I never intended to do this article. In fact, it never occurred to me that my penchant for nice caulk and grout lines would cause me to begin noticing just how badly accomplished some of these jobs are. Worse, I started seeing so many bad examples, it started steamrolling into an even more heightened sensitivity to bad lines, mismatched colors and the like. Now I find myself staring around at every public restroom, critiquing (silently) my friends' houses, and feeling internal turmoil at the messes I encounter each week at restaurants and hotels.

So naturally, I'd want to invite all of our readers into my world... get them to notice the same things I do and stir up the hornets nest of demanding and appreciating a job well done by creating a hatred of all things lazy, unkempt and just plain bad. Without further ado, here is our top 10 list of worst caulk and grout jobs we've seen all year (and 2011, though busy, isn't over yet!).

#10 "Yeah, We Can Stop There"

This job wasn't the worst of what we'd seen, but it made the list because we'd seen it so many times. The job would just, for no explicable reason... stop. It's like the guy grouting just ran out of caulk, or decided that since he got a particular area or came to some sort of junction, he'd give up and move on to the next project.

#9 "Good Enough"

This was one of the few actual grouting snafus we witnessed that was bad enough to include in our Top 10 awards. What we found absolutely stunning was the fact that they let the tile set up this way. I don't care who you are, there's simply no excuse for not setting tile properly, particularly, when you are replacing a broken piece or encounter some sort of obstacle. Then again, maybe he was a government employee...

#8 "I Don't Care If It's Off-White, This is the Caulk I Have!"

Sometimes it's just obvious that laziness is behind a job done poorly. In this case, we witnessed (not for the first time) a job where the caulk was clearly off-white in other locations, but a white caulk was used to reinforce the corners of an otherwise-beautiful custom counter top sink in a public restroom. And don't use cheap Alex caulk on a high-end countertop... please?

#7 Wallpaper Peeling? Caulk It!

It never occurred to me that caulk would be the go-to tool for fixing peeling wallpaper or shoring up a corner mismatch. It seems, though, that some New York City hotels think this is just the trick for a shabby corner that needs some lovin'. First off, it's a rare occasion that wallpaper ever looks good over time - and secondly, wallpaper and caulk are not designed to be used together. Don't do it.

#6 and #5 "Patterns, Who Needs Patterns?"

This is really just a major pet peeve of mine, but since it also involved mismatched caulk, I included it - and counted it as two. Listen, when you come to the corner of a tiling job, unless you have a REALLY good reason not to, continue the pattern of the tile as it entered the corner. Here we have a shower stall in a vacation home we recently visited, and you can see how the tile job hits the corner - and then for some inexplicable reason - fails to continue around, but resets in some sort of unholy, doubled-up union of two black tiles. Why on earth? What were you thinking? For the love of... Oh, and they used white grout in the corner when the rest of the tile clearly uses an off-white grout. Does off-white caulk cost more in your town? This almost made me want to tear out the tile and fix it myself... almost.

#4 "This Public Bathroom Wasn't Disgusting Enough, So I Smeared Caulk Over the Urinal"

I thought the public bathroom at the local soccer field was pretty bad. I mean, people are constantly walking in with mud-caked shoes and tracking grass clippings in with their cleats. So how could it get any worse? Simple, smear caulk all over the top of the urinal to seal it up good. That's right, use your thumb - no need to get a straight line or keep it neatly contained - just have at it. Maybe it was "bring your 2-year-old daughter to work day", we don't know. Who are we to criti... oh, forget it, there is absolutely no excuse for this type of disgusting caulk job. I don't care where you are - have some self-respect.

#3 We Cannot Classify This. It Defies Explanation.

I don't know what to say about this except to admit, reservedly, that the photo was taken of my grandfather's shower stall. Yes, this is the work of years and years of my grandfather using one of his two go-to tools: caulk. The other tool was, of course, duct tape. Both were used extensively to "fix" a myriad of problems while simultaneously created several more down the road. This is nearly the worst caulk job I've ever encountered, made worse by the fact that I personally cleaned it out and redid the job properly once we moved them from their Florida home back to Pennsylvania (where they came from and where the rest of the family was located). I don't think I need to really say more - the photo truly speaks for itself.

#2 This Tub Is Not Brilliant White

When the tub and grout are not Brilliant White, why would you go back in and use the brightest, most brilliant white you can find to caulk the corners? Are you so proud of your work that you want everyone to see it? Are you trying to invent a new color palette? Is it just that Brilliant White caulk is cheaper? Whatever the reason - friends don't let friends caulk in a color that isn't appropriate. Look, we're not saying you have to locate a fancy color of caulk, but it's VERY simple to pick up White, Bone, Tan and Gray without even paying more. Those are standard colors. If you want to get really fancy you can opt for sanded caulk - that's an impressive feat that I've only seen once or twice in the wild. Match your colors, look like a pro.

#1 Caulk Is Not Expanding Foam

While you might think that caulk can solve world peace, feed the hungry and reign in the US deficit, it can't. It also isn't glue, and it can't repair waterlogged particle board or secure anything to anything else. It's a simple solution for filling in small gaps and providing a bit of water protection for surfaces that are prone to allow seepage. This last example won our 2011 award for the Worst Caulking Job of the Year. I think it's easy to see why. This was taken in the public restroom of a multi-million dollar private university in Central Florida. It's embarrassing to say the least and really shows just how lazy some people are when it comes to doing a job correctly. If it's not apparent from the photo, that's a 1/2" gap that's being filled in by the caulk at the end of the backsplash. The piece of laminated particle board is so warped that it will no longer lay flat against the tiled wall.

So that's it. It's fun to check out great work, but sometimes the bad stuff can be entertaining as well - we just hope this drives people to take that extra few minutes to do the job right the first time. There's really no excuse and your reputation will go up as people begin to associate you with "quality" work and a high level of job satisfaction.

Got a really bad example of shoddy workmanship? Send it in as we'll be doing many more of these articles throughout the year. Or hit us up at Facebook and click the 'Like' button to stay on top of things as we come across them.