All too often home improvement jobs (including tiling), go wrong. But what should you do about it?
Problems with tiling jobs can range from your house being left a bit messy right the way up to atrocious tiling work, damaged tiles which need to be replaced, damaged bathroom suites, tiles being fitted to badly plastered walls or tiling which is just a complete mess with tiles uneven or even falling off your wall.
The first course of action if you are unhappy with your tiling work is to speak directly to the tiler who carried out the work. If the tiler is a sole trader then speak directly to them and express your concerns. Certainly, it is wise to avoid going in all guns blazing as shouting and screaming does not tend to ever obtain a positive result. Aggressive tactics tend to produce aggressive results. Be professional when speaking to the tiler and explain that your are not happy about certain aspects of the work and show them the defects. If the defects are minor, maybe they just missed something. If the work is appalling then you might have a problem on your hands because if they have carried out appalling work in the first place chances are that they simply are not up to the tiling job in hand and your complaint might lead to them making an even bigger mess of your tiling the second time around. Still, it is important that you give them an opportunity to put the tiling job right. Ensure that if there are damaged tiles involved, they agree to replace tiles out of their own pocket.
If the tiler who carried out your tiling job works for an organisation it might be wise to contact their office directly and ask for a supervisor or foreman to visit to check out the complaint. Ask them to give you details of their findings in writing and make a note of the date of the complaint visit and what date they came back to you with their findings. If they disagree with you and you are still unhappy with their decision about whether to remedy your works or not then you should obtain evidence from independent parties.
It might be difficult to get opinions from other tilers as often tilers do not want to get involved with disputes outside their own organisation. There are many bodies available who can give impartial expert witness statements about construction, building and home improvement work. Google 'expert witness building construction' and you will no doubt find some organisations that can come out to provide you with a statement which will often stand up in court. You might have to spend some money here, however if you do take your tiler to court you could try to reclaim this in your costs. Maybe try to get some tilers to take a look first before spending money and if you don't get anywhere (because they don't want to get involved), look at this course of action.
Undoubtedly you should put your complaint in writing to the tiler. Telephone calls are not evidence. Use emails and letters to express your concerns / complaints and give them opportunity to remedy it. If they do nothing send them another letter saying that if you do not hear anything back by (deadline) you will be forced to take the matter further. Wait for the deadline to pass and then take other courses of action.
When you get quotes from tilers you should ask them whether they are members of trade bodies, for example : Guild of Master Craftsmen or Federation of Master Builders or Trust Mark Scheme. This way, if you do have reason for complaint you can go directly to these organisations and ask them to investigate for you. They can then put pressure on the tiler or tiling company to sort out your issue as often it is a condition of their membership that they deal with complaints in an effective manner.
Trading Standards can write to your tiler on your behalf. Remember, to keep all correspondence with all parties whom the complaint issues have been sent to. You might need to bring this evidence to court with you if it gets that far.
One of the last resorts - Go to the small claims court. This is less expensive than you think and if you are successful in your claim you should be able to recover any court fees. You can do most things online now and taking action against bad tilers is no exception. Use Moneyclaim (the online court filing site) to find out about taking tilers to court and small claims generally.
One tip. To avoid getting bad tilers in the first place it is always wise to get three quotes for all home improvement jobs (including tilers). Check tilers reviews on past tiling jobs.
Use Top Tradespeople Recommended Tilers Website to get free quotes from local tilers. Using Top Tradespeople means that if your tiler does a bad tiling job you can say so. Future customers will then see that this is a bad plasterer and should be avoided. Likewise, you can reward good tilers by giving them a good tiling review and consequently good tilers should get more work from tiling quotes they give based on good tilers reviews.