Tiles cracking, is it the adhesive or something else?

[Dan]

had a job a few yrs ago washed the grout off using warm water and the grout started to craze.
the job was beginning of the year and the tiles were stored in our lock up onsite think the out side temp was minus 10 the job was a car auction build at black bush were that plane came down last month
the crazing was caused by not acclimatizing the tiles befor fixing and grouting

So could just be really thin glaze and rubbish biscuit and perhaps temperature shock if it's only the shower area.

 

[Just Rizzle]

So this would go hand in hand with the heat from rapid set as it chemically hydrates .. The thicker the bed the more heat is potential..

good point dave
chemical hydration and poor quality glaze equals crazing
the tiles wernt made by j********* were they
seen there glaze craze when cutting

 

[AliGage]

What makes you say that , what your thoughts Ali?

To be fair I'm not 100%. But let's call it a gut feeling and 99/100 times its right.

No way it's the use of rapid adhesive. Not months after the install, and not to the extent that's in those images.

The corners are poor. Metros unscribed in the corners leaves those diamonds. If these are filled with grout rather than Silicon we effectively, through tile type have Wells or pockets.

I think there's water ingress in the corner and it's making a poorly fitted tanking membrane swell. Collection of water or a swelling in the substrate behind.

Along those lines anyway, but for cracks to run through the grout joints like That it's substrate for sure.

 

[Dave]

Porous biscuit like a lot of white biscuit tiles are , will suck the moisture from rapid set thus creating a faster set time ... One of the reasons tiles used to be soaked when fixing in sand/cement and slurry bond, stops the biscuit drawing excess moisture from bedding mortar.

A problem not associated with a slow setting adhesive.

 

[AliGage]

Pictures 3,4 & 5 look at the grout in the corner. Clear movement cracks.
It isn't crazing of the glaze. The tiles have broken right through.
It's movement for sure, and I think its certainly starting through ingress in the corner.

 

[Dan]

Surely it can't be water getting through grout again.

 

[AliGage]

Surely it can't be water getting through grout again.

What we need is a test!
Cardboard box, lined with newspaper, tiled in metros by a plumber

 

[Dan]

What we need is a test!
Cardboard box, lined with newspaper, tiled in metros by a plumber

That sounds like more than one grout joint to me. Or a small box maybe?

 

[Andy Allen]

Tiles could be dot and dab on the wall....hence the reason the tiler dosnt want to go into detail about his fixing method.......using rapid set that thick on a crap tile could be the root of the problem. ...

 

[AliGage]

Tiles could be dot and dab on the wall....hence the reason the tiler dosnt want to go into detail about his fixing method.......using rapid set that thick on a crap tile could be the root of the problem. ...

How do you dot and dab metros!??

 

[Dan]

One blob in the middle and then lots of swearing to get it stay flat lol

 

[Andy Allen]

How do you dot and dab metros!??

300x 100 metros.......like Dan said blob on each end one in the middle. .....perhaps he used to be a brickie .....lol

 

[AliGage]

Lol.
We'll the op hasn't been back on but all the cracking tiles appear to be in the corner from the pictures.
The more I skim over this thread I'm certain the grouted corner/water ingress is this issue. Substrate damage/movement.

 

[Andy Allen]

Maybe no one told him he'd bought crackle glazed tiles. .

 

[Dan]

I'm for substrate movement.

Or heat from hot showers and then cold air cooling quickly. And a thin glaze and crappy biscuit mix.