Cracked wall tiles

[jstrats]

Evening people, had a call from customer saying her wall tiles had cracked from job i did just before xmas. I have just viewed it, 4 tiles have cracked, all on bathroom exterior wall, 600x300 ceramic from Topps, 2 of them are left hand side of one window and the crack is diagonal across the two tiles, from corner of window to left hand wall/ceiling. The other two tiles are right hand side of second window, above and below the window and have diagonal cracks across them from corner of window to right hand wall.

I use SPF and wall is solid and had tiles on there previously with no cracks, i have checked outside the property for signs of cracking and cannot see anything.

Anyone got any idea what it could be? Wanted to get people's thoughts before i went and chopped them out, could the windows have expanded in the heat?
Am a bit stumped, i have photos on my phone but they are not great quality and not sure i even know how to upload them.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Jamie.

 

[DHTiling]

How tight did you cut to the ceiling ? and left and right side walls. ?

 

[White Room]

I've seen many a crack from window corners, was it a new extension or an existing wall...

 

[jstrats]

2-3mm

 

[jstrats]

existing wall, 1950's property probably, ex council.

 

[DHTiling]

Usually when it cracks like that is is stress of some sort.. remove the said tiles and examine substrate etc...

also were they metal trims..? cutting these to tight to internal window corners can cause stress cracking as no give in them along the length.. worth a thought.

 

[jstrats]

twas plastic trim Dave.

 

[jstrats]

Also left hand wall has silicone running down it as it's over bath , right hand wall just grouted.

 

[White Room]

I reckon it's cracked thru the plaster as well, call it an educated guess....

 

[jstrats]

I guess i need to remove the tiles before i can ascertain what the problem is, just don't want it happening again or have customer thinking it's down to poor workmanship.

 

[Peter]

Seen things like that happening on new walls but strange that it happens on a well matured building. Would definately agree that it's cracked in the substrate and carried through rather than the stress of the tiles on their own.

 

[jstrats]

Any idea what may have caused it? I will have to arrange a date to go there, remove tiles and report back here on my findings i guess.

 

[White Room]

With all the dry weather the ground can be so dry it shrinks back and could have caused some slight movement in the building, check out the exterior and see if theres any cracking by the windows....

 

[jstrats]

I have checked and couldn't see anything at all, bathroom is on first floor as well.

 

[White Room]

Did you see anythink before you tiled, cracking etc.

 

[jstrats]

Was 6 months ago so can't remember now, don't recall seeing cracks, i probably would have been suspicious if i had.

 

[jstrats]

If i do find cracks on the plaster, what can i do about it?

 

[jstrats]

You said you've seen many cracks before, what were the causes?

 

[White Room]

Movement IMO....on the plastering side of it if a crack was present or a possible chance it may happen I would cut out either side of the crack and fix eml over it and then plaster over that flush to existing plaster....

 

[jstrats]

Cheers Whitebeam i will go there, chop out tile and see what's happening underneath, will report back findings at some point.

 

[White Room]

It will be interesting to find out....

 

[jstrats]

Ok so i finally got round to changing those wall tiles the other day, when i removed cracked tiles there was a hairline crack on the plaster behind, i covered it with homelux matting to try and take the stress and told them to keep an eye on it for future cracks, may have to replace wall at some point, plasterer originally offered to replaster wall for £100 when they removed old tiles but they didnt want to pay the money, am guessing some damage was done then, but it looked ok when i tiled it.