T
Tedd
Hi Everyone,
New to the forum but need advice on an issue I am having and apologise for the length. I was contracted to tile a floating floor through lounge/dining/kitchen on a 1900-1920 house. The owner wanted the tiles (31 x 31 Granite) with no grount lines, whch we refused to do so under duress agreed to use 2mm grout lines. The joiner who also seemed to be project managing the job sais he would take care of all the prep and the floors would be flat as a pancake on our arrival. As there was alot of work (2 wet room and a bathroom also) we took booked 3 weeks to do the job. On arrival to start work he was just starting to ply the floor so we had to wait for him to finish, after which there was a deflection of about 10mm were the lounge and dining room met. This was self levelled to avoid any delays with the work. A couple of tiles had to be removed as they had chipped as building work was still going on despit us tiling and sealing the floor, the day we turned up to grout they fitted a floating fireplace in the chimney breast and knocked seven bells of WORD REMOVED out of it. At the end of the job we had to replace 3 tiles which we smashed with a hammer and chisel occasionally using a sds on low speed with a tile removal bit. We replaced these and grouted no problem.
4-6 weeks later a crack has appeared which has not broke the surface of the tile but you can see in the light. We were called in and we were blamed for using the sds to remove some adhesive/tiles. Subsequently an investigation was carried out by an independant firm who discovered the following:
1) in the area where the self levelling was used there was a 4mm deflection over 1.2m
2)the ply used was 12mm marine ply fixed at 200 to 300mm centres overboarded over the floorboards.
3)The ply was fixed butt jointed
4)There was insufficient adhesive in one corner of the tile raised
His conclusion was that lack of screws, inadequate adhesive coverage,
vibration from sds and primarily the defection under the weight of tiles,adhesive,ply and self levelling was the cause.
The adesive manufacturer came out and recorded:
1)insuficcient adhesive in the corner of the lifted tile
2)The crack in the tilesis runs parallel with the joint of the ply and that there was no movement joint where the ply met.
The tile shop manager came out and recorded:
1) The crack ran along the joint where the two plywood sheets met.
The house owner is now seeking legal advice and wanting to go to court. The Joiner has stated that his bum is covered because he followed british standards to the latter and so it is not his fault and that he raised concerns with me at the start on whether he should replace the joists and put in herringbone strutts (i am a tiler not a structural engineer) to which I replied that it was not necessary (the conversation never took place. I now have to prepare myself for the impending court battle and would be helpful of any information possible.
Regards,
Ted
New to the forum but need advice on an issue I am having and apologise for the length. I was contracted to tile a floating floor through lounge/dining/kitchen on a 1900-1920 house. The owner wanted the tiles (31 x 31 Granite) with no grount lines, whch we refused to do so under duress agreed to use 2mm grout lines. The joiner who also seemed to be project managing the job sais he would take care of all the prep and the floors would be flat as a pancake on our arrival. As there was alot of work (2 wet room and a bathroom also) we took booked 3 weeks to do the job. On arrival to start work he was just starting to ply the floor so we had to wait for him to finish, after which there was a deflection of about 10mm were the lounge and dining room met. This was self levelled to avoid any delays with the work. A couple of tiles had to be removed as they had chipped as building work was still going on despit us tiling and sealing the floor, the day we turned up to grout they fitted a floating fireplace in the chimney breast and knocked seven bells of WORD REMOVED out of it. At the end of the job we had to replace 3 tiles which we smashed with a hammer and chisel occasionally using a sds on low speed with a tile removal bit. We replaced these and grouted no problem.
4-6 weeks later a crack has appeared which has not broke the surface of the tile but you can see in the light. We were called in and we were blamed for using the sds to remove some adhesive/tiles. Subsequently an investigation was carried out by an independant firm who discovered the following:
1) in the area where the self levelling was used there was a 4mm deflection over 1.2m
2)the ply used was 12mm marine ply fixed at 200 to 300mm centres overboarded over the floorboards.
3)The ply was fixed butt jointed
4)There was insufficient adhesive in one corner of the tile raised
His conclusion was that lack of screws, inadequate adhesive coverage,
vibration from sds and primarily the defection under the weight of tiles,adhesive,ply and self levelling was the cause.
The adesive manufacturer came out and recorded:
1)insuficcient adhesive in the corner of the lifted tile
2)The crack in the tilesis runs parallel with the joint of the ply and that there was no movement joint where the ply met.
The tile shop manager came out and recorded:
1) The crack ran along the joint where the two plywood sheets met.
The house owner is now seeking legal advice and wanting to go to court. The Joiner has stated that his bum is covered because he followed british standards to the latter and so it is not his fault and that he raised concerns with me at the start on whether he should replace the joists and put in herringbone strutts (i am a tiler not a structural engineer) to which I replied that it was not necessary (the conversation never took place. I now have to prepare myself for the impending court battle and would be helpful of any information possible.
Regards,
Ted
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