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.

I cant see any thing wrong with it? But my bathroom floor and ceiling aren't straight (despite also having them redone from scratch) AND I have a step into the bathroom so...

Anyway, cant you live with them for a while and then get lino put over it if you really hate it?

I get it though. Yesterday, I had our builder take down the brick column he had spent the day doing because the grout lines didnt match with the grout lines in the one next to it. 🫣

I think ot looks fine. You could change the bottom row for a skirting board instead which it might look less obvious with. Then you choices would be trimming the skirting down at the narrower end or having a gap at the bottom at the wider end. Or splitting the difference.

But honestly the tapered down tiles would not bother me.

I cannot see any slope in the pictures you sent.
It is not as obvious as you think or see irl.
It looks good to me.

Older houses are not perfect. I do not have a single 90 degrees straight corner in my house, which is fun to wallpaper! But I think we just need to make do with them. It is their personality.

I think it looks really nice! Old houses are a nightmare at best; I think this is a good job and it'll look lovely once you've dressed it :)

In an older house this is par for the course! Once it’s all finished you’d only notice if you mention it. My 100 year old house doesn’t have a straight line in it 😂

Well it seems the alternative would have been for the black tiles to go at an angle, which would be much more noticeable!

It’s fine, you absolutely won’t notice it after a while.

I think it looks great.

Honestly once you’ve got everything in no-one is going to notice that. I think the tiler has done a really good job of dealing with the uneven floor., and the tiles look great. Having a 1 inch step up into the bathroom would be much worse, you’d be forever tripping over it or catching toes.

Is it in a public toilet?

Snotty

I can see what you're saying, and I hate lack of symmetry but this really wouldn't bother me. I would leave it, you're very focussed on it now but I don't think you'll notice it after a while. I have always lived in old houses and as others have said, nothing is straight, embrace it as part of the character. I agree the tiler has done a great job in the circumstances.

We had the same problem and made the tiler redo parts of the wall several times. Unfortunately it got worse not better as messing round with the tiles once in place isn't great. At some point you have to accept it won't be perfect as you're not starting with a perfect base.

For what it's worth I can't see anything wrong on your photos, but you will be over analysing every small error as you want it to be perfect.

It looks great and will look much better again when it’s a full room and you’ve got a couple of plants. I really like it and it looks like a good job!

It's the sort of thing I would just put up with but you don't sound like me. The lower row of black tiles is your enemy as it accentuates the issue. Could you get the tiler to take that out and re-tile those lower rows in the other tiles? If you find after all that that you simply can't accept it, then if you don't need to have that wall tiled, just take the tiles off and re-plaster that wall? That would be a fiddly option but not overly expensive.

I think it looks fine and you really won’t notice it. Our house is very old and there isn’t a straight line in it, so this really would not bother me.

I’d not even think twice about that

I bet if it hadn't been mentioned to you, you wouldn't have noticed.

Go on then, let's see yours. Thought not.

If anyone notices (which they probably won't) they'll just think it's part of the charm of having an older house. I think he's done a good job.

Hi OP

Your tiler has done a superb job here, be sure to thank him.

I feel the mistake is you have chosen small plain tiles so any oddity’s aren’t disguised in the same way as they could have been.

I would remove the bottom row of black, it accents the discrepancy and, eeek, reminds me of a public toilet.

Personally I’d find the two row on one side and the single row of black on the other the most bothering. This is the design choice I’m struggling to understand. Again, it draws the eye in the wrong way.

please do post finished photos, it will be lovely to see how it turns out once finished and furnished.

If you wanted symmetry you should have gone for panels as this would have been less obvious. you are adding straight lines to an uneven floor so it stands out.

Cost wise, is it worth the effort of changing?

Having been through this while renovating my Victorian house at the end of the day the only person who will notice is you. It is the same for imperfections in the walls and ceiling - everything. Everyone else will go “wow love it” and you need to learn to relax and enjoy it

I think the tiler's done a good job to make the style work as best it can. You're also going to have some minor trouble with the window.

When we did ours we were given the option of having the door shaved, which would have liked odd from the outside, or the floor lowered, which is what we did.

I don’t think you will notice once everything else is in, I think your massively over thinking and not looking past how it looks now x

I'd accept it - it's not ideal, but short of major works to rectify it really isn't a big deal performatively, and unless you point it out I don't think anyone would notice.

I assume as you are creating an upstairs bathroom that your house is 80+ years old like mine. Ours is beyond wonky, and has had some pretty major (boring) expensive remediations over the years. I think with older houses you sometimes need to manage your expectations and embrace either the crookedness, or the cost. 25mm front to back is negligible. I'm sure it will look beautiful

As others have said the tiling is fine, I’d be far more worried about the fact there appears to be no drainage and all the bathroom fittings are yet to be installed - how is that going to happen without damaging the existing tiling?