Chipped ceramic wall tile glaze

[Merlin5]

Hi guys. I've just had wall tiling done in my kitchen (which is currently in the middle of a complete refurb, new kitchen units, 600x600mm porcelain floor tiles, etc). Just so you know, 8 narrow rectangles makes up one single wall tile with pre etched grooves for grout. Overall I'm happy with the wall tiling, but not the way some of the edges are finished. Where the guys have cut some of the tiles, it's left edges where the glaze has chipped, particularly along the corner of the window ledge above the sink. The chrome edging I bought hasn't completely covered the edges sufficiently and I assume my guys must have thought they would. Also, under the new cooker hood there's the same ugly edges. And under one of the cupboards, it's messy. It's annoying that they weren't more careful with their cuts, or, is it something that is difficult to avoid when cutting ceramics? What can I do to make the edges look neat, shall I just get them to put white silicon in all these areas? Or do I need to buy a paint touch-up repair kit? I do know they intend to silicon the bottom of the tiles along the worktop but I don't know if they intended to silicon these other places, but they're coming again tomorrow morning to continue work. Here's some pictures of the areas I mentioned. I don't think it's acceptable, or am I being too fussy?

Overview:



Ugly bits (directly along bottom edge of chrome bar for first two pics):

 

[Merlin5]

I told my builder today I'm not happy with the tiling his guy did in those areas, that it's not acceptable. I said to him "would you be happy with that in your home?" Fortunately, he's a decent bloke and agrees. He's going to use silicon and if that doesn't look good, he said he'd bring a wet cutter or something like that, take those tiles out and redo it with new tiles. Tiles aren't expensive and it only needs maybe 3 or 4 more.

 

[tpt]

i'm not quite sure what they have cut them with but your right its not acceptable. a manual cutter should give much better edges than that - almost looks like they have nipped or used a grinder. That corner looks very rough.

can't see silicone sorting it to be honest.

It could be that the tiles are very brittle and dont cut well - you often get this with cheap tiles - its not always the tilers fault but i'd have expected they at least brought it to your attention during the job.

 

[Merlin5]

i'm not quite sure what they have cut them with but your right its not acceptable. a manual cutter should give much better edges than that - almost looks like they have nipped or used a grinder. That corner looks very rough.

can't see silicone sorting it to be honest.

It could be that the tiles are very brittle and dont cut well - you often get this with cheap tiles - its not always the tilers fault but i'd have expected they at least brought it to your attention during the job.

Thanks for the reply, tpt. They made a decent improvement today by siliconing under the cooker hood and cupboard, a bit tidier now, although I'll ask him to do a bit more under the cupboard (still doesn't quite meet my high/nitpicking standards ) and he's going to take care of the main exposed areas under the chrome edging. Like you, he also said silicon won't really do it. He's first going to try and dig out a wide grout groove along where the chips are to see if he can grout a tidy line in it's place, otherwise, re-tile that bit which he tells me will be quite a bit more than 4 tiles. He's done a lot of good work for me the past 4 weeks, however, if I have to get more tiles, I'll be a bit pee'd off that their sloppy cutting is costing me. Then again, as you say, cheaper tiles don't cut well, so, a bit of a grey area (no pun intended). Well here's hoping his first plan works. I'll update this thread when it's done with new pics.

 

[jctilingservices]

simplest and correct way would be to remove the trim and the tiles and replace. its even possible he can get the tiles off and clean the backs, use a bigger trim and re-use the tiles, as the bigger trim will cover the damaged edges.
Silicon is a No No as far as making good is concerned

 

[Merlin5]

simplest and correct way would be to remove the trim and the tiles and replace. its even possible he can get the tiles off and clean the backs, use a bigger trim and re-use the tiles, as the bigger trim will cover the damaged edges.
Silicon is a No No as far as making good is concerned

Good point. I just rang tile depot where I got the tiles and trims from, and they have a 12mm chrome trim, mine is 9mm. I'll ask my builder if he can be careful removing the tiles on top and to try and reuse them. I'll still need a few new tiles as I asked him to redo the vertical tiles left and right of the window, which also has torn edges. Unless of course he succeeds with plan A, scratching out a new grout line in place of the ragged edges, in which case, I won't need to go get spare tiles or trim.

 

[jctilingservices]

simplest and correct way would be to remove the trim and the tiles and replace. its even possible he can get the tiles off and clean the backs, use a bigger trim and re-use the tiles, as the bigger trim will cover the damaged edges.
Silicon is a No No as far as making good is concerned

Good point. I just rang tile depot where I got the tiles and trims from, and they have a 12mm chrome trim, mine is 9mm. I'll ask my builder if he can be careful removing the tiles on top and to try and reuse them. I'll still need a few new tiles as I asked him to redo the vertical tiles left and right of the window, which also has torn edges. Unless of course he succeeds with plan A, scratching out a new grout line in place of the ragged edges, in which case, I won't need to go get spare tiles or trim.

Just remove ALL the tiles, replace your 9mm trim with 12mm trim
and replace the tiles mate, then regrout the area