How to handle a contractor mistake

[Nat C.]

Guys, please help me out with your opinion.

I ordered tiles and had them delivered to the property.

I specifically told the contractor in writing, what tiles were to go on the bathroom floor and walls.

Today he sent me pictures of the tiled bathroom. I was shocked when I saw that he has used random tiles, not the ones I had instructed. By random, I mean I didn’t even buy these tiles, so I don’t know where they came from. He just found some tiles laying around the property and put those up. But because there weren’t enough of them, he then used another tile, so there are 2 types of floor tile, which looks atrocious. They are also beige, a colour I think is woeful, whilst the rest of the colour scheme through the house is white and grey.

I’ve asked him to remove and redo it and he’s not happy and won’t redo it. I don’t know how to resolve this situation.

[J Scott]

Yup, definitely a f*ck up...but more on your part than his...

It takes at least a couple days to tile floors and walls -- did you not visit the property at all during this time, or did you not have someone representing you visit the property?  It's YOUR project, YOUR business, YOUR house -- which means when something like this goes wrong, it's YOUR fault.

Given your description of the issue, I'm going to guess that this guy is a handyman type, and isn't full-time tile contractor -- professional tile contractors wouldn't make a mistake like this (they would check, double-check and triple-check their work before proceeding).  Which means you were probably hiring someone who was less expensive than a professional tile contractor.  Nothing wrong with that, but that's just another reason why it's YOUR responsibility to oversee what he's doing and make sure he's not making a mistake.

Now, if I'm wrong, and he is a professional tile contractor, my guess is that he'll be happy to fix this work for free, as a good tile guy would care about his reputation.  On the other hand, if I'm right, and you tried to save some money without managing him closely, then I would eat the cost and chalk this one up to a lesson learned.  Next time, either hire someone who is more experienced and self-sufficient, manage more closely and/or put systems in place to ensure this doesn't happen (like having a clear scope of work with diagrams/pictures).

Btw, I don't mean to be harsh here -- I've made PLENTY of similar mistakes over the years, but I make fewer and fewer of them as time goes on, as I accept full responsibility and recognize that I'm the one who needs to do better next time...

Next week will be 10 years since I wrote this article -- I read it at least once a year to remind myself that everything that goes wrong in my business is MY fault:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...