Pebbles heartburn

What a headache today has been. All because of shower floor tiles! OMG. I had asked the flooring guy if they sold the stuff that looks like pebbles. It comes in sheets of 12x12 with mesh backing. Should be an easy install, right?! Apparently, not. The sheets did not really "fit" together, leaving big gaps. Our finishing guy, who is also doing our shower, was stressing out. He opened every box and tried to lay them all out. What do do with these big gaps?

I looked at the link the flooring guy's assistant had sent me, to see what they were supposed to look like finished. I could only find a finished example in a really dark color, but it looked like there were lots of grout areas, where there was gaps and more grout between some pebbles. But, then in looking at the link she sent me, what we had didn't really quite look the same. The link she sent showed squares that looked to be designed for interlocking layout. Plus, the link she had sent the stones were a bit more elongated and a bit more color to them. Hmmm..

I called her up (owner is out of town until mid week) to see what she knew. She had me take a picture of it and also the box label. But, apparently her supplier/mfg couldn't give us an answer until tomorrow if we even got the right stuff. Well, our guy is trying to tile it today!  Then I called back and asked her if there was anyone at her office or at the mfg that was familiar with laying it and could give our tile guy some tips. I talked to a guy who said, basically it has to be laid pebble by pebble! Then what is the point of having these on mesh backings?  I then called back again and asked if I could just return these and we'd get something quicker/easier to install. Our budget doesn't include days of laying out individual pebbles. She said yes, but with a 25% restocking free, plus freight back.

Then finisher and I looked online at Lowes and Home Depot for an alternative, maybe I could pick up tomorrow. They both had several of the pebble style, but they were mesh with interlocking. I watched a few YouTube videos of people laying the pebbles with the mesh backing. They just zippy went down and basically fit right next to the next sheet, no big gaps. The sheets were patterned to fit together. But, neither store had enough in stock. Then flooring lady called me back and gave me the total cost to return and said the boxes can't be opened. Well - our finishing guy opened up all 5 boxes! So,  now he's just going to have to figure out how to lay them. So, now I'm sure I'm going to get a bigger bill for the tile work than planned on. Geez. I figured these square mesh tiles would be quicker and easier for someone to lay down than individual tile squares. DH was no help either, he was freaking out about it, which probably wasn't helping the finishing guy figure it out.

I'm kind of like trying to again, show them the picture, where there is lots of grout between some area more than others. I'm ok with that. Would save some time not trying to pull of pebbles from sheets and fit them in every little gap. But, no one seemed to be listening to me.

What we got:

what they are supposed to look more like:

See how these are notched, so they could interlock with the next sheet? Others I saw online of different brands were kind of S-shaped on the sides and fit together. Supposedly what I got is supposed to be the same thing as the one on the left. I don't even thinK the pebble shapes or colors look the same.

Well, so I was looking at the website of the link the flooring gal originally sent me, going through all their pebble tile options. So, they did send and/or order me the wrong stuff. They have "river rock" and "river pebbles". They look almost the same, both in ivory. The top one, that I received is pebbles. the pictures on bottom left is "river rock".  On their website for each of these they also have a drawing what the squares look like. Rock has those interlocking sides. Pebbles is drawn square, just like I received above.

I called this company to ask if the "river rock" is indeed interlocking. But I tell her I got "river pebbles" and it doesn't appear to be interlocking. She said it was all supposed to interlock, either kind and then she said their owner walked by behind her and said the same thing. Well, what we got sure doesn't meet up and interlock.

Then I called our flooring girl back. She said from their experience with this river pebbles/rock tile, none of it fits together, it has to be bascially layed piece by piece. I told her regardless, I didn't get what I ordered.  Too late now, they are making it work because they have a schedule to keep (and we thought at the time it was the right kind) but I am going to complain to the flooring owner about it, when he gets back. Why does it take until tomorrow to find out how we got the wrong stuff! Either our flooring guy ordered "pebbles" instead of "rock" or he ordered "rock" and they sent "pebbles" in error. How about our flooring girl look at their order sheet and see if they even ordered it right! There's your answer right there.