Shower tile positioning question

[richrc1131]

I had a contractor come in and tile my shower. After he left (second day of work), I noticed that the shower head is positioned in the bottom left hand corner of a 8x12 wall tile. It really stands out.
I just wanted to check that I wasn't being unreasonable expecting that the shower would be centered in the tile.
The contractor told me that in all his years of tiling, he's never had a request that the shower be centered in a tile. He said that the shower head ends up where it ends up.

Am I out of line for thinking that it should have been centered?

PS. I understand that the shower head will end up at the bottom of the tile anyway, I just thought that it should be centered at the bottom instead of off to the side.

[jadnashua]

The goal should be to avoid small slivers of tile on the edges of the whole wall. Then, the fixtures get installed where they need to be. It is possible to make a hole anywhere in the tile - it doesn't have to be on an edge; it just takes more skill and/or tools to put one in the middle of the tile. It's often more important to get the centerline of the fixture (shower head, control valve, etc) centered or positioned where you want it left-right and up-down on the wall, disregarding the position on a tile.

You can get more opinions and help on tiling at www.johnbridge.com Tile Your World website.

[Howard Emerson]

I had a contractor come in and tile my shower. After he left (second day of work), I noticed that the shower head is positioned in the bottom left hand corner of a 8x12 wall tile. It really stands out.
I just wanted to check that I wasn't being unreasonable expecting that the shower would be centered in the tile.
The contractor told me that in all his years of tiling, he's never had a request that the shower be centered in a tile. He said that the shower head ends up where it ends up.

Am I out of line for thinking that it should have been centered?

PS. I understand that the shower head will end up at the bottom of the tile anyway, I just thought that it should be centered at the bottom instead of off to the side.

Rich,
Where anything in a bathroom ends up being starts at the beginning of the bathroom design.

All you have to do is take a tile and trace it onto a piece of cardboard. Now make a hole in the center of the tile, and place it over the shower arm.

Now.............using your tape measure, look at where the lines of the tiles would have ended up in the vertical corners, the ceiling, meeting the tub, etc.

Would you have had small pieces or a lot of cuts?

These are the things that a contractor should keep in mind when the customer selects the tile, and prior to having the plumber come in.

See where I'm going with this? Someone has to have an overview of the design and the authority to tell the sub contractors: Please do the layout this way, put this pipe here, etc...............

Did you have a contractor overseeing the whole job, and if so did he/she ask you if these things were important?

Most of them don't, and the subs just take the shortest distance from start to payment if they're not asked before hand.

Regards,
Howard

[richrc1131]

No they didn't check with me regarding the placement of the tile that surrounded the showerhead. I thought that was obvious that it shouldn't have been placed almost in the corner of a tile. It really stands out.
It does look like the sub just did what needed to be done to finish the job and didn't worry about aesthetics.
So should the contractor have asked me about that or should I have assumed that he would do this? I need to know for future reference.

[hj]

When I install a shower head pipe, I do not worry about where it will fit in the tiles. And the tile installer has certain parameters he considers when he lays out his tile, in order to make the overall job look correct. Trying to get the shower arm in the middle of a tile, which might be an unreasonable request given the many various tile sizes available, could go against one or more of those parameters, and result in an unacceptable appearance, even though the shower arm looks good.