Limestone floor cracking.

[hillhead]

a decoupler wouldn't have helped with vertical deflection tho Joe, and I'm assuming it's vertical deflection that's caused the problem here and not lateral expansion.

That's right Doug,as i said earlier the sub floor needs to be exposed and inspected before strengthening which if done right will eliminate any vertical deflection.This all plus the decoupling will all help the finish which is needed IMO

 

[doug boardley]

belt and braces info there Joe

 

[mikethetile]

you really do need to take legal advise

the tiletrs agreed to liase with the kitchen fitters, with proper communication this would have been avoided

if the kitchen fitters are telling the tiling shop that they are experianced at this work then the shop may not have checked the floor before sending tilers over to do the job

the fact remains that filling the tiles isnt going to work as the movement in the floor will break the filler out . this problem isnt going to cure itself

there is movement in the floor and it needs rectifying and retiling

firm legal action is needed to sort this out , both parties have let you down and are refusing to take responsibility

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

are they responsible just by recommending the tiler;s??? it sound 50-50 to me!! tiler;s /kitchen fitter;s

 

[White Room]

Personally I would try to get this sorted thru the partys involved with the works prior to anything else but use the legal side as a very last resort IMO

 

[pollybampton]

I do feel like the victim and caught in the middle. All my wife and I have done is spend a fortune, and we have a disaster on our hands. I've told the floor company that we're investigating the ins and outs and do's and don'ts of stone floor covering. He has now agreed to come out to see the job. He has refused so far ( since first asked in January) instead, sending the tilers out to grout. He says the tilers advised me to strengthen the floor. This is RUBBISH, and gives me hope that if he is resorting to lying, I might get somewhere.He's bringing with him the stone rep. After tonights chat, it's fairly obvious that that will be a waste of time. However, it will give me the chance of a face to face with him, on site. Let's see who blinks first. He is still going on about the plywood. I saw the guys fit it. Well, not every last sheet and every last screw, but I was in and out and I saw nothing untowards. At the end of the day, the floor will get ripped up, and we'll see the plywood. We'll probably go back to a hard wood floor. Not because we don't like stone; we love it. However, we didn't realise how cold it would be underfoot, and the cleaning maintenance is a nightmare with 2 young kids. Why did we rip up a mahogany floor that was 3 years old in the first place? The colour didn't match the work tops.
One last thing, the tilers were sub contractors. However, my wife reminded me, that we paid the floor shop for the fitting, not the tilers direct. So there is an additional responsibiity there. My guess is that the tilers are stone cutters and smudgers. They're young and probably not experienced. The things you guys have mentioned have never been brought up in conversation with the tilers. You'd think if they were experienced, they would say right away what the problem is.
Many thanks to all of you for your comments and advice.
Meantime, while I'm waiting to rip the floor up, what's the best way to get it clean, sealed and in a maintenance friendly state?

you really do need to take legal advise

the tiletrs agreed to liase with the kitchen fitters, with proper communication this would have been avoided

if the kitchen fitters are telling the tiling shop that they are experianced at this work then the shop may not have checked the floor before sending tilers over to do the job

the fact remains that filling the tiles isnt going to work as the movement in the floor will break the filler out . this problem isnt going to cure itself

there is movement in the floor and it needs rectifying and retiling

firm legal action is needed to sort this out , both parties have let you down and are refusing to take responsibility

 

[DHTiling]

Yes the K/fitters should have done a solid floor for tiling but IMO it is the tile fixer who needs to make sure the floor is suitable for the tiles to applied.. So the tiler should have advised the way to go before just going ahead and tiling it.

If a comp is to guarantee their fixing then surely they should be 100% confident on the substrate and not just pass the buck to the k/fitters..

 

[mikethetile]

you have my sympathy in this matter and you are the victim

you have done everything right , you employed proffesionals and paid good money expecting a long lasting and proffesional job, its not unreasonable to expect both parties to come forward and correct the works between them

 

[doug boardley]

at the end of the day Polly it looks like you've been the victim of poor advice right through the installation of your floor, we can only advise on the installation and not the legal liabilities of parties involved, but I sincerely hope that you get adequate recompense for your floor.

 

[peckers]

Just thinking out aloud but was there any other work done below this floor? is there any rooms below where a wall has been taken down and the floor is not as supported as it used to be? The floor may have had no deflection in it before tiling commenced and there is now alot of weight added and it has now got deflection. was it tiled and then granite worktops applied as this all adds weight to the floor. What im trying to say is that the floor could have been prepped and no deflection detected without all the extra weight applied. the kitchen fitters who prepped the floor may have thought it was ok if they just jumped up and down on it.
Its as if the weight issues had not been taken into account!!!
You really need legal advise on this as the blame is being passed around. I hope the out come is in your favour.
As to remedies is there any way the floor can be accessed from below and supported by a rsj to stop the deflection??? then the damaged tiles could be replaced. As I said just thinking out aloud...