Know what your buying

               2 days ago I was hired by a homeowner to asses his tile for grout haze (Mapei Flexcolor CQ) on their matte finish porcelain tile floor. The installer grouted and left it for 28 days before cleaning it up. The GC has had the floor cleaned 3 different times (professionally twice), with three different products. And while it is much cleaner there appears to still be residue. At the time of my inspection it was also discussed that there was a difference in appearance (sheen”, and color) between tile to tile, and was told by the installer that is a manufacturers defect. The Retailer sent out their “rep” and he stated that the variation was because the cleaning process (low speed buffer with muriatic acid) had damaged the finish. I told him that I couldn’t address the variation as long as there was haze involved.   So we made an appointment to come back yesterday, with the retailer rep, the Gc the designer, the homeowner, a Mapei rep and myself.   The Mapei rep was directed to 2 tiles to clean which he did.  Meanwhile I asked the Vender rep what V rating the tile was he said it was a V2. I asked what that meant, and he said it means how many pictures are in the product. I said it is a variation guide, and he said no it isn’t, it is how many pictures are in the product.  The designer was shocked she didn’t know such a  rating thing existed.  The concern was only visible with direct back lighting. Once the tiles were cleaned, I put my gloss meter on the tile and found that there was almost no sheen variation from tile to tile. It was determined that the haze on the floor was grout haze that wasn’t removed from the cleaning process (most haze was gone but the cleaning chemicals weren’t cleaned up properly). It was then also discussed that there was some lippage in the install these are 17x34” tiles straight laid with a 1/16” grout joint.   The designer said to me that it should have been installed 50/50 and that would have gotten rid of the lippage. I informed her that is not correct, and she proceeded to “educate me” about things that I don’t understand, and she has been a designer for 20 years and knows what she is talking about.   

               The homeowner is confused because he has been told he has a manufacturing defect, an installation defect, and now that the grout haze is cleanable, and the variation is likely within the specs for a V2 tile.   The lippage is acceptable less than 1/16” considering the inherent bow in the tile, and the tight grout joint, which isn’t acceptable but demanded by the homeowner.   The only argument I had for him was that the product was miss specified (V2), that he wasn’t informed what he was buying.