U
Unregistered
This is my first post on the forum and it is as a customer looking for advice. I hope this is acceptable, if not please excuse the intrusion.
We are having a bathroom renovated by a fitter who came recommended.
Due to mining subsidence our entire property is on a tilt from front to rear, floors, walls ceilings etc are generally square and flat, but not plumb or level in the direction of the tilt. As as result the floors cannot sensibly be leveled. The fitter was aware of this from the outset, and that he may need to flatten the screed on concrete floor, but could not level it.
After the old tiles were taken up the surface of the screed was very rough. The fitter smoothed the surface with ‘thick’ self leveling compound, this was done entirely by eye with a trowel, and whilst smooth was found to be far from flat such that it would be very difficult or impossible to lay the 600 x 300 porcelain floor tiles.
In an attempt to remedy this he then applied PVA and a neat cement mortar to the entire floor but concentrating on filling the low spots. This significantly improved the flatness, but a few days later we noted a small (50mm x 50mm x 1 - 2 mm thick) patch of the surface delaminating between the neat cement mortar, and the self leveling compound. The fitter easily scraped off more of the cement mortar extending the patch to perhaps 0.5m2. The self leveling compound was found to be entirely intact and well bonded to the screed, but the cement mortar came away cleanly from the leveling compound; there was little sign of any sound cement mortar.
The fitter said that he would fill the area already lifted with tile adhesive and that the rest of the floor would be fine when the tiles were laid and grouted. The tiles do seem to be solid at present but we are concerned that this may not be the case long term.
Two other issues of concern:
1. In the shower enclosure 600 x 300 ceramic tiles on two full height walls are fixed to HardieBacker 500 (12mm) board. Because the stripped breeze walls are rough and not flat the boards were dot and dab fixed to the breeze using BAL powdered adhesive with 9 additional screw fixings per board (but some of the fixings did not take because of the porous and friable nature of the breeze block).
2. Most of the bathroom tiles were fixed with adhesive applied to the wall using a squared trowel, and more on the back of the tile. Around the window (which suffers from some condensation) the tiles were dot and dab fixed onto dot and dab fixed moisture resistant plasterboard - the fitter said this was OK because the cut tiles were smaller (upto about 300 x 300).
The bathroom looks great, but we are concerned that because of these issues it may not stay that way. We have written to both HardieBacker, and BAL but as yet have had no response. The work is a major investment for us and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
GC
We are having a bathroom renovated by a fitter who came recommended.
Due to mining subsidence our entire property is on a tilt from front to rear, floors, walls ceilings etc are generally square and flat, but not plumb or level in the direction of the tilt. As as result the floors cannot sensibly be leveled. The fitter was aware of this from the outset, and that he may need to flatten the screed on concrete floor, but could not level it.
After the old tiles were taken up the surface of the screed was very rough. The fitter smoothed the surface with ‘thick’ self leveling compound, this was done entirely by eye with a trowel, and whilst smooth was found to be far from flat such that it would be very difficult or impossible to lay the 600 x 300 porcelain floor tiles.
In an attempt to remedy this he then applied PVA and a neat cement mortar to the entire floor but concentrating on filling the low spots. This significantly improved the flatness, but a few days later we noted a small (50mm x 50mm x 1 - 2 mm thick) patch of the surface delaminating between the neat cement mortar, and the self leveling compound. The fitter easily scraped off more of the cement mortar extending the patch to perhaps 0.5m2. The self leveling compound was found to be entirely intact and well bonded to the screed, but the cement mortar came away cleanly from the leveling compound; there was little sign of any sound cement mortar.
The fitter said that he would fill the area already lifted with tile adhesive and that the rest of the floor would be fine when the tiles were laid and grouted. The tiles do seem to be solid at present but we are concerned that this may not be the case long term.
Two other issues of concern:
1. In the shower enclosure 600 x 300 ceramic tiles on two full height walls are fixed to HardieBacker 500 (12mm) board. Because the stripped breeze walls are rough and not flat the boards were dot and dab fixed to the breeze using BAL powdered adhesive with 9 additional screw fixings per board (but some of the fixings did not take because of the porous and friable nature of the breeze block).
2. Most of the bathroom tiles were fixed with adhesive applied to the wall using a squared trowel, and more on the back of the tile. Around the window (which suffers from some condensation) the tiles were dot and dab fixed onto dot and dab fixed moisture resistant plasterboard - the fitter said this was OK because the cut tiles were smaller (upto about 300 x 300).
The bathroom looks great, but we are concerned that because of these issues it may not stay that way. We have written to both HardieBacker, and BAL but as yet have had no response. The work is a major investment for us and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
GC
