Unhappy with tile finish and builder very offended

[AmandaGWilliamson]

Our kitchen fitter has done a lovely job overall but we are disappointed with the finish around the windows which we feel lets the other good work down.

I have attached pics and we have contacted him to say that we aren’t happy with the finish around the windows with the wedge of grout along the window sill and the unevenness of the tiles/trim and asking what we could do to resolve it. He did the work yesterday while we were at work so we didn't see him face to face to discuss it. He seems to have taken great offence and is walking away from finishing the kitchen work (there’s still a few bits to do) offering us a discount. He got rather weird the last couple of days in general and he seems quite disorganised and stressed. Communication hasn’t been great and so we think he might have been pissed off with elements of the work (or maybe life in general) but we aren’t sure why.

Just wondered if anyone had any opinion on whether this is deemed acceptable? We haven’t been in this sort of situation before as everyone we have dealt with in the past has been highly professional. Genuinely don't want to be unfair and we have been very complimentary about the other work and feel that we have been very flexible, cooperative and friendly.

Opinions gratefully received!

Pics are on this forum www.tilersforums.co.uk/threads/unhappy-with-finish-of-beveled-metro-tiles-and-tile-trim-around-window-are-we-being-unreasonable.85592/#post-898714

I'd be livid! Here's our metro tiles just for comparison

It's difficult because you've got three different colours meeting at one point there - the tiles look dark green, the ivory grout and the steel (silver) trim. If two of them matched it would be far less obvious IMO, say if the trim matched the grout.

Hope you can sort it out to your satisfaction.

The builder sounds like a huffy toddler but frankly I’ve found quite a few builders immature/unprofessional like that.

On the plus side, I don’t think you’d notice the imperfections once everything else is in place - more of a case of just finishing the white bits. You could also consider changing the grout to match the colour of the tiles - that would make it a lot less obvious.

It's not a good finish. A good kitchen fitter isn't necessarily a good tiler and vice versa. This bloke is clearly not a tiler - although beading and metro tiles can be a tricky combination. I would bite the bullet and get a proper tiler to redo.

Although it’s not ideal and what you would expect from a professional, I don’t think that looks too bad - if you put some plants etc around it, you probably wouldn’t notice it.

If it were me, I’d take the discount to draw a line under it and get someone else to finish the other bits.

We are in the midst of a painful renovation we have had four sets of different tilers due to poor workmanship. Take the discount and get another tiler I'd go with recommendations if you can - good luck!

That's awful, it would ruin the kitchen for me. Will you have them removed and redone by someone else?

Yes I think that's the way forwards. The annoying thing is that there's an end panel yet to put on and the plinths need to be trimmed to fit the new flooring we had put in today. They were supposed to be coming back to do that but sounds like he's so upset he isn't prepared to come back at all. DH tried to phone him to speak reason and say he doesn't need to go out of pocket (got a sob story that what amounts to his offering £350 discount will leave him recovering from the loss for months; wife and kids etc etc).
Tempted to take the discount and get it sorted with other professionals but it seems a shame that we can't resolve it amicably and with everyone's needs taken into consideration. It's very weird. Not sure why such drama or such offence taken.

Meant to say, he won't return DH's call.