Bathroom floor tiles lifting

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Stirlingshire
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We had a tiler in November last year to tile the bathroom floor/wall we were renewing.

Quote he gave for the floor was if I layed the ply to the floor for him, saving him the work and me the extra cash.
Ply was screwed to the chipboard floor every 200mm. There is a slight rise at one end of the bathroom floor as one of the joists sits higher that the rest. Guy was happy enough and said he would have to pack out some of the tiles with more adhesive underneath to lift them a bit and would have to charge for another bag or two - fair enough.
(tiles are 600x600)

I've noticed over the past months cracks appear in the grout on the mostly walked on tiles and i'm sure some of the tiles move if you push down on them. The grout is now coming off in chunks along some of the grout lines.
Called to tiler out and he said it may be the floor moving or as the tiles were packed out the grout is falling in the gap so he would come back and make up a wet grout so it would flow into the gaps. assuming he will remove the old grout?

I don't think the tiler used a Bal flexible adhesive or grout first time round, where do I stand if the tiles are lifting?

Many Thanks
Pody
 
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Thats the danger of not letting him do the whole job,now he could claim there's a problem with the sub floor and as he didn't fit it its not his problem.Not what you want to hear I know
 
Give him the oppurtunity to put it right then go from there.
If he was happy to tile on the ply you laid then its down to him IMO.Any decent tiler would check the substrate first and raise any concerns before starting.

If he didnt use a flexi adhesive then the problem will reoccur anyway.
 
Unfortunately, it has all the hall marks of a bad job. I would never fix ply only to the top of an existing floor, I always screw through into the joists; but check for pipes first. If it’s not level in the first place, you’re wasting your time &, personally, I always prefer to remove the old floor & start again, especially if chipboard is involved. How thick is the ply overboard & what type of ply is it?

Personally, I would be unhappy to tile a floor a customer had prepared & guarantee the work; it sounds like a good way to save cash but if it’s not done correctly it gives you little come back. If you prepare the floor & it goes t/u, it may be your fault but if your tiler preps the floor, failure can only ever be his fault. It's a classic example of how saving a bit of cash on the job can end up costing you a whole lot more if things go wrong.

Give him the opportunity to put it right by all means but if it’s cracking up as you say, I doubt it can be permanently rectified without ripping it all up starting again. Chances are it will always crack & if trade quality flexi adhesive & grout products haven’t been used, he’s wasting both his & your time.
 
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Thanks for the replys guys

Ply was 9mm Marine only screwed into chipboard as no note of pipes.

The tiler was happy to tile on the uneven floor, if he had raised concerns then I would have looked into floor replacement with 25mm ply.

I hear on here that tilers should always use a decent flexible adhesive/grout on floating floors for its extra give? Just wondering if I can give him grief for not using flexible stuff.

If the worst comes to the worst and I have to remove the tiles and start again what do i do? I cant remove the current floor as new bath, showertray and boxed in pipes behind toilet are all tiled in on the walls. I dont think I can go thicker on the ply as the step out of the bathroom is huge and it was a nightmare finding a threshold strip to fit.
Would smaller tiles on the floor act any different? Can you get a leveling compount that you can put on wood/chipboard?

Thanks
 
sounds like not flexi adh, call him back, give him chance to do it at his cost or get a refund then either do it yourself or get someone else in.
 
Ply was 9mm Marine only screwed into chipboard as no note of pipes.
9mm is a bit marginal; 12mm is really the minimum thickness you should use but youu don’t need marine ply, WBP is good enough.

The tiler was happy to tile on the uneven floor, if he had raised concerns then I would have looked into floor replacement with 25mm ply.
Rather depends how uneven it was; can’t really comment without having seen it but there are good tillers whose work will easily last 10 years & up to 20 years or even more; & then there are the rest! A quality job doesn’t really come cheap in terms of labour & particularly the materials being used.

I hear on here that tilers should always use a decent flexible adhesive/grout on floating floors for its extra give? Just wondering if I can give him grief for not using flexible stuff.
If he hasn’t used a decent flexible then he’s definitely one of the rest & deserves all the grief you can give him.

Pulling up the tiles & replacing them using a quality flexible cement based adhesive may cure the problem but then again it may not. As I said, over boarding with 9mm is marginal IMO & if the floor has too much flex, it will still crack unless you use one of the very expensive two part, epoxy based adhesives but even that may not work!

I will only use these products; http://www.bal-adhesives.co.uk/products
Have a read of the various fact sheets; there is some useful info in there.

If the worst comes to the worst and I have to remove the tiles and start again what do i do? I cant remove the current floor as new bath, showertray and boxed in pipes behind toilet are all tiled in on the walls. I dont think I can go thicker on the ply as the step out of the bathroom is huge and it was a nightmare finding a threshold strip to fit.
The height difference at the threshold is the main reason I will always take the old floor up given the choice. Usually well fixed 18mm WBP is sufficient which leaves the threshold at the same height but 25mm is sometimes necessary if the joist span/size means the floor flexes unduly. The loo should come out fairly easily & sometimes it’s possible to remove & replace the floor around the bath & shower if stout noggins are used between the joists to support the edge; difficult to say without seeing it but, in the end, the best option may be replacing the floor & anything else that suffers grief in the process.

Would smaller tiles on the floor act any different? Can you get a leveling compount that you can put on wood/chipboard?
Not really; if the floor is flexing, you can try a two part, epoxy based adhesive but, as I said, you may just be throwing good money after bad as that may not work either.
 
Thanks Ricahrd, will wait to see what he says when he comes back.

Been pricing up fitting a new bathroom suite/tiles in the downstairs bathroom, thinking of doing it myself now!
 

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