What the heck has happened to my tiles?!

[stumperchov]

I assume the moisture is causing the adhesive to expand forcing the tile and itself away from the wall?

The majority of the wall is fine, so using another substance other than adhesive to pack out the wall e.g plaster, allowing that to set then re plastering may be a solution?

 

[Gazzer]

Just read your other post and i feel that the problem will be that you dont have a Silicon joint in the corner of the wall.

 

[stumperchov]

Re: Hello from WGC

would this not cause the grout to crack and the corner tiles to crack first?

 

[doug boardley]

Re: Hello from WGC

not necessarily, it all depends where the stress builds up

 

[doug boardley]

Can we merge these threads Neale?

 

[stumperchov]

Re: Hello from WGC

I will need to check this ie double check grout not Silicon on edges.
... we are pretty sure ie me, plumber and tiler there has been no recent movement but there must have been some in the past to mean we have had to pack out as much as we have.

It just bugs me that this is the area where the most tile adhesive has been used to ensure a level finish - just coincidence?

 

[stumperchov]

Re: Hello from WGC

Ok, can confirm that Silicon has been used around the edges not grout...

Could it have anything to do with how much adhesive that has been used to pack out the space... thinking it could have been mixed differently or simply expanded after application?

If mositure is the cause, how would this get into the substrate?

 

[White Room]

at the end of July I paid for my bathroom to be fully tiled - it was worth doing as I must say it makes the whole bathroom experience that much more pleasurable.

however, having a shower one morning I got the huff cause I thought the mrs hadn't been doing the cleaning properly as i thought i could see cobwebs on the opposite wall.

on closer inspection it wasn't cobwebs at all, instead 7 tiles (next to each other) had cracked - some with only one crack but 3 or 4 had completely bowed and shattered!

Obviously I got the tiler back in for him to detect the problem but unfortunately having removed the 7 tiles he is none the wiser! There are was no blasts in the wall or anything.

There are a few things to consider:

1) Out of the four walls tiled this was the only one not reskimmed.
2) The wall slopes away at the top, meaning more flexible tile adhesive was used and even an extra tile in the corner (not on one of the cracked tiles) was used to pack out the space.
3) On the removal of the tiles the adhesive came away from the wall rather than the tile away from the adhesive.
4) The wall plaster is pretty old ie the bits of it that did come away were powdery and mixed with hair.

The tiler, who I have to say did an excellent looking job, is baffled as to what has happened.

Can anyone offer any advice - I am worried if we just retile the same thing will just reoccur in a feww months.

thanks

tom

This is lime mortor on wooden laths, the reason this type of plastering has lasted so long because it can flex and when not be resticted on movement.

Just my pennys worth but I never tile onto this surface, it was never designed for the purpose, only for lime washes or paint in later years.

 

[DHTiling]

If yo have tiles cracking then it is either movement of the substrate and if no cracks there then you have surface tension and this will be perimeter expansion problems..

 

[tfs]

Adhesive are limmited in terms of bed thickness and building up. It may be that the adhesive was applied in one go at a thick bed/depth.

also as whitebeam mentioned with lathes and other timbers etc there can be movement. I beleive that it is possible that there may have been moiture movement or thermal movement in the timber. Grout and adhesive will not stop some water/moisture going through to the substrate as the grout etc is normally cement based unlless using an epoxy grout ofcourse, this is why some people choose to use tanking kits to protect the substrate and reduce or elliminate expansion due to wetness and moisture being absorbed through grout.