Would you accept this? It looks awful. Too much work to start again.

[Fatfreefatball]

I'm creating a new bathroom upstairs from a small box room. The floor was totally uneven widthways and lengthways so the old boards have been replaced with a subfloor then ply on top ready for vinyl. Yesterday the tiler told me that because the floor was still sloping lengthways, the tiles would get narrower along the length. I asked why they didn't level the floor lengthways. He said that it would have created a step up into the room.

I've come home tonight and am gutted at the way this looks. Measuring from the top of the black tile to the floor, there is a difference of 1 inch along the length.
What do I do? Tiles have been stuck on but not grouted yet. The grout will make it more obvious.

Obviously, it would be a huge job to have to rip up the floor and rebuild it, as well as remove the tiles on the offending wall. I don't think the tradesmen would do it anyway. The door is being replaced by a bifold door and there's a column rad going under the window, so my options are:
1.Put a large freestanding cupboard by the door to hide the narrower tiles.
2.Rip the tiles off and put tongue and groove cladding there (this would piss off the tiler). This would mean wasting the materials I've bought.
3.The nuclear option of starting again.

I'm so pissed off because I have been waiting years for an upstairs bathroom and spent time and money planning this. Their previous work has been great for other customers and the finished job will look good apart from this. I just don't know if I can sit on the toilet and see those tiles everyday.

like others have said - you really won't notice it when its all finished. I was the same with issues in my kitchen as I was so obsessive about every tiny last detail

There is not a single straight wall, floor or anything in our old house - things like tiling are difficult, as is placing furniture in some rooms. If you are putting a free standing unit against that wall you’ll have to chock up the right hand side (or shorten the left!) or it won’t be parallel to the tiles which will drive you insane, so you’ll need something with legs rather than a solid base.

As a fairly picky person I’ve had to learn to live with the foibles of this house, but I think once you have got it finished you’ll barely notice (and others won’t, either!)

I’d have used a double row of black at the base, that would have disguised it better.

Thanks for all the opinions. You are right, it won't be noticed when the furniture is in. The tiling isn't finished either - there is another black row to go on the right and dado tiles.
@SpiritAdder are you a plumber or a builder? There is no old plasterboard on the walls. That is new plaster on solid walls and one stud wall with the correct moisture board. Shower area will be tanked. I'm not having a heated towel rail or a lighted mirror.

I don’t think it will show once everything is in the bathroom but if you’re that worried then why not take the black stripes out and just tile it white? The stripes make it more noticeable (and probably harder to sell in the future compared to something more classic).

I think you are overestimating how aware you will be of this when the room is finished. You will have placed other things that will draw your eye away for a start.

If wait til the job is finished.and you've lived with it for a month or two before deciding if any action is needed.

I say this as someone who freaks out over small details, especially on big pricey jobs.

What he's done doesn't equate to a bad job, actually looks like he's dealt with the issue well. I think I'd be tempted to admire that from the loo!

It looks geat. Very clever of you to move the stripe further up from the floor. Part of the wall will often be behind the open door.
The floor tiles, whatever you choose, risk drawing attention to that small slope. So just choose your flooring carefully.

When finished there will be laundry hamper, bin and towels all to be placed somewhere. Pot plant also is an option.

Is it an old house? Old houses settle, they lean, wooden floor boards warp.

I can see the issue and it wouldn't worry me but my bathroom is the same. About a 2cm difference across a 2m wide floor. I opted for plain white tiles to make it less noticeable.

I guess it depends how much it will irritate you. Most people wouldn't worry.

I think if you look hard there are pipes coming from the floor. I was also confused about thus. I would have thought shower would be installed before tiling though. Anyway I don't think the tile discrepancy is a big deal.

Thats just normal for lots of houses. You are being pedantic. My bathroom walls are also off at the corners not just sloping. No one would rebuild the room to fix it.

He has done a great job. Let him get on with his job and stop nitpicking.

I definitely see what you mean ..but it goes like that sometimes with tiling .
I think it can't be helped with what you explained about the room

The metro tiles and colour contrast is highlighting this more than a plain, one colour larger tile would have.

Having said that, you are hyper focusing because this is the stage you are at. Once the furniture and fittings are in, you won't be bothered to notice it.

As you said too, you can hide it with a linen cupboard.

Honestly you’d need to be really staring at it to see that and even then it’s not a big deal. I think maybe you’re focusing too hard on perfection,

Absolutely. There is nothing wrong with the tiling job. It actually looks seamless unless you scrutinise very closely, then there is a barely detectable difference which will disappear when the room is furnished.

The perfection you are seeking isn't worth the hassle. At all.

Hmmm...walls and floors especially in older houses are always really out and I think considering that he has done well. I think if the black row of metros is level, its fine. The eye is drawn to the black row so it has to be straight. If he had not cut the tiles the black row wouldnt be level and that would look far worse.You won't notice it once bathroom is in. You could use a white grout on the white tiles and it will be less visible too. ( and black grout on black tiles). I think you are overthinking it personally.

I don't think I can see it? But I also don't think you could have chosen a worse kind of tile and pattern to accentuate it?! The black line near the floor is clearly going to highlight anything not straight...

One thing I've learned after 6 years of renovating 2 houses - you will never look at things as closely as you are right now. I've spent hundreds of hours on ladders or on my knees inspecting imperfections in walls, skirting boards etc and you honestly won't notice/care once the furniture is in. If you can't change it, distract from it. Put something that draws the eye on the opposite wall. Use furniture strategically.

I'm pretty fussy and I would be fine with that. Once everything is in you won't have a clear eyeline to measure/compare one side with the other and forget all about it.

Not really sure what else he can do. The floor slopes. You don’t want a step. I think he’s done a decent job given what he had to work with. Perhaps it’s not the best choice of tile as a hard black line going round will only emphasise that the rooms proportions are not even. You could swap out the lower row of black tiles for white ones so it’s less obvious perhaps. But as someone else said when the room is completed it will be less obvious.

Swap out the black or live with it (I think it looks fine). The actual tiling looks good to me.

I’d be more annoyed about the different designs on opposite walls tbh!

Yes, this.
Have the black layer of tiles closest to floor removed and put the double black layer in all around.
I also think tiling job so far looks really good.

Radiator, laundry hamper, pot plant… all will mask the issue. And it’s not really an issue, he’s done well.

The tiling looks good to me (am also picky) but I just don’t like the black tiles and would go for all one colour. I agree it’ll settle especially if an older house and when it has everything else in the bathroom. It looks great so far though, they’ve done a good job.

This. The tiler has done a great job cutting the bottom row tiles so the rows above are exactly horizontally. But there are so many horizontal lines with metro tiles and the black rows add more horizontal lines that it draws attention to the uneven floor. A larger tile format in a single colour would have had far less lines.

But once the room is finished the tiles just become a backdrop for the furniture and it will not be something you or people really notice on a daily basis. So I would probably just keep going with the original design.

Once you've got the sanitaryware in there, etc it will be less noticeable. I say this as someone who spent a fortune on tiles from Mandarin Stone but had some of the worst tilers ever fit them. It would have been better if I'd done it myself. I think of them as rustic and a lot of the issues aren't very noticeable unless you start looking. Your tiler has done a great job.