We had glass tile installed in our kitchen and it looks wavy. Our installer said it was an optical illusion which I disagree with. I noticed it as it was being installed and that he did not use spacers. Wouldn‘t that have allowed the tiles to move before they were grouted?
ok,first element you want to do is end moist washing the floor ! Unfortunatly each and every so often the more advantageous you moist wash it the more advantageous powdery residue you'll receive. you should have washed it initially with a Grout Haze remover . Now, in all truthfully the most acceptable you may do is DRY wash it with a terry fabric towel or similar,and vacuum up the dusty residue. you should do this some times and dont be afraid to furnish it a touch elbow grease both. non-stop moist washing will basically agrivate the area. Oh and PLEASE....i urge of you..dont ever use PLEDGE on your ceramic tile. no longer except you want to break your neck walking on it afterwards. Ceramic tile could in no way be sealed or waxed. you could seal your grout,and seal your marble and or different stone tiles. yet no longer ceramic. wish you discover this files functional and robust success Bellzie :)
Spacers keep the gaps between tiles uniform - they don't affect the height of the tile with respect to the wall. A good installer would absolutely use spacers on a vertical surface, as the setting compound, like most concrete and concrete-like material, behaves like a gel; it becomes rubbery and remembers where it was before you push on it. One can watch a misaligned tile slowly slide back almost into its original position after attempting to straighten it out - it MUST be held stationary for a minute or two, and since most tile setters don't want to hold a single tile for that amount of time, they use spacers to do it for them. If there are only a few tiles that are particularly bad, make him remove and reset them. Hold a straightedge against them and take a picture of the job. Then if he balks at fixing it, you could ask if he'd like to see what a small claims court judge might say about the need for payment (or the return thereof). Nine times out of ten, the contractor will fix the problem rather than deal with court.
To check his claim of optical illusion, take a level (or anything that is a few feet long and perfectly straight) and put it against your tile. Then check if the level touches the tile on all its length (ignore the air bubble). After checking one area, move left-right as needed, try a slight diagonal, vertical if you have enough room, to make sure you 'cover' the most surface of your backsplash tile, and if the level touches the tile everywhere, with no gaps here and there, then your tile are ok, not wavy. If there are gaps between your level and the tile, this shows that the tile ARE wavy. If he used the same thickness of adhesive everywhere, and if the tile prove to be wavy (after you test it as stated above), then the end result is that the wall was wavy in the first place and the tile are just following the wall. The installer should've told you about this at the very beginning... a good one should've notice that with the naked eye, or just check it with a level, and have the wall leveled before tiling. If the gaps between the tile (grout lines) are even everywhere, then at least that part of the job is done ok. Wider and narrower grout lines are the result of not using spacers, but, depending on the kind of tile used, in very rare cases, it could be from the manufacturer, as in, tiny tile squares/pieces placed on a mesh and not perfectly aligned, will result in uneven grout lines. Also, the tile adhesive is supposed to be dry (usually dries overnight) BEFORE the grouting starts. So, there shouldn't be any tile moving around while grouting. After grout has cured (usually 3 days), sealer MUST be applied to grout lines and some types of tile (not all). Good luck !
Spacers are not always needed if these are sheet mounted glass tiles. If individually set tiles then yes they are needed.. Some sheet mounted tiles ( either ceramic or glass) are not set absolutely straight and need to be checked. The best way to check if they are wavy or not straight is to use a straight edge or with 2 people use a string and stretch it out along the grout line. Another possible thing is that your glass isn t all the same size and gives it a wavy look.. This does happen in both glass and ceramics. In this case if the grout line is straight thats all a tile person can do. Not defending the person , just giving some possible explanations. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar and check my qualifications there. GL
