Unimat, crunching floor

[Patric]

Hi Everyone,

Hope you can help me, a couple of years ago we had a tiled floor installed, but within months it had developed a crunching sound in certain areas. The installer ( no longer trading ) had used Unimat supplied by Trimline, which appears to have failed. We are in correspondence with Trimline but progress is slow.

Has anyone else had a similar experience or can offer advice

thank you

 

[AMtek]

There were problems which sound like yours with Dural (I think it was dural anyway). Do a search on the forum and you will find some more info

 

[DHTiling]

There were quite a few brands that were all made in the same factory and they had a manufacture period that there was a fault with the gluing of the polyethylene to the fleece backing and this in turn has caused some failures where as the top part delaminates from the fleece , it does not cause any tile failure other than the crunching sound you get , bit like walking on broken egg shells.

What Dural UK have been doing is injecting a none setting resin that softens the crunching sound , this is done by injecting through the grout joints and flooding the void between the top layer and the fleece.

I understand that there are now companies who sub-contract and do this independently if you struggle to get unimat(trim line) to cough up for a failed matting.

Hope this info helps.

 

[The D]

I have had the same thing on a job it is ongoing 2 years on

 

[Spud]

nationwide problem

 

[jonnyc]

same here.
crikey i only used dural on one job im my life and it still haunts me.
only reason i used it was because they guaranteed mat with an adhesive bed thickness over 10mm
whereas schluter did not.
i laid a really expensive reclaimed old jerusalem floor and small 100 x 100 reclaimed french terrracotta in two areas.
job was ijust south of birmingham ,lovely setting.
18 months later i get a call like i guess we all have had who are afffected by this , saying the there is a stramnge crackling sound under tiles.
it was also anhydrite screed so double trouble no doubt.
asked if i could pop by if ever in area but have not been past watford since !!

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

I have two jobs, same problem ongoing, I suggested a decoupler in good faith, thinking I was saving the clients issues in the future. But these bad batches have caused a lot of good tradesmen a lot of grief and sleepless nights.

I think these company's should just hold their hands up, and stop trying to shift the blame to the fixer.

 

[Patric]

Thank you all for your responses, has anyone heard of a successful claim to get a floor relaid or compensation, either in court or out??
David Howe Tiling, your comments are exactly where we seem to be at, we are hesitant to try the injection system as the grout lines will be covered in dots as a perfect match would be difficult.

 

[Peter]

Makes you wonder sometimes if the job would have been ok without a decoupler.

 

[The D]

We have now got to the point that it is going legal and my client has been passed from pillar to post and now finds that they will have to go to court with the original retailer that sold the mat and they will have to seek compensation from the importer. So save yourself two years of hassle and go straight for the person that sold you the mat.

 

[DHTiling]

Thank you all for your responses, has anyone heard of a successful claim to get a floor relaid or compensation, either in court or out??
David Howe Tiling, your comments are exactly where we seem to be at, we are hesitant to try the injection system as the grout lines will be covered in dots as a perfect match would be difficult.

Good luck with your issue and keep us informed how it goes.

 

[Patric]

thanks again guys

Deanotile, if the person that supplied us is no longer trading, does that mean we are stuck with the poor quality matting and crunching?? with no come back on the original supplier