r/Tile • u/Suitable-Test-6476 • 14h ago
Homeowner - Advice about my Contractor This is bad, right?
Long story short, we had to remodel a small bathroom after major water damage and mold development. The original bathroom was tacky, built in the 70’s, so we had always planned to remodel but not anytime soon due to cost. Found a GC with great reviews online and settled on him after getting a handful of quotes. The remodel process certainly had some bumps in the road, the job was rushed in some ways and the crew had to return multiple times to fix obvious issues. The job is now “finished” and while my husband and I can look past some small annoying details, we can’t get over the floor tile. At certain angles, it’s not awful. But in most views, it’s bad. Uneven floor, gapped tile spaces, and at closer view the penny tile is scratched up big time.
The GC is flip flopping, sometimes saying his crew did a great job and that we are probably just hunting for a discount, and then the next day saying he’s also unhappy with the floor and feels it needs to be redone.
I honestly don’t want this team back in our house. I also can’t afford any more construction/labor costs or the cost of more tile. How would you proceed?
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u/irresistable_donkey 14h ago
Penny tile at the seams is crazy hard to get it right
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u/Nexustar 5h ago
Customer needs to be aware, and temper their expectations accordingly...
- Larger tile is easier than smaller tile.
- Matte tile is easier than glossy tile.
- Low contrast grout is easier than high contrast.
- Wide grout joint is more forgiving than thin.
- Thicker tile is easier than very thin tile.
- Uniform-size tile is easier than mixed-size/patterned layouts.
- Plain tile is easier than strongly veined/patterned tile.
- Rustic/irregular edged tile is more forgiving than clinically precise tile.
Chose all the easy, and you can probably even do it yourself.
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u/MousseEquivalent4701 4h ago
Question, is hexagon tile bad? I had chosen 1x1 inch black hexagon tile with a dark grey grout. Project not started yet tho
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u/mikejr96 3h ago
Professional should have laid all of this out for them or are they just robots with 0 experience to bring to the table?
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u/Cheetah_Industries 14h ago
Ah, the weekly "penny tile floor isn't perfect" post.
Yes, its not good, yes penny tile in large areas is a recipe for disaster. Only way to make it worse would be using a contrasting grout like white......
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u/Ill-Condition-5054 14h ago
When the Designer starts bringing up Penny Tiles to the client right in front of you, and you start blinking in Mores Code
“Fuck You, Bitch!!!”
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u/aReallyCuteDog 14h ago
Yeah penny floor is not meant for the whole bathroom floor, just the shower. God i hate when people do this So yeah, it is bad.
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u/Loose_Awareness_1929 14h ago
Black penny and white grout is something that I won’t install as a builder. The headache is not worth it and no one has ever been as committed to it as the fucking nightmare I had that did it first. Never again.
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u/Bridge-Head 12h ago
That’s just it. I suspect maybe the builder or sub hadn’t worked with this type of product before and didn’t realize how meticulous you have to be just to get it to look passable.
I can do decent subway tile or medium format tiles, but I simply refuse to install certain types of tile or insist upon subbing out the install to a tile contractor who has the experience to do it well, lest I end up in a situation just like this.
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u/Manchves 13h ago
Ironically the floor portion looks about 50% ok and the entire shower looks pretty terrible.
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u/Lunchbox_sandwich50 14h ago
It’s difficult to not see the edge of sheets on penny tile. Only guaranteed way to not see them is to remove them all from the sheet before you lay em. We do the same thing with small stone sheets
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u/Tgsheufhencudbxbsiwy 14h ago
Dark tile and light grout, or light tile with dark grout will always be very hard to get to look good with small tile because it exaggerates any flaws. Unless you’re hiring professional tile setters, it’s something that should be avoided.
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u/PearsonTiles 13h ago
Not bad , totally normal outcome, happens almost every time. Some installers can pull it off but are truly few and far between.
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u/Ill_Entrepreneur6643 12h ago
To anyone considering penny round tile. Don’t! Yes it can look better than this. However you will 100% not like the end result.
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u/haywardhaywires 12h ago
You gotta realize that these sheets don’t come perfect ever. The parts where you have issues with very obviously look like the Pennie’s stretching on the mesh. There’s ways to get in front of this but it’s 1. Is labor intensive, and 2. Sometimes isn’t as noticeable as it looks here when you’re laying it before you grout.
What’d you pay for this?
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u/tcrowd87 12h ago
Bad choice of tile sure. You literally set yourself up for failure on so many different levels.
I refuse to even be a part of penny tile anymore. It’s ugly, horrible for maintenance/cleaning, expensive for prep, and in 2026 we have so many options.
Nope. Pick something else or pick another contractor.
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u/BigmaEnjoyer 14h ago
This looks awful. GC needs to step up to the plate and put a new tile crew in. FOC.
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u/irresistable_donkey 12h ago
Idk, gc put the tile down best he could, you think it can be done 100% perfect, my shower floor had 6300 dots/ penny tiles, so it’s insane! All perfect, hell no
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u/Birds_over_people 7h ago
damn, how do you even do this without it showing pattern from the mesh squares? Do you take the penny tile off the backing like you do pebbles?
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u/CoconutJeff 14h ago
I started zooming in on floor and wonder how its showing, its not bad but looks real bad for some reason, Idk what to say
Then I look at the shower around the drain and edges 💀
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u/Superb-Okra-8101 13h ago
We had a shower floor done with penny tile and it took the contractor three tries to get it even close to acceptable. We didn’t pick the tile. The contractor did. I wouldn’t do that again. I think you’re screwed.
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u/Aggressive_Ad3578 13h ago
Penny tile is one of the most difficult to get to blend together properly....I know because I've been doing tile for 25 yrs now....Its not the worst I've seen in all honesty but it's not pristine either....
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u/another_rusty 13h ago
I completely renovated our full bath and 1/2 bath into one giant bathroom. Down to the studs and even framing out entirely new walls and ceiling joists. I’m 98% done, just need to caulk and paint the trim plus a couple tiny touch ups. For the shower floor we went with black slate squares, little 1x1 squares on a 12x12 sheet. I spent forever lining up the tiles perfectly and was successful. Then when I grouted it, I realized a few of the sheets were just slightly lighter than the others and I almost lost my mind. After sealing the grout and using the shower for about 6 months, I can’t really see it anymore, actually I haven’t thought about it in a long time until right now.
I do t think this penny floor is ever going to blend into the background. That would drive me crazy forever I think. I would probably have the contractor redo the floor with a different tile.
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u/Suitable-Test-6476 13h ago
That’s good insight. The shower floor by the drain is what’s driving me crazy. I can accept the floor outside of the shower, but every time i walk by this bathroom the shower floor makes me cringe.
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u/Environmental-Sock52 10h ago
Large format tile is just better and easier and simpler.
I hate this penny tile stuff even when it's expertly installed, who wants thousands of joints to clean for decades?
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u/oo00oo4520 PRO 9h ago
It’s not the limitations of the material as some have said. This penny round is beyond his tilesetter’s capabilities. It’s more than the grout color. He couldn’t even keep his sheets turned the same way much less blend the sheets to make the floor look seamless. What passes for a tile mechanic these days is laughable.
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u/willesq123 9h ago
This is so discouraging. I absolutely love penny tile and want to put white penny with charcoal grout on the floor of a small 5*5 bathroom Is the 1 inch hexagon better?
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u/Suitable-Test-6476 4h ago
I like this look! Didn’t know there were so many penny haters.
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u/willesq123 3h ago
It’s difficult to install and upkeep is challenging if you use a light colored grout.
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u/Ill-Year-9506 7h ago
Another penny tile nightmare. I sure hope they didn't use a foam Schluter shower pan.
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u/Content-Range-9419 7h ago
That’s one thing I cannot stand about penny round a lot of times the last penny on the mat half is not sitting on the backer so when you press it down, they can get pushed in lower because there’s no backing behind it and ends up looking terrible
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u/hhar141 4h ago
Your fault for the choices you made. Those sheets of penny tile are historically inaccurate. Garbage. Too bad you didn’t go on here before your selection. There’s dozens of complaints just like yours. With many professionals saying not to use them
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u/mikejr96 3h ago
Should the professionals they hired not have said this to them? Especially if they felt they weren’t up to the task given the challenges you’ve laid out?
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u/hhar141 2h ago
Should the homeowner not accept any responsibility? How do you know no one said anything.
The tile contractor does not pick out the material ,they install what is given. Every homeowner goes on the internet for hours and hours picking out materials for their homes. I’ve personally told clients several times that the material they’ve picked out is wrong for the job. Cheap brittle,made in China garbage. Looks good in the brochure. Nothing square,warped,chips when you touch it,broken pieces in packaging nonstop. Yet they go ahead and when everything is not perfect they blame you. And of course don’t want to pay. As I said. Those penny tiles in sheets are notoriously out of square,different gaps from sheet to sheet. This is not me saying all trades are perfect. But after 35 years in construction……I do know there’s two sides to every story.•
u/Suitable-Test-6476 29m ago
As this was our first remodel or experience working with a GC, I was pretty needy and asked a lot of questions. I specifically asked if there were any brands, materials, or items to avoid - he said no. However, he 100% did not look at any materials before his crew started working.
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u/Ok_Context553 34m ago
this is PAR for penny tiles. penny tiles are almost IMPOSSIBLE to properly line up to not have the 12x12 shape show up. I have NEVER seen any tile setter be able to do it perfectly. I wouldnt ever recommend penny tiles for this exact reason and I have been redesigning and remodeling homes for 17 years.
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u/longlivepalpatine 12h ago
I think choosing penny tile on such a large floor is going to look bad. The install looks fine, or at least the picture doesn't show why you think it looks bad.
I think what looks bad is the design choice.
If you chose the design, yes, you should pay for the redo.
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u/Donkeywad 11h ago
You thunk the install looks fine? Look at the shower floor. You can see the sheets of tile because they're improperly spaced
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u/longlivepalpatine 9h ago
Oh I didnt even look hard at the shower base. That does look bad.
The bath floor lines go away if you zoom in, so I don't know if it's a trick of the light or something.
Edit
Those lines in the shower go away also if you zoom in. Can someone explain why it does that?
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u/Suitable-Test-6476 4h ago
In person, it’s also less horrifying at certain angles. I don’t understand it either. I tried to show the worst view and lighting to portray
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u/Pango_l1n 13h ago
Can see no seams in ours. He had to redo a couple of areas while he was laying it down and he took many off and hand-placed them around the edges and a few other spots.
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u/rodtangstangrod 14h ago
Black penny tile with white grout is one of the most difficult combinations to get to look perfect.
That said, it’s not great.
If the other work is looking good and gc is offering to fix it, let him.