A
annavilla
Hi there, I'm new here, and I'm not a tiler. I would be grateful for some advice on sorting out a botched job which was done on my kitchen floor.
Background (apologies in advance - it's a long story!)
We had our entrance hall and kitchen/utility area floors dug up to enable insulation to be put down, and then screed poured in the two areas. We wanted a level floor throughout (18mm wood parquet was to be laid in the entrance hall, and 10mm porcelain tiles to be laid in the kitchen/utility). The kitchen/utility area has wet underfloor heating, and the screed is 'EasyScreed' (a mix of sand, water and an alpha-hemihydrate calcium sulphate binder agent).
The screed was down for several weeks prior to tiling, however there were frequent water spills on the floor (even some flooding from heavy rain as the windows were not in yet). Despite the instructions on the EasyScreed website, the underfloor heating was not switched on to assist in the drying of the screed prior to tiling.
The builder had the screed poured level throughout the two areas, so the kitchen floor height had to be raised to bring the finished level of the tiles up to the level of the parquet blocks. The builder first had the tiler use very thick adhesive to achieve the floor height required, but found this too expensive, so he spread some levelling compound over the EasyScreed, and then tiled. We had the floor tiled wall-to-wall before the kitchen was installed to give us the option to reconfigure the kitchen at a future date if we wished.
Not long after the floor was tiled, the underfloor heating was connected up and turned on. Almost immediately some wet patches started showing in the grout. As there were no leaks in the u/f heating system, we realised that this was moisture from the screed escaping through the grout. The next issue was that some tiles started moving. The builder replaced these (chipping some other tiles in the process which in turn needed to be replaced). A few months down the road the tiles in these areas (and a couple of others) started moving again, and moisture continued to be evident in the grout, and the grout in several places cracked and fell out.
I got advice from an underfloor heating company and from the supplier of EasyScreed, Both said that the solution was to re-do the tiling job completely, letting the screed dry before re-tiling. I want the job to be done as if it was right from the very beginning (i.e., as if the empty room was tiled wall to wall, and then the kitchen installed). The builder has admitted responsibility for the botched job, and he has agreed to completely re-do the tiling job. however this will require that the kitchen fitter remove and re-fit the kitchen units, possibly replacing the worktop if it can't be re-fitted properly, and we would have to move out of the house as we would not have a usable ground floor (and no kitchen) for however long the job (including drying time) took.
The builder has suggested a less disruptive (and cheaper) alternative - to leave the kitchen units in and work around and under them, raising the adjustable legs and removing the tiles etc. with the kitchen units in place. And finally, my questions:
We made compromises with this builder which we came to regret, as he did not do some things as specified, but we agreed to accept them rather than making him re-do them (e.g., he replaced our perfectly good cast iron soil pipes with plastic and concreted them in before we noticed - and he said he 'skipped' (yeah, right...) our cast iron downpipes and soil pipes - even though the plan said we wanted to retain the cast iron downpipes and soil pipes). We don't want to regret compromising on this issue if the floor can not be done perfectly whilst working underneath the kitchen units.
I would be verygrateful for the opinions of experienced (objective) tilers as to whether we should even consider the builder's proposal.
Many Thanks.
Background (apologies in advance - it's a long story!)
We had our entrance hall and kitchen/utility area floors dug up to enable insulation to be put down, and then screed poured in the two areas. We wanted a level floor throughout (18mm wood parquet was to be laid in the entrance hall, and 10mm porcelain tiles to be laid in the kitchen/utility). The kitchen/utility area has wet underfloor heating, and the screed is 'EasyScreed' (a mix of sand, water and an alpha-hemihydrate calcium sulphate binder agent).
The screed was down for several weeks prior to tiling, however there were frequent water spills on the floor (even some flooding from heavy rain as the windows were not in yet). Despite the instructions on the EasyScreed website, the underfloor heating was not switched on to assist in the drying of the screed prior to tiling.
The builder had the screed poured level throughout the two areas, so the kitchen floor height had to be raised to bring the finished level of the tiles up to the level of the parquet blocks. The builder first had the tiler use very thick adhesive to achieve the floor height required, but found this too expensive, so he spread some levelling compound over the EasyScreed, and then tiled. We had the floor tiled wall-to-wall before the kitchen was installed to give us the option to reconfigure the kitchen at a future date if we wished.
Not long after the floor was tiled, the underfloor heating was connected up and turned on. Almost immediately some wet patches started showing in the grout. As there were no leaks in the u/f heating system, we realised that this was moisture from the screed escaping through the grout. The next issue was that some tiles started moving. The builder replaced these (chipping some other tiles in the process which in turn needed to be replaced). A few months down the road the tiles in these areas (and a couple of others) started moving again, and moisture continued to be evident in the grout, and the grout in several places cracked and fell out.
I got advice from an underfloor heating company and from the supplier of EasyScreed, Both said that the solution was to re-do the tiling job completely, letting the screed dry before re-tiling. I want the job to be done as if it was right from the very beginning (i.e., as if the empty room was tiled wall to wall, and then the kitchen installed). The builder has admitted responsibility for the botched job, and he has agreed to completely re-do the tiling job. however this will require that the kitchen fitter remove and re-fit the kitchen units, possibly replacing the worktop if it can't be re-fitted properly, and we would have to move out of the house as we would not have a usable ground floor (and no kitchen) for however long the job (including drying time) took.
The builder has suggested a less disruptive (and cheaper) alternative - to leave the kitchen units in and work around and under them, raising the adjustable legs and removing the tiles etc. with the kitchen units in place. And finally, my questions:
- Given that the finished job should be done so that I could reconfigure the kitchen without worrying about what the floor looks like under the existing units, would it be possible to achieve this whilst working in the small amount of space that is accessible under the base units' legs?
- Can the difference in floor level be properly achieved with levelling compound, or should more EasyScreed be poured for the best result?
We made compromises with this builder which we came to regret, as he did not do some things as specified, but we agreed to accept them rather than making him re-do them (e.g., he replaced our perfectly good cast iron soil pipes with plastic and concreted them in before we noticed - and he said he 'skipped' (yeah, right...) our cast iron downpipes and soil pipes - even though the plan said we wanted to retain the cast iron downpipes and soil pipes). We don't want to regret compromising on this issue if the floor can not be done perfectly whilst working underneath the kitchen units.
I would be verygrateful for the opinions of experienced (objective) tilers as to whether we should even consider the builder's proposal.
Many Thanks.
