Contractor WWYD

[mrsd2006]

We had our kitchen, living room and den completely redone last year. In the kitchen and den, we have long 24x6 porcelain tiles. The grout has been cracking in a dozen or so places, a couple tiles have cracked. The floor was uneven in places and he put in a new floor (plywood). Our house is old (1954) and we have a basement.

After settling for a few months, we had the contractor back out. His solution was to put several support poles in the basement to even out the floor where it was sagging. And then he regrouted and retiled. It started cracking almost immediately, and a few weeks later it's same as it was before. We paid him $525 for this. He originally quoted $400, but called DH later and said it would be more cause he had to do so much grouting and tile. I didn't think we should have paid him anything, but DH wanted it over and done. Oh yeah, I had to clean all the grout mess up the next day and I was pissssed. And these stupid poles are now in the way where I had open space in the basement. 

So DH has talked to him again about coming back out. But at this point, I think he has no idea what to do to fix it, or it's more work than he wants to do for free. He won't admit that though I'm sure. dH told him he's not paying him anything else (we have a one year warranty). 

wWYD? Any experience with a floor like this? Can it be fixed where it's not sagging and bouncy? Should we just get someone else to fix it? Am I wrong for wanting my $525 back since his fix did absolutely nothing? Give him another chance? Now we are going to have to buy more supplies (tile and grout) since his fix didn't work. 

[AAM2012]

You won't get your money back but I absolutely wouldn't have him come back out. I would get someone else out there to diagnose the issue.

[compassrose]

May 29, 2015 23:11:54 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

You won't get your money back but I absolutely wouldn't have him come back out. I would get someone else out there to diagnose the issue.

Ditto this. You might have been able to get away with not paying him, but I don't think you will get your money back.
Either way, he doesn't sound like he knows what he's doing, so I'd get recs for someone else and get quotes.

[treedimensional]

May 29, 2015 23:11:54 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

You won't get your money back but I absolutely wouldn't have him come back out. I would get someone else out there to diagnose the issue.

Yup.

[downtoearth]

I don't really know, but we have a 100+ year old house (our first house, now rental) and it has settling issues. The foundation is on an upper layer with a lot of clay, so it's hard not to get some movement during dry years (clay shrinks) to wet years (clay expands). We were told by a structural engineer that it's just how it is on that material and the only way to stop slight foundation movements that cause cracks in wall plaster and floor grout at the edge of the house was to anchor the corners of our foundation into bedrock 20+ feet down.

Long story to say that maybe you too have expansive clays in your soil and so maybe he can't actually do the work to stop the cracks. I'd still have him out, but I think I'd also call a structural engineer that works with houses and get their opinion (usually costs about $200-$400 for an inspection from an engineer).

[AmyRI]

This sounds more like a structural issue under the tile than a tile or foundation issue. I expect cracking to happen at joints and over time, but a bouncy, cracking tile floor after a day? That's not a tile problem.

I'd call someone qualified to look at the structure underneath the floor to figure out what the real problem is. If it's a crappy subfloor prep job, try to get the tile guy to come back and fix it for free because it's his screw-up. If the house can't support the weight of the tile and it's a structural only issue, I think it's on you to fix that because it's not the contractor's area of expertise to know he was doing something wrong.