Is this a bad install?

[Indy]

Keeps us informed, we love a good mystery....and happy endings too .

Thanks Sir Ramic!

Lets hope that this is one Scooby mystery can we can solve, it just that I never would've thought that the bad guy behind the mask would be me all along.

 

[Gazzer]

Lifting that tile could reveal more info.

 

[andy-p]

There is something thats been puzzling me , Ardex AF200 (which i looked up on t'internet) is a carpet adhesive that is suitable for ufh , i usually use a S1 or S2 cementious adhesive for sticking down a d/c mat , im not saying thats the problem just wondering...

 

[Indy]

Andy - Ardex AF200 is what Schlutar recommend for laying down Ditra Mat, it's official - honest. I didn't buy it from the car boot sale either..

The underside of Ditra is carpet like so it does kinda add up, I just can't wait to pull the bugging tile up and know for sure.

 

[Rich]

Oh dear. Its horrid when we get posts like this, must be even worse when its in your house!
There is not much more I can add to the posts above, as has already been said, the first thing you need to do is take one or two tiles up and take some pics of the floor but also take some of the under side of the tile, I will be interested to see if the bond has been broken between the adhesive and tile or adhesive and the floor.

look forward to getting more info on this one.

 

[Spud]

Indy do you live in Watford as I remember looking at a job similar to yours in watford at the time several options were discussed and advice was given not to use ditra mat as there was a deflection issue flagged up before the installation, on the job I looked at the customer had already purchased ditra matt cheaply off the internet and insisted on using it against advice from Nicobond technical as I remember the customer in question was worried about the riser height on the bottom step and used this minor detail as justification for not using a c.b.u and doubling up the ply which was the advice at the time, glad we never tiled the job in Watford as the customer was extremely thorough in his prep work and building knowledge but seemed to ignore all advice about the strengthening the substrate as he was keen to use the ditra he had ?

 

[The D]

Thanks for your advice gents.

Just to clear up the floor..it's a suspended floor then.

A few pics from the install

Lounge floor

Gaps between ply

A section of the kitchen floor

Kitchen floor

The entire ground floor is a suspended floor. I had brick pillars made up to support the joists. I don't have any problems with tiles at the junction of rooms where they meet, the problems are in different places; some in the middle of say the lounge and in the case of the kitchen a few feet from a wall - completely random.

I own a builders merchant so I used top quality ply and didn't skimp in this area, it was mighty tempting but I resisted the lure of money savings in order for a better job.

So is it a case of getting my Stanley knife out and cutting away at some grout in order to pull a tile up? I guess it's the only way if I'm going to find out what is happening underneath .

I'm not in a position to call the tiler back, he made a complete hash of my bathroom mosaics and bathroom in general so I doubt I'll be seeing him again.

can i ask what the boards are screwed to on the ends? as the joints look like they do not sit on the joist*

 

[turnip]

I believe this job was in Essex, if I remember right I priced this one, but would have stipulated S2 type adhesive, S1 and ditra is just not suitable for Plywood in my opinion having recently put right 10K's worth of porcs stuck to ply with S1 which failed. The adhesive was easily removed from both tile and ply, moisture had been sucked out despite apparent priming of ply.
Or in Indys case the adhesive could have perished if not stored or installed at the correct temperature during the cold period?
Eihter way looks like a rip out and re-do with S2 adhesive for this situation?