What to do about bad ceramic tile floor installation?

My husband tore out our old ceramic tile floor in a very large area (kitchen, breakfast room, laundry room, and entry hall) and then cleaned the subfloor until it was perfectly smooth (hard work and messy). We hired a guy to replace the tile, and he did a HORRIBLE job - many of the tiles are not attached to the subfloor (hollow sound when you tap them), they are not level or straight, and the grout is a mess. When we had him come back to fix it, it only got worse. There are tiles that cannot be "glued" down without being much higher than the tiles around them because he did not start at the highest point in the room or float the subfloor. What can we do about this without completely tearing out the tile again? Can we lay a "floating" floor over the tile? If so, what type of flooring, what would you put down under the floor, and what do you do about the fact that it would then be higher than the surrounding carpeted areas? We had this done over a year ago. I don't want to take him to small claims court, as I have already expended way too much emotional energy on this. I learned a valuable lesson about going in person to inspect a contractor's previous work and calling multiple references with similar jobs....The guy admitted AFTER the fact that he hadn't done a job that large before.

Public Comments

1. Take pictures of the bad workmanship and take him to small claims court or call 7 on your side. You can get at least part of your money back..I am afraid you will have to start all over again to get it to look right. http://www.doityourself.com/scat/ceramic
2. Nothing you can do except rip it out and start over, sorry but thats it. No you cannont lay any floating floor over it. I would go to small claims and try to regain some monies. Hate to hear about shady contractors, it sucks, should be able to get some satisfaction. Also call BBB
3. You will have to take it all up and start all over again. Floating floor will not work because it is now a uneven surface. Almost sounds like your husband can tackle the job if he did all the hard prep work. Just make sure he figures out how to make everything square and uses all the directions on the mastic or thin set package as far as trow notch sizing. Don't let him get into a hurry, take your time, it is not that hard (well for most people). Not sure what state your in but you can get some of these guys that make us other contractors a bad rep by turning them in to the state for contracting without a license. put the state after him and he wont be messing up anyone else's tile jobs.
4. NEED MORE INFO, is this a plywood subfloor or concrete?? I can answer if you add more info. Either way tile will have to come out first to fix the problem, if you put a floating floor, laminate, over the problem it still may be a problem.
5. You would have to rip up the tile, put down some plywood over the floor ,maybe 1/2 inch and top it with lanoleum but depending on how bad the hump is on your flooring might rip in the future putting the plywood over it should help out some.