Cracked tiles in new bathrooms

[Help required]

Given the extensive experience on this board, I'm hoping someone can help. I've just had a house built, and cracks have appeared in the tiles on the bathroom walls. The cracks appear to correspond to the joins in the backing plasterboard sheets. The silicon in the corners where the tiles meet has also come apart in several places. The builder used the recommended heavy duty plasterboard specified for bathrooms, which is fixed either to brick or stud wall.

The builder claims the cracks are due to the building moving. Whilst possible, this does not seem to account for all of the issues. An alternative theory could be that the plasterboard has shrunk very slightly, thus cracking the tiles and pulling the silicon apart in the corners.

Has anyone come across this type of issue before and what do you think the cause may be?

 

[Dan]

Plasterboard doesn't shrink does it?!?!

That's movement.

New houses are built so rubbish these days.

I'd never build one that didn't have at least breeze block internal walls.

You want to wait another 12 months (do a few more seasons) if it's not too much trouble, and then re-do it. Let it settle. Must be a bit of a mess behind there. I'd assume some studding might need repairing.

Whoever got the contract to build that needs a slap. But I bet you £5 they DID build it to regulations and it all got signed off just fine. It's the quality of new builds now. They're literally large empty sheds that look nice from the outside, and are dressed well on the inside, but got help us if we every had an earthquake in a local country that was strong enough to send some energy to the UK.

 

[Help required]

The house is actually steel framed and build quality is pretty good. The brick wall to which some of the plasterboard is fixed is an existing party wall that was underpinned (which would be why there could be some movement). Strange bit is that other internal walls (stud) have cracked tiles/gaps at corners to. Same goes for another wall that is built on metal studs. So we have 3 sorts of wall, but same cracked tiles/gaps in Silicon. Hence the confusion.

 

[Dan]

That'd baffle me.

But the fact it's happening in all three wall types would suggest the builder is right.

I wouldn't have steel framed or stud anywhere personally. You need to rebuild the house internally every now and again!

I'd much rather redevelop / restore / refurbish and extend a 50's property with brick exterior and interior!

We have some pretty skilled plasterers and tilers on here though and I bet some of them have seen it in their time so hang on for the pro's advice matey.

 

[Dave]

The problem occurs in new builds when not a lot of heat is circulated throughout the property i'e.. Central heating etc .

So what happens is the joists shrink slightly as do other timber work , this in turn pulls stress at wall to wall intervals and floor to wall transitions.

It's the house drying out as they say , there has been lots of discussions between trades about what should be done on a new build but they never seem to happen , they just build and decor ASAP, this is the normal sometimes , so simply get your builder to do remedials.

 

[widler]

As dave said, its drying out, heating goes on, timber drys , moves, and it can move, and stress points crack, corners ect .
Does my head in going to see a new build, no windows in or roofs off, floors ect getting wet.
And when plaster or tiles crack its tge tradesmans fault

 

[Help required]

As dave said, its drying out, heating goes on, timber drys , moves, and it can move, and stress points crack, corners ect .
Does my head in going to see a new build, no windows in or roofs off, floors ect getting wet.
And when plaster or tiles crack its tge tradesmans fault

 

[Help required]

Thanks again for the responses. The cracking throughout the house has not been that bad. The exceptions to this being around the stairs, where I suspect the wood used was unseasoned, and the bathrooms, where the cracking is restricted to where the heavy duty waterproof plasterboard joins are - the first ones showed up quite quickly, whilst others have appeared over a year or so. Interestingly, one stud wall has cracks on the side (in the bathroom) which has the heavy duty plasterboard, but not on the other side (in the passage) on which standard plasterboard was used.

 

[Dave]

That could be expansion stress but it's remedial works and your builder should help.

 

[Dougs Third Go]

steel frame buildings tend to warp and twist much more than masonry builds, I'll bet this is the cause.

 

[Dan]

Going back to what I said. Wouldn't touch a new build with a barge pole personally because of these issues and the fact in 50 years you need to redo the internals.

 

[Dave]

steel frame buildings tend to warp and twist much more than masonry builds, I'll bet this is the cause.

And at 900 centres ffs

 

[Dougs Third Go]

And at 900 centres ffs

ouch!!, never saw that bit.

 

[Dave]

ouch!!, never saw that bit.

That's what they do , seen less flex in a lard arse lol

 

[Help required]

I think you can rule the steel out as a cause - some of this cracking is happening in the basement (below the steel structure), plus on an old brick wall (the new build is attached to an existing property). (I'm not sure where the bit about 900 centres came from - certainly not me??)