How to tell if tile work is done right

Tile is the finish people examine the hardest. It is flat, repetitive, and usually at eye level in bright light, so every variation announces itself. That is why tile generates more homeowner worry than almost any other trade — and why a good share of that worry turns out to be unnecessary.

Finished tile is not judged by how it looks from three inches away with a phone flashlight raking across it. It is judged against published industry standards and the tile manufacturer’s own installation instructions, from a normal standing distance in normal room lighting. Those two ways of looking rarely agree, and knowing which one you are doing settles most of the worry on its own.

Start with the layout, not the tile

Layout decisions are made before the first tile goes down, and they are the hardest thing to fix afterwards. They are also the thing homeowners most often notice and least often name correctly.

• Where do the cut tiles land? Good layout pushes cuts to the least visible edges and keeps a full tile where the eye lands first — the doorway, the shower entry, the run under a vanity.
• Are the cuts at opposite ends of a run roughly the same width? A room that starts with a full tile and ends with a sliver usually means the layout was never set from the center.
• Do the lines carry through? Grout joints should run continuously across thresholds, into niches, and around corners rather than jogging.

Layout is also where reasonable people disagree. Rooms are rarely square, and a tile setter often has to choose which wall gets the compromise. If the choice was made deliberately and consistently, that is craft, not a defect.

Lippage: the edge you can feel

Lippage is the height difference between two neighboring tiles. A tiny amount is normal and, in some tiles, unavoidable: large-format and rectified tiles are manufactured with a slight bow, so an offset pattern will always show a little height change at the middle of the adjoining tile.

The useful test is your hand, not your eye. Run a fingertip across the joints. On a floor, an edge you catch a bare foot on is worth raising. A difference you can only see when you crouch and shine a light along the surface is usually within what the standards allow — and chasing it can mean tearing out sound work.

Grout joints: consistency beats width

The width of a grout joint is a design choice, set by the tile’s own tolerances and the setter. Consistency is not. A joint that wanders visibly along a single run is worth asking about.

• Joints should read as one width along a run, and should meet cleanly at corners and changes of plane.
• Grout should be packed full and finished to an even profile — not slumped, cracked, pinholed, or missing at the joint intersections.
• Color should be uniform. Blotchy or patchy grout is very often a curing or clean-up issue that can be corrected, not a rip-out.

The movement joints almost nobody looks for

This is the single most common gap between what a homeowner inspects and what a professional inspects. Tile assemblies expand and contract, and they need somewhere to do it: a soft, flexible joint where the tile meets a wall, a cabinet, a tub, a threshold, or a change of plane, and at intervals across large fields.

Where a movement joint is missing, the field has nowhere to go, and the result shows up months later as cracked grout, tented tile, or a hairline crack through the middle of an otherwise perfect floor. Corners and perimeters filled with hard grout instead of a flexible sealant are worth a question now, because they are cheap to correct now.

Wet areas: slope, waterproofing, and the order of work

In showers and wet rooms the finished tile is the least important layer. What matters is what went in underneath, and it is invisible once the tile is on — the strongest reason there is for photographing work as it happens.

• Shower floors should carry water to the drain from every direction, with no spot that holds a puddle after the water is shut off. A cup of water is a perfectly good test.
• Waterproofing and any sealing at corners, seams and pipe penetrations should be continuous — photograph it before tile goes on if you possibly can.
• Where tile meets a tub or pan, expect a flexible sealant joint, not grout.

Bond: the hollow sound test

Tap across the field with a knuckle or a coin. Most of it should sound solid. A hollow note can mean the mortar did not make full contact behind that tile, which is why a single hollow tile is a note, not a verdict. A cluster of them, especially in a floor that gets traffic, is worth raising while the crew is still on site.

Turning what you found into a conversation

Sort what you have into three piles first. Cosmetic preferences. Finishing items that are simply not done yet — haze, sealant, a missing trim piece. And genuine workmanship or waterproofing issues that affect how the installation will perform.

Then lead with the third pile, in plain language, with a photo attached. Naming the specific thing — rather than saying the tile looks bad — is what gets it looked at and put right.

And be ready for the answer to be that it is fine. In our experience that is the most common outcome, and it is a good one: it means the work you paid for is the work you got, and you can stop looking for problems in it.

When to bring in a certified inspector

A guide like this one is informational. If there is real money at stake, if you are heading toward a warranty claim or a legal dispute, or if you suspect a moisture problem behind a finished surface, that is the point to hire a certified inspector. Their report is the document that carries weight.