Friday, December 4, 2009

Many chipped edges on new marble foyer floor tiles

    We just had a fairly expensive ($7,000+) marble foyer installed. The centerpiece tiles are 6x6 crema marfil surrounded by 3" black strips (nero marble I think). There is no grout as the tiles are closely spaced.

   Almost all of the tiles have small chipping along the edges that makes the edges look "rough" but this is not the worst thing. The big problem is that about 50% of the tiles (both the crema marfil and black) have chips that extend into the face of the marble. These chips range from 1/8" to 1/4" and several tiles have multiple chips.

   The tile provider has told us that these chips are normal and part of the "natural beauty" of a hand cut marble tile floor. It honestly doesn't look that way to me, but I would really like to be fair so I am seeking other professional opinions on how acceptable this is.

   We have tried adding grout (black grout for black, color-matched grout for the crema marfil) but the grout is very visible and doesn't solve the look problem in my view.

    I know that I could hone the marble (its highly polished now) and that would probably make it much less visible, but would also detract from the otherwise stunning effect of the floor.

    So, what is an acceptable level of chipping? At what point should I insist on a redo?

No comments: