Porcelain tile has a pretty consistant thickness so they couldn't use that
as an excuse if it were natural stone, I could understand. The defect you
are describing is called lippage. The problem is not about being level it is
all about being flat.

Sounds like the primary fault is in trying to bring up the level of the
floor by using extra thinset. They should have leveled the floor at the
height they wanted then tiled in two seperate steps. The thick bed of
thinset makes it extremely difficult to make the tiles perfectly level.

You probably won't be able to recover the tile for reuse. Even if they
manage to get them up unbroken, the remaining thinset stuck to the bottom
will make it even harder to maintain a flat floor, the labor to restore each
tile will exceed the replacement cost. Rest assured, they will not make any
money on your job now.




wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello,

My contractor has just finished laying Porcelain 20" x 20" tile in our
kitchen and nook area (approximately 320 square feet). Our house is
only 5 years old and the tile was laid on concrete slab. The slab
initially had linoleum on it which was removed before laying the new
Porcelain tile.

The problem was that the tile looked somewhat uneven after it was laid.
After allowing 24 hours to set, we were allowed to walk on it and
could immediately tell by feel that many of the tiles were not level
with adjoining tiles. Using a level across adjoining tiles confirmed
this. I even did a "sliding chair" test where I would try to slide a
chair across the kitchen. The chair would hit the uneven tiles and
stop and tip over. Obviously, this is now a hazard.
As a result, we are having the contractor rip out the entire 320 square
feet and do it again.

It seemed to me that since they were laying tile on 5 year old conrete
slab, this should have been a pretty standard task. Their explanation
for the uneven tile heights was not clear, At first, they seemed to
try and explain it by saying the concrete slab was unlevel, but I told
them that seemed unlikely with a 5 year old slab. Furthermore, I said
they could have leveled it with screed or some kind of leveling
compound fiirst. Then they said that they were trying to match the
tile height with the adjacent room's hardwood floor height by using
extra thinset under the tiles and as a result, some tiles ended up
unlevel with others.

Anyway, they are doing it over again at no cost to me, but my questions
are as follows:
1) Is there any reason to believe that they cannot lay the tile in a
level manner on a concrete
slab that is only 5 years old?
2) The thinset from the initial tile installation has dried for about
72 hours now. Can the tile be removed without damage? And if they can
remove the tile without damage, does that mean they didn't put enough
thinset to begin with?
3)Other than feel and the sliding chair test, is there a better way to
quickly check the floor for uneven tiles?
4) How much uneveness is acceptable? I realize that the tiles cannot
be laser flat with respect to one another, but how much uneveness
should I accept?

Thank you for any information you may provide.