Bct Tiles - Different Colour After Fixing And Grouting.

[Tile Shop]

Hi guys. Bit of a strange one this.

Had a query from someone who has had tilers fitted by a "pro-tiler". All the tiles were supplied from the same batch. They have been fitted over a couple of days and grouted on the third.

Apparently they looked fine when they were first laid but since grouting have drastically discoloured by varying amounts.

I think its moisture ingress, with a few "buts".... You will see from some of the pictures, dark blotches down the sides. Faint but definitely there.... so dot and dabbed (pro-tiler my.....*). But that would mean there wouldn't be a lot of moisture to go into the back of the tile. This would also mean plenty of air contact for dispersion. Yep.... ready-mixed on a 500x250 tile (pro-tiler my.....*). Onto plastered walls but he will not say whether its primed. He keeps dodging the question when she asks him.

The tiles are BCT Cottonwood so I know they're not the greatest quality, but the stock has been checked (same batch as was supplied) and there is no variation in the colour as we expected. So it has to be something to do with the conditions of the fixing. When they were delivered, they were stored in her garage for 2 weeks and the tiler has taken one bo, fitted it, gone to get another from the garage, fitted it and so on. Could it be down to atmospheric changes?

So I realise its been fitted incorrectly, and it has got to be ripped down and started again. Whether it will or not is up to them. But I can't see any reason why this would happen, so I'm wondering if any of you have seen this before or can suggest possible cause.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tile Shop]

The way the forum displays the images means you can't see the faint dabs.... you'll just have to take my word for it that they are there.

 

[p4ulo]

So, safe to assume not primed then if he won't answer. My guess is, he did the main (field?) tiles one day, then did the cut tiles at the end? Maybe he used a different adhesive for the cut tiles than the whole ones, but yeah, apart from ripping down nothing can be done.
Not sure just ripping out the affected ones would help either, who's to say that the ones that went up first aren't discoloured and whatever you put up next to them would again look different.
How annoying.

 

[Gazzer]

Never found BCT tiles to be that good and yes have seen issues like this before even when batch numbers were the same.

 

[7ACK14]

We recently had an issue with this in our showroom, white bodied ceramic wall tiles. Powdered adhesive, standard set, grouted the next day. Three tiles in the bottom corner (the last three to be fixed) plus one in the top where a cut had to be made for some wiring.
After a lot of discussion with our tiler, he admitted using a bit of the rapid grey from the floor he was doing in another display, rather than mix up more white!
We tore out those tiles and replaced using white powder and no issues since.

 

[AMC]

Hi guys. Bit of a strange one this.

Had a query from someone who has had tilers fitted by a "pro-tiler". All the tiles were supplied from the same batch. They have been fitted over a couple of days and grouted on the third.

Apparently they looked fine when they were first laid but since grouting have drastically discoloured by varying amounts.

I think its moisture ingress, with a few "buts".... You will see from some of the pictures, dark blotches down the sides. Faint but definitely there.... so dot and dabbed (pro-tiler my.....*). But that would mean there wouldn't be a lot of moisture to go into the back of the tile. This would also mean plenty of air contact for dispersion. Yep.... ready-mixed on a 500x250 tile (pro-tiler my.....*). Onto plastered walls but he will not say whether its primed. He keeps dodging the question when she asks him.

The tiles are BCT Cottonwood so I know they're not the greatest quality, but the stock has been checked (same batch as was supplied) and there is no variation in the colour as we expected. So it has to be something to do with the conditions of the fixing. When they were delivered, they were stored in her garage for 2 weeks and the tiler has taken one bo, fitted it, gone to get another from the garage, fitted it and so on. Could it be down to atmospheric changes?

So I realise its been fitted incorrectly, and it has got to be ripped down and started again. Whether it will or not is up to them. But I can't see any reason why this would happen, so I'm wondering if any of you have seen this before or can suggest possible cause.

Thanks in advance.

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Hi , I had a problem similar to that when you could see my trowel marks comin threw the face of the tile , called the tile rep and he said the tiles were fine , so called the adhesive rep and it turned out to moisture migration with house been so cold , no heatin in the bathroom , so before I grouted I got a storage heater in for a few days and dried out fine , but yours have been grouted so not sure whether that would work or not

 

[On one]

With BCT tiles,the same batch numbers are nothing to go by.
I had some marbled beige tiles a few weeks ago and in amongst them was a green tinged one. That's HD technology for you!

 

[White Room]

I found with some of the cheaper tiles there is a number but it's the pattern type....the date they were produced was what had to followed for batch numbers.

 

[Dave]

Don't take this the wrong way guys but if you've got adhesive showing through your tiles , your incorrectly fixing them #Simples.

Don't blame tiles when porous white biscuit tiles have been out longer than most of us are on this planet 🙂

 

[Colour Republic]

If this was anything other than BCT then I would have said it's some sort of fixer error but I've had this myself with BCT. And nobody can tell me it was the way i'd fixed them as random tiles that I know came out of the same box were different shades, and it's not as if I trowel the wall for each individual tile where one has more adhesive than the next. No i'd trowel up 1/2 - 1 sqm meter at a time and lay (I certainly did on that job as I prepared the wall before hand and it was perfectly flat).

To me it seems clear that some biscuits of random tiles absorb moisture more than others and no matter how long you leave it, the tile is stained. Even when using white adhesive.

I noticed somebody say on here the other day (and I have no idea how true this is?) that BCT get some tiles made by third parties and then glaze them themselves? Is this the issue? Where batches of raw tiles are mixed up but when they are glazed they are given a new batch number. i.e the glaze is from the same batch but the biscuit might not be?

 

[Dave]

I agree with the quality issues and shading etc , I'm just saying if you have adhesive ribs showing , then that's a bedding/coverage issue.

I fix quite a lot of BCT and my gripe is the quality of the glaze , always seem to get poor edges with glaze missing or rough edges.

 

[bcd-87]

I agree with the quality issues and shading etc , I'm just saying if you have adhesive ribs showing , then that's a bedding/coverage issue.

I fix quite a lot if BCT and my gripe is the quality of the glaze , always seem to get poor edges with glaze missing or rough edges.

had to rip down 5m of BCT tiles as the mixed batches, i put first 5m up then to find fault in the glaze on the remaining 11m and they couldn't match... it was a massive rubbish storm.. client was fuming.. wont use them again

 

[Dave]

had to rip down 5m of BCT tiles as the mixed batches, i put first 5m up then to find fault in the glaze on the remaining 11m and they couldn't match... it was a massive rubbish storm.. client was fuming.. wont use them again

I bet they were , not good , what did BCT say ?

 

[bcd-87]

I bet they were , not good , what did BCT say ?

payed me to rip it all down and re do it... wouldn't pay for the 4 days i lost.. scum bags