Hi everyone.
18 months ago our building work was complete and the kitchen floor (approx 10m x 5m) tiled in some very expensive Travertine. 12 months ago, cracks appeared running across the floor (across multiple tiles) parallel to the run of the joists and coinciding directly with the edges of the floor boards (8ft by 4ft marine ply boards on the joists, screwed down every 6 inches or so).
The builder blames the tiler, the tiler blames the builder. Neither claims to have seen such a thing before.
Anyone any ideas on what to do? Can you recommend an independent assessor in SE London/Kent who can give an opinion and help resolve the dispute?
Thanks in advance,

Hi Graham.

This will be expansion stress cracking.. if you contact the TTA, then they can come and access the job and do a full report.

http://www.tiles.org.uk/

what size thickness was the ply and did they run it with or across the floor boards.

I take it no decoupling was used then

this sort of thing is coming up a lot now it needs some thing doing IMO if an uncoupling mat had been used or a tile backer board instead of tiling directly on to the wood this problem would not be happening so a message to tilers everywhere
DO NOT TILE DIRECTLY ON TO WOOD!!!

Originally Posted by deanotile;436196
[COLOR="#ff0000"

DO NOT TILE DIRECTLY ON TO WOOD!!! [/COLOR]

My thoughts entirely Deano. Its about time wood was done away with in the tiling trade. Its expensive, prone to warping and rotting and there are better products out there.

its all very well screwing down ply to the joists but if your taking out the existing floorboards you need to use minimum 25mm ply

also you need noggins to brace the joists

the advice being given here is getting confusing for the less experianced, nmp will not take the flex or bounce out of a floor no matter what the makers claim. it is not a substitute for overboarding with ply

no more ply is an ideal surface to tile to but the floor needs to be deflection free first

in this case it is likely they used 12mm marine ply

marine ply is not suitable for overboarding due to the resins used to extreme waterproof it, water boil proof or wbp should be used

once your floor is deflection free overboard with hb or nmp , do not rely on either product to defeat deflection in the sub floor, its not what they are designed for

theres an oppurtumity for someone with the time and money to market it to make serious money

a ply overboard with a nmp like surface bonded to it that can be screwed directly to the floor

wood is as unsuitable as PVA and in my humble opinion should be teated with the same contempt.

Originally Posted by Graham Martin

Hi everyone.
18 months ago our building work was complete and the kitchen floor (approx 10m x 5m) tiled in some very expensive Travertine. 12 months ago, cracks appeared running across the floor (across multiple tiles) parallel to the run of the joists and coinciding directly with the edges of the floor boards (8ft by 4ft marine ply boards on the joists, screwed down every 6 inches or so).
The builder blames the tiler, the tiler blames the builder. Neither claims to have seen such a thing before.
Anyone any ideas on what to do? Can you recommend an independent assessor in SE London/Kent who can give an opinion and help resolve the dispute?
Thanks in advance,

was the tiler working for the builder or was he working for you?

Originally Posted by deanotile

wood is as unsuitable as PVA and in my humble opinion should be teated with the same contempt.

im intrigued by your statement Deano

whats it based on

how do you defeat deflection in a suspended wood floor

the only statement i have made is that wood is not a suitable surface to tile directly to. it is based on 25 years in the tiling industry

it would be nice to never have to tile on wood again, but i don't think it will happen. i just ditra everything these days.

Originally Posted by borgie

it would be nice to never have to tile on wood again, but i don't think it will happen. i just ditra everything these days.

that is all it takes m8 if you separate the tile from the wood you eliminate most of the problems that we are hearing about.