Travertine-UFH=Decoupler? Aparently NOT..

[Daz]

My customer has written a letter to Gerard to explain the situation, so we'll wait and see. Either way, I'm very reluctant to specify a decoupler for the foreseeable future.

 

[Spud]

I am not using decouplers at all at the moment as we have had multiple floor failures with it using Genesis and Blanke matting we have covered the cost on most of the jobs(a supplier covered the cost on one which was fair of them) which has cost us thousands in labour and materials ,I will not be using any matting on my work

 

[DavieA]

Wow really, so you think there's more of a risk with the mat rather than without? That's worrying when Tilers with you guys experience are talking of failures and not using decouplers again.

What about Ditra anyone recommend or have experience with?

 

[hillhead]

I have floors fitted direct to screed all over the country here with no problems !
That includes a lot of marble too.
People here don't want the extra expense of de coupling.
So lucky for me i guess.
I have used ditra quite a bit though in bathrooms etc.

 

[Spud]

not heard anything about failures with ditra except when there has been excess deflection is the floor solid ?

 

[DHTiling]

I've had genuine Dural ci mat failures and, yes, Dural are covering the cost of their team to effect a repair. They are not covering the cost for me to:
a) make further site visits to asses the initial problem
b) attend site to ensure a satisfactory fix takes place (customer relations, too)
c) attend site 3 days later to grout all the holes that the Dural team have left
d) make further visits when another part of the floor has failed
e) see b & c above again
f) make even more site visits to sign off the work carried out during the 3rd repair area

and so the chain continues to repeat until the whole floor area has been injected. I've lost countless days, fuel cost, phone calls, materials etc to keep a happy customer due to a manufacturer failure.

One particular customer has spent over £85k on having a hand made kitchen installed so it is not an option for him to have it all taken out, the floor re-done and then kitchen re-installed but it's really affecting my business to keep him a happy customer.

Well.. i have had no response from Dural in nearly 2 month to a failure...and if i get treat the way as finishing off like you have then Dural will get a FULL public slagging from me.. whether they like it or not..

This is a major manufacture problem and needs to be sorted ASAP IMO.. so watch this space as i am about to contact said failure customer to see how it has gone after 2 months since the first failure report to dural..( might be a bit longer than that)..???

 

[andy-p]

This is all very interesting , i never realised that there was any issues fitting d/c mats , has there been any issues with membranes fixed to walls ? I have been using PCI's Pecalstic and so far no problems but this is making me seriously reconsider using mats , this is a major issue here and i hope we can get answers soon from the manufacturers..

 

[DavieA]

I agree never realised there were issues with d/c mats and am now considering what to do for upcoming job. Anyone able to offer there thoughts? There's been mention of failures on screeds but next job is as follows
22 mm chipboard overlayed with 15 mm ply to ensure floor is deflection free.
Tiles are Travertine opus mix.
Adhesive is mapei keraflex.

Floor is about 35 m2 so will cost me dear if twas to fail.

To decouple or not to decouple is the question?

 

[DHTiling]

Guys.. the issue is not how you stick them down, the top polythylene layer is separating from the fleece.. this is a manufacture problem last year and 1000's of mtrs of fixers work has delaminated from the fleece... Personally the way i feel i do not want to use this type of membrane again.. i have zero confidence in them now..

if i feel the need for an anti crack membrane then it will be mapetex or maybe pecilastic..

 

[DavieA]

That days a lot Dave, cheers. Would you recommend anti crack membranes mapetex or pecilastic? Only I've never come across them. Take it there a decoupler just different manufacturer?