Tile water absorbtion experiment

[Qwerty]

James, we are a friendly professional bunch and having spent the last 5 minutes browsing through your previous posts I can see you have gleaned alot of help and information from the forum.

This post was posted by yourself nearly a year ago and your interest in water absorption was of interest to you then too.

I stick with what I said previously, you're looking into it too deep. I appreciate your engineering mind is thinking of 1 million and 1 different factors and outcomes but my experiment was a simple one which I conducted in my kitchen using scraps of tile, whilst listening to Radio 1 and wearing my pants. As I said, a simple test 😀😉

 

[Canyondust]

What was the reason for multiple insults ? That doesn't feel remotely friendly.

If you do not wish me to post then that's fine.

Yes I have gained a lot of information from reading a large amount of post. I was also passed some helpful advice. Silicon curing times spring to mind to which again I experimented as 7 days just didn't seem to be right (I appreacited that is what the packet also said).
It led me to conduct my own tests. An example is the word 'flexible' when linked to adhesives or grouts. I wondered quite what does that mean.
Rapid heat changes also led to some messing about to which a 'wet' tile acted very differently to a dry.

The test you did I found really interesting and got me thinking about why it may not be the whole story. Lingering high humidity levels are more of a concern to me than direct water action for the glazed tile condition.

 

[Qwerty]

So now I understand your point

Humidity isn't something that any of us are really concerned about as that is easily rectified with ventilation. Personally, in your situation with a wet room I would be more concerned about water action on a tile than humidity.

Do you have porcelain or ceramic tiles in your wet room?

 

[Canyondust]

Part of my job (few years ago) led me to be a lead involve in an automotive dewing test standard (it is a BS standard now). Previously devices (boxes) we're 85C/85%RH cycled and in this case spray tests related to IP67. We and other OEMs had issues. The cause was rapid changes in humidity and prolonged high humidty.

With extraction I would still expext to see a rapid humidity level increase in the room from the start of the cycle.

I can't find a link to the exact tile but they are a wood effect ceramic circa 500mm x 175mm
Tray mosaics are marble. 50 x 50 I think.


If you think that water permeating the grout could cause this kind of effect then maybe an experiment can be devised. Some years ago I was involved in the design of a new grout (nothing like we are talking here) which was for a civil works project (wind turbine) with BASF as product provider. Moisture permeation was a test.

So I can imagine the mosaics on my shower tray being immersed on one side for say 10 minutes. Do you feel this would fully wet the tile?

 

[Qwerty]

If it was ceramic, with shower being used daily then yes, in time it could fully saturate the tile

 

[Canyondust]

That surprises me. Would that not be based on the grout performance?
One assumes not all grouts are equal ?

I could tile some plaster board with 4 squares of wall tile, grout and then leave a wet sponge on top (all horizontal). Each day top the sponge up and take moisture measurements from the rear.

I edited the previous post to say the tray tiles are marble 50 x 50 (I think)

 

[Andy Allen]

Ahhh so your an engineer, right. ?

 

[LM]

I wonder what Billy Connelly would say 🙄

 

[Canyondust]

Engineer / scientist

I recall looking at BAL and Mapei the datasheets had very little info. I did speak to a 'technical' guy at Mapei as I was interested in grout permeability but as I can't remember any data I am guessing I got know where. I did set some Mapei ultracolour (what I put on the floor) in a plastic jam jar sized pot. Then removing the thick disc and seeing how long it would take water to pass through. I can't really remember but I think the whole disc darkened quickly.

 

[John Benton]

Engineer / scientist

I recall looking at BAL and Mapei the datasheets had very little info. I did speak to a 'technical' guy at Mapei as I was interested in grout permeability but as I can't remember any data I am guessing I got know where. I did set some Mapei ultracolour (what I put on the floor) in a plastic jam jar sized pot. Then removing the thick disc and seeing how long it would take water to pass through. I can't really remember but I think the whole disc darkened quickly.

Were you sat in your kitchen wearing pants and listening to Radio1 by any chance?

Sorry couldn't resist 🙂