cracked marble tiles - TilersForums.com

[fred111]

Hey guys, can you help me? 18 months ago I tiled a small bathroom floor using 300mm x 300 mm marble tiles bought by client. The bathroom was in a basement of an old house. The floor was concrete and there was underfloor heating which went down first. I used flexible adhesive and joints were probably 3mm wide. Client now says (18 months later) that one tile cracked and now this has spread to "every single tile". I haven't heard of this happening before - any ideas why?

 

[DHTiling]

Hello and welcome...

What marble is it...?

which UFH is it and was it commissioned before using at full steam?

And have you any pics...so we can see if there is pattern to the cracking.?

 

[fred111]

What marble is it...? After this amount of time I can't remember more than black and shiny.

which UFH is it and was it commissioned before using at full steam? Again, I can't remember now which one it was, it was an electric mat. I turned it up gradually when I was working on the job but that was quite a while ago.

And have you any pics...so we can see if there is pattern to the cracking.?[/quote]
No pics yet, but I'm told all of them have cracked. The bathroom was probably about 4 square metres.

 

[stevee]

was the concrete newly laid mate?

 

[fred111]

Nope, old house, old concrete floor.

 

[davy_G]

Any signs of moisture or cracks in the floor prior to tiling?

Might have been a job for a decoupling membrane?

 

[Time's Ran Out]

The horse has bolted for this one - but a good reference for the future is to have a day book/diary listing all your materials and instructions for the job.
Of course by going back through your account records that you keep for 5 years you should have the relevant details in your Invoice.

Happy days!

Timeless John.

 

[fred111]

Any signs of moisture or cracks in the floor prior to tiling?

Might have been a job for a decoupling membrane?

There was no moisture that I recall or any cracks or reason for me to think the floor was unstable at the time.

I can't figure out why this would happen, apparently suddenly, so much later on...

 

[jimbob]

Is there no limit on the time period a tilers work is guaranteed for?? 18 months seems a long time to me. You wouldn't buy a car and then blame the garage when it broke down 18 months later. Especially in respect of tiles, you as a tiler would have no clue as to how the customer had treated the surface since it had been laid. It could have been horribly abused etc. I suppose it is a catch 22 - ignore it and the customer could harm your reputation by bad mouthing your work, or agree to remedy it and risk losing your own time and money on a problem which may have been no fault of your own. It's a tricky one.

 

[davy_G]

Im still thinking along the lines of a combination of moisture/heat and movement.

Its been exceptionally wet lately (In Norn Iron anyway) and a basement not tanked properly may have had some ingress, then the UFH may have blew the tiles.

Suppose you wont know 'till you lift a few tiles.

Was the subfloor all laid in one slab?

 

[DHTiling]

What about perimeter expansion joints..?..just trying to cover all avenues before you go to look..

 

[Ajax123]

Is there no limit on the time period a tilers work is guaranteed for?? 18 months seems a long time to me. You wouldn't buy a car and then blame the garage when it broke down 18 months later. Especially in respect of tiles, you as a tiler would have no clue as to how the customer had treated the surface since it had been laid. It could have been horribly abused etc. I suppose it is a catch 22 - ignore it and the customer could harm your reputation by bad mouthing your work, or agree to remedy it and risk losing your own time and money on a problem which may have been no fault of your own. It's a tricky one.

Not sure if there is a statutory limit for time for guaranteeing the work. I would have thought a reasonable length is 12 months after which the client should have to prove that the any fault is the result of your work. 12 Months is the usual snagging period for new build houses. Any defect found after this period will often be dealt with by the insurer e.g. NHBC etc.
You should limit your liability in your written quotes by two means one is that you limit your liability to the cost of materials you have supplied - that way you can exclude yourself from the oncosts of repairing skirtings and floor boards and replacing kitchen units etc etc etc. It is a legal term that many bigger companies have in their conditions of sale and delivery. Secondly if you offer a warranty you should put it in writing and hand it over with your quote prior to starting the work. You can again limit your warranty incorporating exclusion clauses such as that it is limited to the correct use of underfloor heating or the correct loadings and traffic or reasonable wear and tear etc etc. Successful warranties are quite difficult to write. I would look at terms and conditions from your major suppliers and copy some of their clauses which are often vetted by the legal teams. That said you cannot waiver your responsibility if you do something which is negligent such as putting the tiles down with the wrong addy or on a screed which is too wet or using Tiles which are not suitable for the application etc etc.

 

[jay]

hi i think dave might have it was concrete clean and not painted sounds like a complete debond(drummy all over) let us know how it goes :8:

 

[White Room]

The horse has bolted for this one - but a good reference for the future is to have a day book/diary listing all your materials and instructions for the job.
Of course by going back through your account records that you keep for 5 years you should have the relevant details in your Invoice.

Happy days!

Timeless John.

Did mention about a year ago that one guy I know writes down all his material batch numbers for the job as well

 

[Nardini]

...using 300mm x 300 mm marble tiles bought by client...

Using client-supplied materials is always going to be a risk as you simply don't know the origins of the materials, nor how they have been stored/prepared - especially stone based materials.

So long as you are able to justify your own work, including substrate preparation, adhesives, grout, etc. you need to remind your client that the quality of the tiles were not your responsibility, as they were not supplied by you.

For the future, as everyone else has already said, write everything down just in case a job goes pear-shaped on you.

Good luck.