I had a loft extension about 18 months ago. The guys faced the new shower room out in Marine ply for tiling. Now I have found a vertical line of the tiles cracking from the floor to about 5ft up the wall. Probably due to the 8 x 2 floor joists and 4 x 2 studs moving. I Have just painstakingly chiselled them off and I think I have found out why it happened. The is a join between two sheets of ply and the stud timber timbers must have moved in the drying/stabilising process after the build like they do with the plasterborading. Do you think they will move again if I tile back over or is there anything I can do to prevent it. I guess I can always put a few more screws in the ply and try and get some gauze mat over join, then tile back over with flexible adhesive. Or as the crack is about 3rd of way across the tile I could just place adhesive on the largest side and then use a silicone mastic on the other to give some flexibilty, as it will seal and glue. Your views welcome
Tiles Cracking - help
- Thread starter anglingmad
- Start date
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That was the first mistake; ply is a very, very, very outdated approach, what thickness ply did they use? Even marine ply is wood & wood isn’t stable in a damp environment, it’s totally unsuitable for a wet area & they should have used a waterproof tile backer board which, ironically, may even have been cheaper. You need to dump the ply (certainly in the wet areas) & replace it with a decent waterproof tile backer board, 12mm minimum.
Unfortunately loft conversions are notorious for such failures. The size of timbers they used sounds OK but what is the joist span & pitch & distance between the studs, it very much depends on how it’s all tied together. Were there any wet trades in & how long did they wait to tile after they were completed? How did they fix & prepare the tile base? What size/type tiles are they &, more importantly, what make/type adhesive did they use? Product choice can be critical! The rest is open to guess work without a site survey or a lot more info & some photos of the construction under the tiles. If your saying the ply stud has unsupported edges which aren’t reinforced taped then no wonder you’re having problems! If there is any differential movement between walls, the walls & the floor or any discernible flex in the floors, the tiles will only fail again.
Bal adhesives were used and very well bonded they were. I feel confident now the the issue was the boards not being secured close enough centres into the stud as I found movement at the joining of the boards when added screws at 100mm spacing. I will tape these prime it all up and relay the tiles. It is not worth ripping out a virtually new shower room. In the unlikely event it happens again then maybe but certainly not at this point
Fair enough, you’ve convinced yourself you have the solution so go for it. BAL is very good stuff but you didn’t say which type was used or how it was applied. Were the tiles that “well bonded” that you’ve managed to salvage & re-use them! Even high quality products won’t produce miracles & my other questions are all very relevant, I’d be concerned about any movement in the tile base even with insufficient fixings. The chances of it happening again are rather more likely than less & I’ll wager your throwing good money after bad but only time will tell.
Where does the original contractor fit into in all of this, did you not contact them regarding the problems you’re having?
Where does the original contractor fit into in all of this, did you not contact them regarding the problems you’re having?
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Well said karis they did the job get em back to do it properly
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