Cautionary Tale For Custom Built Homes
 

I posted several months ago about an issue we have with our ceramic tile in the walk-in shower. Rather than use bullnose tile for the outside corners, they used regular tile pieces and painted the edges to look like it was glazed. After 2 yrs the painted edges started peeling off. Of course, warranty won’t even talk to us since we’re past our 1 yr. They advised we take it up with Nickel Tile in Ocala who provided it. Nickel advised that the tile mfg (Emser) only warranties for 1 yr so they’re not interested in helping either. So we are left with a mess. I would love to talk with someone other than the Warranty dept but getting to anyone in authority is like trying to contact the Wizard of Oz. Please, if you are customizing a new build, don’t select anything from Emser Tile. It’s appalling that The Villages won’t stand behind the products they have in their design center. They are the ones purchasing the tile but we’re left holding the bag as the end user.

I cannot help you at all with having this covered by warranty, but if I were you the first this I would check is to see if bull nose is available for your tile, and the buy suffice amount to repair the area. Then with any luck you will be able to local a local tile setter to carefully cut the existing tile and install the bull nose tile. Another option maybe to remove the "paint" and apply the correct paint, I suspect they used a latex paint which typically will not stand up to moisture.

I was told that although The Villages says that they only warranty house for pone year. Florida law mandates that they cover them for four years.

Anyone else heard that?

The Villages warranty for new houses is one year for everything, two years for "systems" like plumbing and electrical (but not individual fixtures), and ten years for structural items, such as the foundation.

Nickel Tile
 

Nickel Tile is the culprit and totally responsible. They are not upstanding and are for some reason not held accountable. Being under the one-year warranty would not help because it did not help me. I am so sorry you are suffering from that company as well.

OP, I have been thinking about your problem, and if you find no other solutions, you might be able to DIY. I would use a suitable water based paint remover to get all of the old paint off. Then if necessary diamond buffing pads on a drill or angle grinder to get to a nice clean smooth finish. As for new paint, I would look into the concrete "stains" these are Xylene based and I have this on our driveway for over 8 years with no signs of wear. I have seen this type of paint at Sherwin Williams.
Feel free to send me a PM, as i have the diamond polishing pads and associated equipment.

Maybe a colored caulk? Mask everything to make clean edges. Just a suggestion.

Without seeing your tile, you may not like this idea. But, have you considered covering the outside corners with plastic or metal corner cover pieces? I assume you only have outside corners where you enter the shower?

Good idea to use a piece to cover the edges. Schulter makes some that are very nice - metallic and non-metallic.

In sixteen years of living here and reading and hearing folks talk about warranty on new homes, I have found that it is very likely that Warranty will expect the sub-contracter who was responsible initially to see to the solution. But I have also learned that those who are calm in their approach to both Warranty and the contractor usually get further in their journey. If someone is not satisfied with a fix to the problem but wants the whole thing replaced, then that is unrealistic and if they talk angrily ....people are people. You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I think our very own fixer guy has offered several solutions that probably Warranty and the contractor could work with and you may have to pay something but I haven't heard of anyone being gouged. Just my two cents.

For some reason Nickel Tile was not held accountable by our builder and the warranty department. There is some relationship there where Nickel Tile gets away with their subpar work. We never talked "angrily" what makes you think we would?

I've been here less than two years and have met tons of people with unresolved defects in their home. Covid was a bad time to build in hindsight. I met several people who had the exact same problems we did with the exact same builder and exact same subs, all custom built around the same time. Why do you think they stopped doing full custom builds? Too much time spent on warranty fixes sure seems likely based on what I witnessed.

When I have over $50K worth of unresolved defects then, yes, you can call that gouged. If multiple attempts at fixing something still makes it a defect a home inspector writes in his report, then maybe it should be replaced. If it's a brand new house, why should the homeowner suffer with subpar repairs? Why should the homeowner pay to fix something that is wrong with their brand new house?

Hey, GG, good to see you back, we missed you.

You are very kind to offer your equipment and if we decide to DIY this, I’ll take you up on your offer. They said it should be epoxy paint but if that’s what’s on there now, I’ll be redoing it again in a few years. Concrete stain sounds like a possibility. Thanks!

I had actually thought of this idea, too. The worst area is the niche for shampoo etc. and since that’s not very big, it would require a lot of finesse to get the mitered corners correctly. It would be a good solution to cover the long vertical corners. Thanks!

If you don’t get anywhere, take clear pictures, fix the problem yourself and take them to small claims court.