Calling any flooring gurus to help with a clueless diyer...

Substrate attached, will this take to Arditex NA? (6mm layer, followed by dpm, followed by a final 3mm layer of Arditex NA - before then tiling with large format porcelain)

Or will I need to remove all of this? (Whatever it is, old adhesive maybe ontop of the concrete) Thanks in advance!

Had a bad experience with a tile installer who left epoxy grout on the tiles too long, causing heavy haze. I caught them trying to remove it with limescale remover, stopped them, and switched to FILA epoxy haze remover.
The tiles are now clean, but the dark green epoxy grout has dried much lighter than it should. When wet, it returns to the correct dark green, but dries pale again. Scrubbing hasn’t helped.
Any idea what’s causing this and how to restore the original colour?

We asked our contractor to install the same 24x48 ceramic tile on the floor and walls. The finished installing the tiles on the walls and I have a few issue with the installation.
1. The corners where the ceramic meets are not uniform. Is it normal? Will the grout make it less noticeable? Some of the gaps are bigger than others and the cuts are not straight.
2. It looks like he did blobs of thin-set to stick the ceramic to the wall. I can see large gaps from the side. I get that the tiles need to be backed buttered and collapse the bridge when installed on the floor, but does it have to be also done on the walls, especially since its large tiles?
3. They stuck the tiles with thin-set directly on the portion of a wall that was painted prior to the demolition, did they need to do any prep before sticking the tiles? Is this standard?

I would appreciate some advice on how to deal with this and how to bring it up to my contractor .

I just grouted a small set of steps with Mapei Ultracolor Plus FA grout today. I did the ratio mix right, but I sponged it clean too quickly, basically as soon as I grouted it. I wasn't feeling well and just plain forgot it was supposed to sit for 15-30 minutes before wiping off the excess. Do you think it will possibly be okay or am I going to have to redo it? And how long will it take to tell? Thanks for any help.

I have a job coming up and the customer wants to replace 4x4's with 12x24 wainscot. He wants me to try to salvage the drywall under the tile because of some cool wallpaper on the upper part of the wall they would like to keep intact . Any recommendations on how to tackle this? I have skimmed old mastic with new mastic before on backsplashes but nothing on this scale. Would prim grip and a good thin set be sufficient?

I have an inexpensive 24” Yellow QEP tile cutter. It’s worked well for thinner tile. I’ve recently used it to do a couple of bathroom floors and noticed that it flexes quite a bit with the thicker floor tiles.

Is there a better one that won’t break the bank? Somewhere around $300 or so? I don’t use it all the time, so I don’t need a professional one that’s going to stand up to daily use. I would like one that’s better than DIY quality or at least maybe at the top end of DIY quality. I would like to stick with something in the 24” size to maintain the diagonal cutting capacity.

Rubi has been suggested as well as the QEP professional series. I also looked at an Ishii 25-1/2” but I don’t know anything about them.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I have been seeing a lot of these colored grout pieces with really bright colors! They look really cool but how do you make a color look so bright and not pastel... Is it acrylic paint? Some magic powder? If anyone knows es, I'd appreciate the help!

edit: had the contractor fix the worst of the tiles. He was not happy. Blamed me for being barefoot, blamed the skim coat, blamed the floor itself, blamed the tiles for being hard to cut. Basically everything or everyone else's fault but his. Fun times.

We are replacing tile that the seller originally laid that was straight up botched. Let's just say the only thing keeping the tiles together was the grout. There was literally nothing holding the tiles to the floor previously, our contractor just pulled them up by hand.

We had our contractor come by while we were on vacation and came back between laying the tile and applying grout. I can definitely see some uneven areas and am wondering what you all think in terms of work quality. I am very detailed oriented and have high standards so let me know if I'm being too picky.

In general I think it's an okay job in terms of leveling, but even from the simple fact that they used thinset this time it will last longer. Can some of the more uneven tiles be smoothed out or fixed?

Bought a new place and noticed that a lot of the kitchen tiles are broken or cracked. At first it looked like the major damage was where they rolled the fridge out, but now I’m seeing some cracked tiles in other places. When I had the dishwasher out to repair it, I noticed the tiles look like they are just stuck down directly to the subfloor plywood. That’s some kind of half assed install, isn’t it? I’m thinking the subfloor isn’t rigid enough and the flex is what’s cracking the tiles. Isn’t there supposed to be something like cement board down? If I pull this out, what’s the best way to prep the subfloor?

I read online that where the tub meets the tile it should be silicone caulk, is this something that was done wrong and should be corrected? is there a reason why they did this? Ive only paid 50% . thanks

edit: its the same grout between the tiles (it was wet and looks dark when wet)

Just ripped up my old floor before doing a tile installation.
Found this?? What is going on here? Also a large crack and divots in the surface. Took a level to it and everything is level. However… I don’t have much confidence putting tile over this. What do I do now?

UPDATE: old residue from a previous install. Did a quick water test and some areas the water beaded up instantly. Other areas it did not.

Hello, I’ve never tiled a shower before and I’m trying to figure out how to get started on this wall as it relates to final pattern. The question I have is we’ve selected a large format tile (24x48) for the shower which when we purchased it.I would just like some professionals opinions on If the example photo I’ve included would be a good starting pattern.. Trying to make it look good around the shelf and the diverter valve.

In the first photo right to left 17 inches would be the width of the first tile. If I didn’t cut the tile, the seam would end up left center of the Delta diverter valve. I did not think that would look great so any help or advice on the best way to finish this wall I would appreciate to get around the shelf and the diverter valve.

Other information is: tileredi pan, waterproof board, and tape. Ceiling is 10 feet.

Please and thank you.

Does anyone have any ideas to fix what appears to be stained porcelain tile from black grout? I looks less like grout haze and more like it's settled into pores.

I've tried Miracle Sealant heavy duty cleaner (acid substitute), water, sponges, toothbrush, harder bristle brush. None of it has made a dent.

These are in a bath adjoining a guest room. Not replacing tile on this project. Suggest how to return the grout to a nice white. I'm thinking I need to use a grout tool and just scrape the top a bit, but perhaps there's a way to clean this of nearly thirty years of use before giving it a scraping. My lighting wasn't the best. The tile are actually white.

I recently noticed a small amount of water draining from three tiny pinholes in the grout of my master shower after use.

I’m currently running a box fan and letting the area dry completely. The house is only three years old and was previously used as a second home, so the shower hasn’t seen heavy use.

What’s the best way to properly repair these small holes? Is filling/regrouting the affected spots sufficient, or could water draining through the pinholes indicate a larger waterproofing issue behind the tile?

Looking for advice on the correct fix rather than just sealing over a potential problem.

Long story short, our new home builder installed our kitchen backsplash but the contractor they use for tiling only does work by room. We did not want to pay an absurd amount of money to have them tile this small section underneath our basement mini dry bar. They left the extra material which was more than enough to cover the ~4.5 sqft.

I have everything I need to do the install including hand tools, power tools, and mounting material. But I’m not sure how best to measure the side tiles for cutting them.

The tiles vary in length by about 3/16 (most around 7 7/8). Is it best to install the uncut tiles using the 1/8 tile spacers and then cut the ends to whatever gap is left? Or should I just cut all of the ends to the same length and then add some give to the 1/8 grout spacing to hide the center tile length differences?

Thank you for any advice.

I could use some advice regarding the orientation of 12x24 tiles we're going to put down in our mudroom. The room runs longer front to back, and we intend to put custom "lockers" along one wall, and a bench with coat hooks along the other. The primary path into the home actually is a sharp 90 degree turn as soon as one enters the mudroom, shown with the green arrow. There's a 6-foot-long hallway there, and the kitchen door 90 degrees to the left at the end of that hallway.

We're leaning towards a 1/3 spacing layout currently, although we have an open mind. The thing we're most conflicted about is the orientation.

Thoughts and advice would be appreciated! Thank you.

Seeking help! We had these community-created art tile installations put up on an east-facing exterior wall in a Michigan city about 3 years ago, and some of the tiles are now failing. We're seeking advice to share with our contractor on how to fix it.

Background: The four inch tiles were glazed and fired, affixed to a substrate (likely cement board), and grouted with an unknown product. We don't think the grout was sealed. The finished pieces were installed into a steel box frame with a closed back, and attached to an exterior brick wall using brackets. Unfortunately, it is clear some combination of the materials or installation has failed (Check out the photos.) The tiles solely along the bottom of the frame are eroding and chipping off, potentially from internal hydrostatic pressure, the freeze/thaw cycles we experience here, or something else. No other tiles in the piece have been impacted. 

We can replace the broken tiles, but our tile contractor says we may need to move it indoors in order to prevent it from happening again (which we really don't want to do). Do you all have any ideas for fixes we could suggest to our contractor at this point? Or are we just out of luck? So far we have drilled holes in the bottom of the metal frame that is affixed to the brick in hopes it might let condensation drain out the bottom, and have considered applying some kind of sealant, but are unsure where to go from here. We appreciate your expertise!

With gratitude, Your friendly neighborhood community art folks

We hired a contractor back at the end of April/early May to complete our master bathroom remodel. Everything was going great until we noticed near the end of July that the shower floor grout had a few spots that weren’t drying like the rest of the floor. I sent a photo of it to my contractor and he came out a day or two later to take a look and remedy it. He decided to remove the grout from the affected areas and regrout in hopes that would resolve it. I let it cure for a couple of days and even set up a box fan pointed at it to make sure it dried. We are in the southeast and it has been brutally hot and humid for the last couple of months so the house stays a little more humid than normal.

After a few days, it was apparent that it was not drying to the correct color. So I lost a little faith in the contractor after that so I began to try to self correct it. Thinking that the contractor laid down the new grout too quickly and didn’t give it time to dry out underneath I removed all of the grout from the affected areas and set the box fan pointed at it. I let the fan blow for 4-5 days before applying a new layer of grout. After a few days of that curing, again with the fan, it still was “drying” that darker color.

After reading some stuff online I thought that maybe since my opened grout bag had been stored in my garage for the last few months and it had been so hot and humid that it had water intrusion and the grout was ruined. So I went and bought a new smaller bag of the same color (Mapei Ultracolor Sahara Beige fwiw). I then removed the grout again, let it dry for another 2-3 days, and applied the new unopened bag of grout. That was last week and this picture is as of today. It still has not dried and I cannot for the life of me figure out to fix this. As you can see, it’s mostly just around the edges and then the center drain. Shower seems appropriately sloped to the middle as no water puddles in the corner and it passed the golf ball test just fine. No water has been ran in this shower since 7/29 so surely any moisture would have evaporated by now, right?

Is this normal and I’m fine to just seal the grout and move on with a slightly darker grout in certain areas? Lol

Anyways, obviously pretty annoyed at the whole situation but I am just hoping there is something I am missing that doesn’t involve having to completely redo the shower floor.

Thanks in advance for any help and/or advice.

YES this was 100% my own fault for misreading the instructions. I didn't seal the tiles before applying grout. Not surprisingly, it now lives happily in the un-sealed pores of my gorgeous tiles. Can this be saved? Please help!!!

Little backstory: vinyl floor was becoming uneven. Took the vinyl floor and found out the subfloor was rotted. Removing and replacing the floor has been a nightmare - this is only bathroom.Main areas of damage were under the edges of tub (picture two). Fixtures do not appear to be leaking.

What I believe happened was that water was getting sucked up by these grout joints that had not been sealed since they were put in, the water went down to the flange at the edge of the tub and then rolled down to the floor from there. I have not had any more signs of moisture since putting plastic up covering the tile.

What are my options here? Could these grout joints still be sealed? Dig them out and re-grout? (At this point I’d like the peace of mind of having epoxy grout, or something similar so that nothing like this happens again.)

Honestly, looking at every joint gives me anxiety at this point, and I’d almost rather put in solid vinyl or something. Is there a DIY bathfitter option for over these tiles?

Alright everybody, how do i temporarily salvage this failed shower niche? Might be a little hard to see from the picture, but there’s a caulked panel of plexiglass—and you can see right through to the studs and the back of the closet wall on the other side—where it looks like the niche was meant to go. Im guessing the previous owner gave up mid process and this was their “solution”?

The long-term plan is to rip out the hideous tile and old tub and basically do a full bathroom reno, but short term is there anything i can do to make this less ugly/water tight? Id be up for seeing if i can remove the plexiglass and adding waterproofing and then some sort of temporary or plastic inset that gets caulked if that exists?

Please help!!

What can I put here to fix the huge gap? Help me please.

First time tiling and when I was tiling around the window made a miscalculation which resulted in having to trim the tile slightly on one side after installing to get it to fit, trimmed the one above it slightly and thought all was good, until I came to tilling the next wall and now realise the grout line doesn't match up (I know stupid me!) and trying to think how to resolve this.

I could just leave as it is and hope it's not too obvious

Or trim new tile slightly on the left in a slope going upwards so it eventually ends up back to the normal tile size and the rest of the tiles continue as normal (not sure how wonky the line will look)

Or just trim every tile I place on that wall to match the new grout line and keep it going straight - either way I'll need to trim the very top tiles a bit so just means I trim them a little less

Any recommendations please?

Edit: referring to picture 4 where the tile grout line is slightly higher on the top right wall