cracked ceramic tiles in bathroom

[david H]

I usually attempt most DIY jobs to save costs even though it can be a pain in the arm. This time I plumped for a professional to tile the upstairs bathroom as there would be less hassle and no moans from the trouble and strife if it doesn't line up properly.
In our large bathroom we have a washing machine, which is usual in other countries like Germany, which the tiler helped me move out of the way before the job.
I watched the tiler lay a large sheet of stirling board and the rest of the floor was stirling board butted up to it. The ceramic tiles were cemented into place and it looked really good.
After a while I noticed small cracks appearing in the tiles and now I have 12 tiles with cracks. These are in lines where the sterling board butts up against each other.
I'm going to call the tiler up but wanted to be forearmed before doing so. How culpable is the tiler and how should he sort it out ? Is it the fault of the washing machine which is mounted on a blockboard base 2 inches thick and on rubberised pads between it and the tiles. The tiler knew about this beforehand.
What about the stirling board ? At the time I thought ply would have been better, but he is the professional so he must know what he's doing ! Any ideas anyone ?

 

[Smiths]

What did he use to put down the boards?

 

[Smiths]

And what the hell is stirling board?

 

[Smiths]

Nevermind, knew what is was under a different name. This might be your problem:


Working with Stirling Board Stirling Board can be sawn using either a hand or power saw. No matter how carefully it is cut, the edge will tend to 'lift' on the reverse side. Always make all cuts of a sheet from the same side, then all of the delamination will be on one side.

The tiler might have put the wrong sides up.

 

[david H]

many thanks for your message. I can't remember what sterling board used to be called and it's bugging me. what did/do you know it as ?

 

[UKTT Darren]

Stirling board is a cheap ply board sort of material, it is made up of loads of pieces of wood glued together and compressed into a 8 by 4 flat board, pretty crappy subsitute for ply, when you saw the stuff it tends to raise up, this is where the tiles have failed because of the lip in the wood, He may not have left a joint between the boards either for expansion of the wood, this will also cause failure, Anyone reading this post, dont use crappy subsitutes, pay a little more and do the job correctly