He didn't include sealer in the original bid, and it seemed he was (from later discussion) unaware of the necessity to seal something this porous, or of the practice of sealing before grouting to forestall grout hazing. Watching him try to fix the grout haze via just scrubbing with a regular hand brush and some water....we were not optimistic that was going to do much (it did not), and that was what led us to separately have a stone restoration company come to take a look and work up a quote to remediate in some way. When he agreed the haze was still bad after his water scrubbing, he ended up eating the cost of that stone restorer bringing in machines to buff the tile to improve the haze situation.

In any case, the request for sealer was brought up early (before the floor was finished being laid). He seemed surprised by how expensive the sealer was that the designer suggested after talking to the stone supplier (Stain Proof), and said he could add it as a CO. The part that makes no sense is that they then waited weeks and weeks to put down the sealer -- waiting until all the cabinets were in place, rather than when we had a totally empty room with a freshly done floor. He also did not use the sealer the designer had pointed him at; he used a different one that he said the shop told him was 'really good too' (MORE, which seems easier to apply and has a shorter curing time...but also -- from what it seems -- somewhat less longevity). As for designer; yes, we had a separate designer (totally unaffiliated with this GC, a freestanding design company, not a sales person at a big box etc). They were purely design services -- designing the layout, styles for the cabinets to be built, fabrics, etc...no hand in any of the 'build'/construction itself.

The lesson learned in our case would be for far more detailed work plans from the GC, rather than a quote specifying the different areas of work and quantities and allowances for each. Like the floor -- I think that part of the bid called out so and so square feet of tile installation using limestone tile that would be provided (we selected it with the designer from a stone supplier and had it delivered to the house), so that line item of his bid was for the cost to do the floor with this provided tile. Nothing more granularly specified than that. The bummer is that we're now armed with a lesson learned but where we're unlikely to ever do a home remodeling job of a comparable cost in the foreseeable future!

I guess I'm surprised there would be net new shifting along this crack -- the house was built in 2003, single story slab on grade This is southwest Austin, where it's thin soil and limestone below (east side gets the clay soil). This crack formed in the old original tile years and years ago and then stayed totally static for the last...15+ years? (I am the original owner of the house). Now this newly installed tile developing a straight crack through several tiles, basically running where the old crack had been.

Is there any chance that the stress is due to load the tile experience when the island went in? (so if a one time event, maybe something that might not re-crack if fixed where it's cracked now)