Customer, 60x60 porcelain, complained that the grout joints were cracking and when the tiler went back to do repairs, reckoned he could lift the tiles off the floor with his fingers. He said the tiles were loose as they were too dusty and that there was no written instruction telling him to clean the backs of the tiles before fixing (yeah, I laughed too). Yet when I was there, even though they were fairly easy to lift, still took a hammer and chisel to get them up. Although there was no back-spread, he had used a unique method of fixing...
So who has heard of the "union-jack" fixing method? Tiler of 42 years experience said it as if it was a well known and commonly used method!!! Todd from Ultra went to take a look. First glance after the tiles were lifted "What the..... what on earth is that?"
Other than the fixing method, the problem was that the floor was chipboard, no overlay other than Durabase, then this lot of adhesive. Couldn't see where it had been screwed down, but there was so much deflection in the floor, the adhesive was cracking, you could see it see-sawing as you walked on it and there was no chance it was ever going to survive. I recommended lifting the chipboard, adding noggins, laying a new subfloor such as 22mm NMP, or if 22m timber overboard it with Hardie.... but as I was leaving, the tiler said all he was going to do was self-level over the old adhesive and refit the tiles... He's going to try persuading the customer to take us to court for supplying faulty tiles. I wished him the best of luck.
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