Well we renovation work has now commenced with Damco, and things are now is in full swing.
We have encountered some major tiling issues. The tiler has started tiling our bathroom and to my disappointment the work was not of a high standard.
I had always pressed to Damco that above all the quality of their work was to be of a high standard. as a trade off I was willing to compromise the schedule of work, if they needed more time they could have it. In the beginning they promise that they would be able to deliver high quality and high attention to detail. They have failed on both accounts. And to my disappointment is quality from Damco to date (25/03/2013) has been disappointing.
First Issue: Tiling of the bathroom was defective. It was like the leaning tower of pizza. As can be seen by the photo below the tiler packed too much adhesive at the top and made the top too heavy. This force the tiling line (2nd picture below) to be mega wonky. Damco of course blamed that the wall was not square, which I agree as our house is old and corners may not be square. But the strange thing is that the walls was replastered, so I would be my expectation that they would re-square off the walls during plastering. At the end of the day, in my opinion, I would have expected that a decent tiler would have put a leveller to the wall during tiling, and corrected the wall levelling as necessary, packing or thinning the adhesive to make sure that his tiling is square and level. Damco has since corrected this, and wall is more level, and the slant is less visible.
Second Issue: Tile trim around the shower niche was in my opinion incorrectly installed, but I was told that the job was correct, and the trim was not the correct trim. I found this explanation hard to swallow, especially asking other tilers, they all agreed the tiling trim provided was correct and that the defect was due to the tiler installing the tile trim incorrectly. But you be the judge. Just to point out, that even if the tile trim was incorrect, I would expect the tiler to come back to us to let us know. Not just tell us the job is done, and done correctly. Again, disappointing. Damco has since corrected this, and new trim have been put on. The quality is just ok.
Tile trim was protruding out above the tile. If it was correctly installed the tile trim would sit flush and level with the tile.
Obviously the tile trim had to be mitred, the mitre cut extremely badly. If I wanted this amateur job quality, I would have done it myself!
DAMCO Fix: Better, but the quality is still not there.
Third Issue: Biscuit Mosaic shockingly installed. We wanted our bathroom to have a feature, to which we bought really beautiful Biscuit Mosaic. What is described to me by an expert from Beaumont Tiles, as "a very badly installed mosaic" (mind you I did not buy these tiles from Beaumont - so it was an unbias comment). The tile is not only cut very badly, it had many tile bits missing at the ends. DAMCO has advise that they have done their best, and this will NOT be fixed. Please judge for yourselves if this work is of high standard and quality. Damco said that their resident tiler did the best he could. What shocking quality, and they expect me to just cop it on the chin.
It hard to accept that a tiler can not even cut straight - I am setting my expectation to high???
The are lots of bits missing at the border of the tiles. Tiles are shockingly trimmed and cut evenly. Cuts are not linear. Very low standard.
Forth Issue: Uneven tiling in the shower. Just don't understand how there can be so many mistakes, and these mistakes at just fundamental issues, which should not occur from a reputable builder. It almost seems as if they careless rushed the work, and did not bother to double check things. DAMCO has advise that they have done their best, and this will NOT be fixed. They have said that this issue is ultimately due to the wall not square, you would think that a reputable builder would be able to provide solution? My suggestion is only use Damco if your wall are perfectly straight and square, otherwise your finish will be less than ordinary.
Uneven - the bottom gap between the grate and the wall is narrower from the gap at the top of the grate - Just disappointing.
I have really lost all confidence in Damco's abilities and promises that their work is of any quality.
