Given all of the beautiful tile installations in both residential and commercial settings, it takes just one situation resembling the one in the photo to give the entire tile industry a black eye. The real problem with shoddy work of this type, which happens way too often, is that the unsuspecting consumer determines that all tile work looks and performs like this and decides that tile is not for them. It’s a really sad misconception.
This space has devoted a lot of words to the topic of mortar coverage—or should I say, the lack thereof? How can we address this epidemic of poor quality work? The easy answer is to train and educate those installing tile every day. The problem with this wish is that the tile placers (we can’t call them tile installers) don’t need any help since they have been “doing tile” for “x” number of years and “never had a problem.” Really? Wouldn’t you agree there is a problem with the floor shown here?