We had a tile floor installed in our kitchen and the grout spacing varies from 0″ (tiles are butted together) to 3/16″. This variation is spread across the entire floor. The installer is claiming that there is no problem although the variance is easily visible. The tiles came on 10.5 x 12" mats so the middle of the mats are spaced about 1/16" and I am assuming the irregular areas are the borders. They did not use any spacers between the mats. Is there any sort of standard we can refer to when making our case about repairing the floor?
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A picture would help, but grout lines should be equal. One reason they give you the spacers in the first place. There is a kind of looks good for grout space to tile size, small grout lines for small tiles.– crip659Commented Aug 21 at 19:20
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Some tiles-on-a-mat come from the factory with quite uneven grout lines. Some of that is correctable, but time-consuming and fiddly. I wouldn't dream of trying to do so unless I was being paid (well) by the hour.– kreemoweetCommented Aug 22 at 0:35
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The only reason grout lines may be uneven is if the tiles aren't basically dimensionally identical. Most mass-production tile should be, but it may occur with custom hand-made tiles.– HuesmannCommented Aug 22 at 14:37
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Follow up to my question above, what is the possible issue when tiles have zero grout between then (tiles are butted together)?– user246010Commented Aug 22 at 15:12
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1 Answer
When tiles come on mats it is very difficult to use spacers, but not impossible.
The standard is that the finished product should look professionally done with reasonably even grout lines.
The 3 foot rule should be applied. (The appearance is judged at a distance of 3 feet or more.) If the difference is easily noticeable to someone when they walk in the room, it could warrant replacement. If you need to get down and measure the difference, you are being too critical. If the floor is sloped or "bowled" as in a shower, all bets are off, the lines will not be uniform throughout the floor.
