Advice on new house - tiling

[Miramonte]

So I’m in the process of buying my first house and getting a bit of cold feet... I know everything can’t be perfect and I’m probably being a little too particular about some things, but I’d appreciate opinions on a few things. It’s a new build by a small developer and thus far the quality of everything has seemed really great, but I’m worried that it has only seemed so to my untrained eyes. They are in the process of tiling the bathrooms and the way the tiles have been laid in our en suit (one with grey tiles) looks a bit odd to me. In the shower cubicle, he has put one full length rectangular tile along the side walls and then cut it approximately in half to finish the length of the walls on the side.

Would it not make more sense or have looked more balanced to do like 3/4 of each tile along the wall so that they are more equal in size? Or does it look nice as is? I can’t decide if it’s awkward enough to ask it to be changed or not. Also, he has laid a very thin bit of tile at the end of the floor against the wall. I think this looks awkward and a bit unbalanced as well, but most of that part of the floor will be covered by the toilet and sink anyway, so would you find it important enough to fix it?

Then in the house bathroom, I have chosen a rectangular white brick like type of tile. He said due to the length of the wall, it would be better to do 5 mm grout lines in between the tiles rather than 3 mm- the tiler said he thought it would look good still. The grout will be a medium gray colour. Do you think that will look bad having slightly thicker grout lines? Enough that I should select a different length tile? Or would it be pretty imperceptible ?

Finally- there is an ‘issue’ with ourbay window. It was supposed to be a self supporting bay window (doesn’t have bricks under it, just sticks out from the house). Somewhere along the way the builder was skeptical about whether It would hold without support. Instead of bricking underneath, he put these strange looking small wood supports that look odd. The other plots (only 5 others) had already been done like this so he said he wouldn’t brick underneath it for ours as not to upset the other owners. I really hate it, but thought I could hide those supports easily with some leafy shrubs. I figured it was a petty reason not to get a house I found otherwise great. The builder said we could get bricks under it after we buy it on our own- but I’m not sure how easy it will be. I would have loved for it to be bricked out with floor space behind it, but I think that would require more foundation being laid possibly? Anyway, would this completely put you off the house or is it a minor thing that should be easily hidden with shrubbery?

Sorry for the long post- thank you for your advice!

A couple more photos that hopefully make it clear...

The ones on the floor are fine I think you want the tiny join under the toilet and sink. The shower looks ok to me too but maybe I don't understand the issue. I do find that looking at messy half done rooms can be stressful and often the finished article is absolutely fine. But saying that if you have doubts then voice them and maybe ask if they could explain their decision making process. I love the bathroom floor tiles they look amazing!

I think the tiles in the bathroom look lovely. But I see what you mean about the window, and would want that fixed. Will the wood even support the window?

Yeah I think looking at it half done makes me doubt things, hopefully once it’s all cleaned up it will look well put together. I’m glad you haven’t noticed anything obviously wrong about how they’re laid.

RagamuffinCat, he said the window should support itself, but that he was ‘skeptical without a little help’...whatever that means. I guess after completion I could have someone brick underneath the window to fix the aesthetic, but it seems like it would be a big or expensive job to extend the floor space inside the house to underneath the window along with putting the bricks underneath (I’m not sure). Presuming it’s structurally sound, do you think it would be fine with some shrubs hiding those supports? Or is this an issue that should make me pull out of this purchase altogether? I wish I had been more pushy about it at the start, but I just kinda shrugged my shoulders about it as other people have already moved in with the same silly things under their windows...

Tiling in the shower cubicle is a bit odd IMO - I thought you normally tiled from the middle out, so the larger width tile should essentially be swapped with the smaller width.... but no, you can't expect a tiler to custom cut your tiles up to the right proportion so you have a uniform size....

The floors both look fine as as expected.

Bay window is big alarm bell for me, I'd be asking all sorts of questions.

This is just from Pinterest but you'll see what I mean by starting in the middle and working out, cut tile is the one at the outer edge.

Patterned bathroom floor tiles - it's common to either start from an edge, finishing with the awkward fraction of a tile somewhere less noticeable or start at crossed lines drawn centrally in the room, which involves more tile cutting but can look more balanced. Your tiler seems to have done neither of these, resulting in everything unsymmetrical and no work saved on the tile cutting front.

Shower tiles - on trend but too big for the space, so they're always going to look awkward.

Bay window - bizarre. It's not uncommon for shelf like supports to be used, but those are far too big to be attractive. I would worry about the long (or even medium) term integrity of that particular structure.

Actually - it's not a bay, it's a bow window, just to be pedantic!

The shower tiles are too big, making it look awkward. It would drive me nuts so I’d have them use smaller tiles.The patterned floor tiles seem ok but I think they could have balanced the other floor tiles better so there isn’t that little strip.
For the bay (or bow), I’m not sure what you mean - surely the actual builder of the house should know whether it’s self supporting? If all the houses are finished that way I guess it will fit in but I’m wondering why they aren’t as intended/designed. It will change the structure to make it into a proper bay - the foundations would also have to be extended.

Thanks for all these responses. Seems like a few mixed opinions on the tiles- I agree that the ones in the en suite we’re probably a little too big for the space (my husband picked them!), but I suppose they don’t look awful and I thought he did a nice job along the back wall of the shower. I guess I can live with them being a little awkward as they can always be redone a few years down the line if we grow tired of it.

I’m glad most seem to think the patterned tiles look nice- they didn’t seem awkwardly laid to me although I probably don’t know enough about tiling to notice if there’s a problem!

As for the bay (actually bow!) window- I am nervous about this now. I brought it up with the builder months ago and asked if it could be bricked out. The response was a no as he wanted it to be uniform with the other plots, but said we could have it bricked out ourselves after purchase. I asked if they needed to be there for structural support and his response was just that ‘it should self support, but he was a little skeptical without a little help’. I plumed it wouldn’t be a problem since the house is under warranty for 10 years. The other houses have been there for about a year now and haven’t had problems yet...but maybe it’s too early to tell?

What other questions should I ask about the window? I don’t want to pull out of the purchase over it, but if that seems naive then please tell me! We have customised a few things in the house, but haven’t exchanged contracts yet, so we would just lose our holding deposit if we decided not to go through with it. We’ve been looking for a house a long time and have been waiting for this build to finish for about 9 months- maybe that has caused me to overlook the issue more than I should have....

The only thing you could do to reasonably protect yourselves would be to instruct a surveyor. I'd expect the builder/developers to pay for it though.

For me:

1. Tiling should always be done so the centre tile is laid first and then you move outwards unless there is a very good reason not to. For example, the floor tiles that end with a thin strip is a good reason. Better a thin strip somewhere discreet than two even thinner strips at either end. The shower is wrong, though. If you are going to have a centre strip it should be in the centre. It's just lazy tiling to stick a whole tile in, do the strip then stick a 3/4 tile in. The tiler cannot be arsed to cut both sides of tiles.

1. I personally would change bath tiles to something that would fit the space better, but 5mm grout is not a bad toption.

1. The window looks silly but only a surveyor can tell you if it structurally sound or not. I would definiately have it surveyed.

I wouldn't pull out of a purchase for any of those things but I would get ask for the tiles to be redone in the shower and get a surveyor in for the window.

p.s. the patterned tiles on the bathroom floor look right (and lovely)

Sorry looked again at the shower one and it looks like they are laid right and it was my eyes/small pic that make me think it was a full tile, strip then 3/4 tile.

The tiles on the side of the shower would be better with a full tile in the middle & the cut ones either side.