cracking porcelain kitchen tiles, advice needed

[Deleted member 9966]

in an ideal world, your UFH should have been commissioned before the area was tiled. were you advised to tile before the UFH was switched on? was the UFH even tested before tiling commenced?

 

[rosi]

hi girlracerred, no we werent given any advice - neither from the heating installers nor the tiler! the UFH was only commisioned just before we were preparing to move in.why would it have been better for the heating to be switched on before tiling?

 

[charlie1]

The heating should only have been tested before tiling, not switched on. The tiles should have been laid on ufh while off then tested again for reasons of traceability off fault should anything be wrong with it. Once the floor has been laid, the ufh should be left off for a few weeks, then once switched on should only be incremented a degree at a time over another few weeks.

 

[rosi]

thanks for the info charlie 1.
I do know that once the tiling was completed, the UFH was commissioned months after and then it was left on very low, around 5 degrees for a week or so before we moved in. then as it was summer the heating wasnt on at all until it got cold in the autumn.

 

[Gall.B]

sounds like dot dab to me as well, just fixed one today shockingly bad tiles where dabd in 3 places on some on 12mm ply pva & built up 15mm, down less than 3yr!

 

[Deleted member 9966]

hi girlracerred, no we werent given any advice - neither from the heating installers nor the tiler! the UFH was only commisioned just before we were preparing to move in.why would it have been better for the heating to be switched on before tiling?

my concern here is that if the UFH was not tested before tiling, you wouldn't know if it had any faults/leaks once the tiles were on top. so now you're seeing tiles cracking but you need to check that your UFH system hasn't failed and caused the tiles on top to fail also.

taking the loose tiles up from the floor is the best place to start your investigations.

 

[rosi]

 

[rosi]

have taken up one tile to see the grout underneath and pics of other cracked tiles and many areas where the grout has just crumbled and is coming out.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

hi rosi

the picture where you've taken a full tile out, is that a crack running from left to right across the adhesive? do you know if it coincides with any floorboard joints underneath?

 

[enduro]

Looks like substrate movement, also dosent look much contact on the adhesive on pic 1 to the tile! also looks like a bit of dot & dab in the corners.

 

[rosi]

hi there, the floor joists run in the opposite direction but it could be a join from the hardibacker board which is underneath (there is also 18mm ply under that.

 

[rosi]

hi there,yes the adhesive is untouched apart from the 4 corners where it looks like extra was added to level the tile,but not sure why it was done like that!what is substrate movement?

 

[jay]

Hi Rosi the pics dont paint a pretty picture
as mentioned above the crack running through floor after tile was removed indicates either movement in sub floor or poor prep work before tiling
if you look at the glue application on the floor its been spread (sort of) and it looks like spots of adhesive have been added to lift tile height ,leaving the center of the tile unsupported causing the tile to fail (its another form of spot fixing) recommend you try to get original tiler back or if you like we may have a member in your area who may take a look for you
good luck
View attachment 28965

oh and thanks for the pics


is the adh hard like cement or is it like rubber

 

[rosi]

thanks Jay, I'll try again to get hold of our original tiler again, however i would be grateful if there was a tiler in the G77 area of glasgow who could come and have a look.not sure if I need to place an ad on this forum or how to do it or if its ok to just say on this message board?

 

[enduro]

Just say on here thats fine, and im sure there is a tiler on here that will take a look and advise what to do.