Recently we had a tiler who tiled the backsplash in our kitchen.
He had to cut a tile to fit right below the extractor fan (hood).
And he grouted the space between the top of this tile and the bottom
edge of the extractor fan.
The day he finished the work, the left side of the grout popped open
and exposed a 2mm-gap. (I have no photo to show this unfortunately).
After this happened, I measured this tile he cut, and discovered
that the tile has the width (or height if you face the tile in the photo) of
103mm (left edge)
107mm (center)
107mm (right edge)
In order to fix the gap, my father suggested pressing down the left-rear
corner of the hood so it meets the tile (this was also the tiler's solution,
but the grout he used had not been strong enough, so the hood popped
up). My father was able to make the hood meet the tile
by putting a lump of grout to the left of the hood (to give it more hold).
Both my father and the tiler had to put a screw into the wall to force
down the hood overnight until the grout dried.
The photo was taken after this fix. Note: we have not regrouted the edge on
the left.
Now the left-rear corner of the hood is 2mm lower than the right-rear corner
of the hood, although it's unlikely that any casual visitor would actually spot this error.
But because I spent a lot of money on this kitchen (we bought top-of-the-line
everything), and this tile (top center in the kitchen, above the burners, below the hood)
is in a prominent visible position, I feel this inaccuracy is not acceptable.
I feel my father's "solution" of pressing down the hood on one end is also
a hack solution. It distorts the hood for one, and also, the lump of grout
he used to hold down the hood is ugly (though it's white so less glaring).
Do you think errors of this magnitude is acceptable for a good tiler?
What options do I have? Technically speaking, is it worthwhile,
possible, without-risk for the tiler to cut another tile to replace this one?
Other than pressing down the hood, what other solution is there?
I suppose you can make the grout line thicker to conceal the uneven height
without pressing down the hood.
What's the best solution here, if any?
Thank you.
Best Answer
Nobody else will ever notice it. You'll forget about it in a week, unless you let it drive you insane, which will result in everybody feeling bad, since the tile guy is unlikely to see one corner of the range hood being 2mm offset from the opposite one as remotely within the realm of a sensible customer complaint.
If this will drive you mad, I recommend that you hire a different person to redo that part of the work and explain to this other person exactly what your expectations are. One of those expectations should be pay a lot for this service.
Personally, I would just make the grout line a bit thicker on that side or put some colored caulk in there or something. It's a tiny tiny difference that nobody is ever going to notice.