U
Unregistered
About a year ago, I had 64 sqm porcelain tiles installed on top of a concrete slab, forming a patio.
This was part of a large build, and there was a clear spec that the tile adhesive be applied as a "bed" using a "notched trowel method", which I think means that the whole underside of the tile should be supported by a bed of adhesive.
Several tiles are slightly wobbly, which meant I was slightly suspicious about how well the adhesive had applied, but I was persuaded by the builders at the time that this wasn't a big deal.
One year later, we have just had a tile break, and looking beneath it, you can see there are large gaps (at least 20cm x 20cm under a 60cm x 60cm tile) where there is no adhesive at all - so the tile is held up by blobs of adhesive in the corners, rather than an even bed of adhesive.
The tile broke when a small piece of timber, weighing less than 5kg, fell from a height of about 8ft, landing in the middle of a tile. It may have been weakened by an aluminium tower we have had onsite for the last week or so, fitting some cladding to a wall above the patio. If the tile had been properly supported with adhesive across the whole of the tile, I don't think there would have been a problem.
Together with the wobbly tiles, I now suspect that the entire patio has been laid with just blobs of adhesive, rather than a proper bed, and that I am going to continue to have problems with tiles cracking and smashing.
I am wondering whether there is any way to correct this without ripping up and re-laying all the tiles. For example, is it possible to rip up a small number of tiles, and inject a compound into the gaps underneath all the adjacent tiles? It would need to be liquid enough to get into the gaps, but set solid enough to provide support for the tiles.
I would appreciate any suggestions for what can be done on this. I will be taking this back to the original builder, but we don't have a good relationship at the moment, and they are very unlikely to admit fault, or help to correct the problems.
This was part of a large build, and there was a clear spec that the tile adhesive be applied as a "bed" using a "notched trowel method", which I think means that the whole underside of the tile should be supported by a bed of adhesive.
Several tiles are slightly wobbly, which meant I was slightly suspicious about how well the adhesive had applied, but I was persuaded by the builders at the time that this wasn't a big deal.
One year later, we have just had a tile break, and looking beneath it, you can see there are large gaps (at least 20cm x 20cm under a 60cm x 60cm tile) where there is no adhesive at all - so the tile is held up by blobs of adhesive in the corners, rather than an even bed of adhesive.
The tile broke when a small piece of timber, weighing less than 5kg, fell from a height of about 8ft, landing in the middle of a tile. It may have been weakened by an aluminium tower we have had onsite for the last week or so, fitting some cladding to a wall above the patio. If the tile had been properly supported with adhesive across the whole of the tile, I don't think there would have been a problem.
Together with the wobbly tiles, I now suspect that the entire patio has been laid with just blobs of adhesive, rather than a proper bed, and that I am going to continue to have problems with tiles cracking and smashing.
I am wondering whether there is any way to correct this without ripping up and re-laying all the tiles. For example, is it possible to rip up a small number of tiles, and inject a compound into the gaps underneath all the adjacent tiles? It would need to be liquid enough to get into the gaps, but set solid enough to provide support for the tiles.
I would appreciate any suggestions for what can be done on this. I will be taking this back to the original builder, but we don't have a good relationship at the moment, and they are very unlikely to admit fault, or help to correct the problems.
