Failure! - Tile Advice

[STEvieXE]

Hey guys, as usual I've got a problem and I'm looking for help! My mum has lived in her house for 12 years and the entrance hall and kitchen floors were tiled by the previous owner. To be honest it wasn't the best tiling job and some tiles sounded a little hollow but had no damage etc.

About two weeks ago 2 rows of tiles accross the kitchen started to swell up. Like rise up! This quickly turned to grout cracking and the tiles lifted more. There are no spare tiles, and it has cut tiles as skirting. I wanted to try and lift the tiles if possible to perhaps relay them to save a bigger job. I have lifted the most of them tonight. Broke a bit of one but mum is happy enough for me to reuse it but under the fixed table.

When I lifted them some of the tiled look like them have never been making contact with the mainly solid bed. The adhesive looks 2 different Colours below the tiles. Some is hard and some is crackly n flakey. I'm not too sure what has happened esp so quickly and after so long of having no problems. I'm esp concerned with the fact its 2 rows in a straight line across the room and the rest of the floor is as before. The screed/adhesive seems dry etc i was worried of maybe a water leak etc can I test for this anyway?

I'll fire up some pics

Thanks for reading and sorry for the essay!

 

[STEvieXE]

 

[STEvieXE]

 

[STEvieXE]

 

[STEvieXE]

 

[Andy Allen]

Looks like water or damp has got under the tiles

 

[STEvieXE]

Can I ask your reasoning?

What are the symptoms of this?

I believe that there's something untoward going on but I have to explain it to my mother!

 

[Andy Allen]

Looks moldy......has she had a leak anywhere ?

 

[STEvieXE]

This is where it gets interesting! Her central heating boiler occasionally needs topped up ( the water in it) there's a guage on the boiler n a line to do it. The plumber told her this isn't normal n there must be an issue but if only a little bit not too worry. I've always been dubious as too where the water is going!

 

[STEvieXE]

The adhesive is dry to the touch. Would this be why there appears to be different COlours of addy, its the same with wet patches?

 

[White Room]

Is the boiler a pressure system...

 

[STEvieXE]

It's a pressurised system yes but gets topped up regularly!

 

[Andy Allen]

The adhesive is dry to the touch. Would this be why there appears to be different COlours of addy, its the same with wet patches?

Could well be.....plus years ago there were some real naff floor adhesive out there that would just disintegrate if they got continually wet.

 

[White Room]

It's a pressurised system yes but gets topped up regularly!

I have the same system and hardly gets any topping up.

 

[LM]

Yeah years ago there was a lot of cr*p adhesive sold over here like Durabond etc that most DIY stores that sold tiles like that would have pushed. That added to practically no grout gap in the tiling has probably contributed heavily to the failure.