cracked floor tiles!

[doug boardley]

Had a first this week to remedy. En-suite (ground floor) builders had used 18mm wbp straight onto screwed battens (into concrete sub floor) most of the sub floor cavity between the concrete and wbp had been insulated with an expanded polystyrene insulation board, ok so far, however there was a section that wasn't insulated as all the heating pipes were running down this section. The heat from these pipes has risen through the plywood joints and snapped two rows of tiles, 3 tiles along. The middle one of the 3 being directly above the pipes.
To rectify this, I took up all the very well bonded tiles up, spread a flexible slc over the ply,addy etc and tomorrow will be laying 6mm hardiebacker down over the top before re-tiling. As I've said, this situation is a first for me, and I'd be interested to hear what you guys and gals would do to remedy this situation.
cheers
Doug

 

[mikethetile]

i havent come across this before so thanks for the information

this could become a regular source of work for those who know how to resolve it

insulated floors are in every new build now and they will build many thousands before they realise there is aproblem and thousands more before they have a solution

your solution sounds well thought out to me and i can see no reason why it shouldnt work

thanks

mike

 

[DHTiling]

Whats the centres on the battens....are they cross battened as well..?

Ditra will prevent any lateral stress cracking the tiles.....

 

[doug boardley]

no Dave, as far as i can see and feel, they're 2 x 2 's at 400 centres. I've no doubt that the heat from the pipes has distorted and caused the ply joints to move and seeing as the tiles have bonded that well to the ply, they're only option was to split and not become uncoupled/unbonded.

 

[DHTiling]

I see the ply has warped with the heat....:mad2:

 

[doug boardley]

I've assumed that the ply was maybe damp and unsealed when screwed down, I've come along and tiled, plumber has come along and second fixed, whacked up the heat, distortion and pinging the result.