Hi all, I've had to come to the arms now to get a definitive solution to a problem I'm having with a floor I laid a year ago, feedback would really be appreciated as I need to get this sorted and put it to bed......so here we go details as follows.........it's abit long sorry!
Okay so I removed some 20mm thick quarry tiles from a hallway in a 1930,s property exactly 12 months ago as a lot of them were loose and debonding, so removed the tiles easily enough, just a few areas of sand & cement came away in patches so I used ardex a46 to repair, the floor was abit lower than I wanted so used TM Levelflex to make good up to 25mm in places so I could just solid bed fix new 300 x 300 porcelain........tiled floor using TM rapid flex and got the level perfect to existing rooms off the hallway.......had a phone call just before xmas from the client 8 months later saying some of the grout joints were moist and there was a white substance sitting on the grout - (effloressence ) grout used was butch from Porcelanosa.....so I went out and floor is solid no debonding/ grout cracking but some of the grout joints had darkened and seemed wet & effloressence on alot but not all areas.......so I removed with LTP grout stain remover - ( come up lovely ) but 3 weeks later had a call from client with the same problem......so after speaking with different technical advisors ardex, Bal , Mapei etc they are basically talking about using a liquid DPM.......as long as it's suitable to use on TM Levelflex......if not ardex have suggested laying Schluter 25 with a moisture tolerant adhesive like ardex X7 so spoke to Schluter said it may work but couldn't guarantee it..........
Oh also there was no DPM underneath the sand & cement on areas I patched up but they didn't have them back then after talking to various advisors the cause could be the fact that thick porous quarry's that were originally there were accommodating any moisture and then it was release elsewhere but now they have been removed and porcelain laid ( non porous ) with any moisture having nowhere to go but up through the grout??......I'm abit lost on this one to cause and solution.....
Any feedback would be really appreciated, I'm taking the floor up today and will know more then.......what would you guys suggest here?
Many thanks
Mark