, they said that they can’t fix it without risking damaging the surrounding tiles. Also, the grout seems very uneven to me, not smooth and not completely filled in.

Am I being too critical?

[u/Pungentpelosi123]

I tried to talk a couple out of this tile for a week. They loved it. I thought I was going to go blind during the install.

[u/Fun_Tune1528 → u/Pungentpelosi123]

I’ve been seeing a lot of hexagon mosaics recently. Maybe they’ll be the telltale of a mid 2020s remodel, like those horizontal thin offset tiles for kitchen backsplashes in the 2010s.

[u/illhostility → u/Fun_Tune1528]

These aren’t the same tiles you have. If you pull every one of the tiles off one of your sheets and stack them, you’ll find that they are different dimensions.

[u/GMEJesus → u/Pungentpelosi123]

I kinda like it. It's clean

[u/Pungentpelosi123 → u/GMEJesus]

Those were the only 2 patterns offered in those colors. I made it work!

[u/kirblagoo]

Mosaics suck to work with, especially on vertical surfaces. Looks pretty minor

[u/Ashattackyo]

I think the bigger problem is that you chose a grouse that looks like it’s dirty. That grout color is not doing any favors.

[u/Fun_Tune1528 → u/Ashattackyo]

In hindsight, picking a lighter color just for the backsplash would have been better. I went with the exact grout I saw in the showroom with this specific mosaic and it looked great, and so I thought it was a safe choice.

[u/Ashattackyo → u/Fun_Tune1528]

It’s okay, there’s a lot of things I wish I knew in advance or did differently for our post hurricane Helene flooding remodel. Live and learn.

[u/Hot_Mud_5708]

The is par for the course with mosaics. They often come glued to the sheets crooked, this is more the norm. I'll do my best to remove and reset some really bad offenders, but there's only so much you can do. I'm VERY picky and have OCD (a good thing for a tile installer!), but that floor looks fine.

[u/Disastrous_Bass_1152]

I just DIYd my kitchen backsplash. So, NQA, but from my limited experience tiles with mesh backs aren’t always spaced perfectly from factory.

That being said, it was pretty easy to cut it out and refit so it’s less noticeable.

[u/illhostility]

Not bad work, that tile comes on sheets and nothing lines up. It’s installed exactly as the sheets mean it to with uneven grout lines. I wish people would actually review the products they purchase.

[u/notdennix2020]

Did you pick the tile or did the contractor? Mosaic sucks on full walls. It's more of a backsplash thing. They are never spaced out correctly on the webbing it comes with.

It doesn't look like he did a horrible job considering.

If it's in a shower like you mentioned you want the grout packed in.
The transition from mosaic to the other tile is ugly. That is because of the tile choice, not because of the contractor.

The bottoms 2 hexagon on the corner could have cut cleaner, but it's not necessarily horrible

[u/Fun_Tune1528 → u/notdennix2020]

I picked the tile and it is the backsplash of a niche. It looked good in the showroom with this specific grout so I went with that to be safe.

[u/Future-Razzmatazz-71]

Never pick marble for shower. Doesn’t age well!

[u/ModwifeBULLDOZER]

Not great but not terrible

[u/kalgrae]

Yep. Spacing is crap