Kitchen Confidential

Should I be concerned with the trowel pattern in this picture?

I've seen and heard that trowel marks should be straight lines, and that when they are not straight or change direction as seen in the picture, air can and does get trapped beneath the tiles creating weak spots.

If there's anyone who knows ANSI standards here and can quote them, I would be much obliged.

TYIA

(I put the huge circle on it to point it out to my project manager and cannot remove it, so sorry for the huge blue circle)

If yall like this I have videos of unlevel tiles that they are claiming is my subfloor. I would also love an installer's opinion on those.

Bringing back to life, Hi all!

I’m finally seeing the deck in its true form on the house that I bought in the depths of winter. I’m sure it will need to be replaced at some point but what would you recommend more immediately to get this in a place where I can enjoy it for the late spring/summer? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have!

The Stair Situation.

I'm remodeling a kitchen and bathroom for a client who is hiring other subs to do projects around the house. She hired a stair company to fully replace an existing staircase. Branded trucks, cards, brochures, all that.

Guy shows up to cut the stringers, I say "man stringers are complicated!" he says "no they are easy. I've been doing this for 18 years. Easy!"

Here is his work.

Worried about my buddy's new deck.

A good friend of mine is having his deck replaced. It's a small deck, total cost for teardown/rebuild is 20k.

From the progress pictures he's shared with me, I'm a little worried. I have built one deck in my life like 20 years ago, so I'm far from knowledgeable and I don't know anything about current building techniques and/or codes.

Among other things, I don't like that the post supports appear to be surface-level concrete pads - I thought it was code to dig/pour supports at least 2 1/2 - 3 feet down to get them below the frost line. The platform is around 4-5 feet high.

Do any of you pros see anything that looks worrisome?