porcelain floor tile movement

[kaide]

Hi Bugs183,
Thanks ever so much for all your advice. You've given us loads of reassurance and advice that we can make sure they do the floor prep and tiling properly. The tiler won't talk to me and walked out of the house when I told him he was not going to dot and dab the new flooring. The carpenter (haven't met him before, but he's nice) is going to sort the joists and plywood out tomorrow. But I'm wondering about the marmot cement board as I've been advised here on this forum. On Friday, our builder has said, the tiler is going to prime the boards, put the ufh and the self levelling compound. But now my husband and I know what to look for and make sure he has levelled the floor.
You all do a great job in helping people like us! Thanks ever so much.
Ali

 

[cam_low]

.

 

[bugs183]

Hey no worries Kaide, ta for the thanks!!
I can see why the tiler has got the hump, those large format tiles really are a whatsit to lay sometimes, dot and dabbing will get them lovely and flat, but they just won't stick.
The Marmox is well worth looking into.
Good luck!

 

[kaide]

Hi Bugs183,
Right, I'm going to make sure I get cement board even if I have to pay for it!!
The carpenter is going to re-inforce the joists to stop the floor moving.
Thanks

 

[Andrew]

You have been given a mountain of information and I would simply like to add the fact that under no circumstances allow them to redo the work, everything they did was wrong and everything they plan to do to rectify it equally inexperienced uneducated and WRONG!

 

[Perfect Tiling]

Please don't refer to the guy who did the tiling as a tiler. If the tiles are loose and there is only a blob of adhesive at each corner then this is not a tiler...he is what is known as an XXXX.....4 letters starts in A and ends in E. Unfortunately its these types of people who seem to get a lot of the work because they price cheap and do fast and aren't at all bothered about the fact that it will need to be all done again. If you needed to get a car fixed would you take it to a mechanic...or a gardener??? Oops.......rant over .

 

[AliGage]

Evening Guys and Girls,

I subscribed to this thread a few minutes after it got posted and have only just got round to reading it all. You're getting some sound advice.

Just wanted to highlight the decor end panel in the right hand side of the last picture you posted. It looks to be a good 1"-1.5" off the floor. The furthest one on the right and the one you see on the left are onto the concrete. If that kitchen has been fitted level that floor needs a lot of work.

 

[Perfect Tiling]

Just a quick querie. If the floor is having underfloor heating installed why use cement boards. Surely an insulation board from the likes of wedi would be better otherwise the cement boards and the section of concrete floor are just going to absorb all of the heat and make it cost a fortune to run. A wedi board glued and screwed to the timber section of floor and just glued to the concrete section with expansion section would be a better solution.

 

[AliGage]

Just a quick querie. If the floor is having underfloor heating installed why use cement boards. Surely an insulation board from the likes of wedi would be better otherwise the cement boards and the section of concrete floor are just going to absorb all of the heat and make it cost a fortune to run. A wedi board glued and screwed to the timber section of floor and just glued to the concrete section with expansion section would be a better solution.

They've opted for Marmox i believe. Pretty much the same as Wedi. Both completely different to HardieBacker. If you're getting a bit confused.

 

[bugs183]

You put the undefloor heating over the Marmox, then it reflects the heat back up.

 

[Perfect Tiling]

Ok. I thought they had just put cement boards over the plywood section. Iv'e never seen marmox before. The supplier I use (CTD) carries the Wedi board which is what I always use when putting down UFH. Cheers.

 

[kaide]

Hi Aligage,
Thanks for your comment about the height of the end decor panel. Your right, the floor needs a lot of work. Our builder has brought round his structural engineer and it's bad news about the joists. The joists have been spliced in places in the past. What they suggest is to put new joists running in the opposite direction (it'll look a grid) underneath the existing joists. It'll be a time consuming job as they will be working around the new existing kitchen. We are quite upset as we wished they had checked the floor in the first place. Like, can the floor take the weight of the new kitchen and flooring. It sounds so logical, why didn't they do that? We are not happy about the guy who laid the plywood etc as he didn't tell our builder that the joists are spliced because you can actually see it, now it's been pointed out to us.

 

[kaide]

Hi Bugs183,
I thought the grey board you can see in the photo was tilebacker board. It's not. I asked the builder to tell me what it was today and he told me it's chipboard. It's got some kind of coating on it and so I guess it's treated waterproof chipboard. From surfing the net, I've found that you can't use self levelling compound directly onto chipboard and that you have to put plywood on top. This never happened in my case, the guy put the compound directly on it. Incidentally, when the tiler had replaced a broken tile last year, there was condesation underneath and he said he had never seen it before. But yesterday, he said it was very common with ufh. Is this true? Any way, the structural engineer has told us today that we have got some rising damp.

 

[AliGage]

Hi Aligage,
Thanks for your comment about the height of the end decor panel. Your right, the floor needs a lot of work. Our builder has brought round his structural engineer and it's bad news about the joists. The joists have been spliced in places in the past. What they suggest is to put new joists running in the opposite direction (it'll look a grid) underneath the existing joists. It'll be a time consuming job as they will be working around the new existing kitchen. We are quite upset as we wished they had checked the floor in the first place. Like, can the floor take the weight of the new kitchen and flooring. It sounds so logical, why didn't they do that? We are not happy about the guy who laid the plywood etc as he didn't tell our builder that the joists are spliced because you can actually see it, now it's been pointed out to us.

I can't understand why the floor wasn't sorted before any installation has taken place. The fitter as obviously aware because the panel is far off the floor.
I fear some of your kitchen may have to be removed to rectify the floor.
How's the general attitude of your builder to it all?

 

[CJ]

Unbelievable saga for you.

Contender for builder from hell?