Hollow Tile - able to put pencil all the way through

**s123** · 23-09-2010

Hi
I have a tile which had a 'nic' in the glaze this has now opened up and I am able to put a pencil right through the tile. Any thoughts on why this could be?

I have read a bit about hollow sounding tiles - but this tile appears to actually be hollow.

The tiles were laid less than 12 months ago.

Thanks

**Alan.P** · 23-09-2010

Welcome to TilersForums S123.

I assume your going to replace the tile anyway so it makes life easier. Rake the grout out around the tile in question and remove, the easiest way ( and messiest ) is to break the tile on the wall / floor, give it a knock with a hammer a couple of times, try to keep the 'hole' in a largish piece of tile, sounds like a defective tile but we'll see, lift the pieces out and have a look at the adhesive, has it been towelled onto the wall / floor or is it dot and dabbed.

Is it on a wall or floor, if on a floor and the tiles have been dot and dabbed it's possible that a heel has caused the tile to break, let us know what we're dealing with and we can maybe throw some more light on the subject.

So, wall or floor, tile type and size etc

**s123** · 23-09-2010

Hi
Thanks for this. It is a ceramic floor tile. Rectangle.
We are going to have it lifted in the next couple of weeks and replaced - going to look at the adhesive as you describe.
My main concern is if any of the other tiles have the same problem - we have a few others with the similar starting mark in the glaze.
The tiles we had before were in there for over 15 years and we never had this problem.
The glaze on these tiles seem very soft and shiny.

**Alan.P** · 23-09-2010

Mmmm, do know the make / type of tile you have, if more tiles are showing signs it could be a combination of things, wrong tile, wall tiles on the floor, adhesive has been dot and dabbed etc Does anyone wear stiletto heels ?

**Sir Ramic** · 23-09-2010

A photo of the tiles may help.

doug boardley · 23-09-2010

[QUOTE=Alan.P;417579]Mmmm, do know the make / type of tile you have, if more tiles are showing signs it could be a combination of things, wrong tile, wall tiles on the floor, adhesive has been dot and dabbed etc Does anyone wear stiletto heels ?[/QUOTE]
Only on friday nights after kids have gone to bed

**mikethetile** · 23-09-2010

it does sound like a void in the addy, I have seen holes appear in tiles before

**Dan** · 23-09-2010

Is it definitely a floor tile that's been used and not a glossy wall tile? There isn't really a wear rate for most ceramic wall tiles, so they can't be used on floors.

**enduro** · 23-09-2010

I went to clean a stone floor for a customer last week and she was having to new bathrooms fitted by a local company. The company charges a fortune for their bathrooms....anyway i got talking to the guy doing the tiling and he was asking what else i do, repairs, tiling etc i explained.
What sort of repairs he asked, so i told him about the stone tile i had to repair as it way dot & dabbed so it was hollow and caused a hole to appear and this is a NO NO in tiling...He went very quite and went back upstairs, so i followed him and guess what!! He was dot & dabbing the floor tiles. He said they always do it like this and also on the wall tiles. So many people do this!!!!

**whitebeam** · 23-09-2010

Mmmmmmmmmmmm nice, you could be a busy man enduro

**DJS** · 23-09-2010

I'm gonna come off the fence and agree it's probably dot & dab fixing method that is causing it.

Have you tapped the rest of the tiles to see if they all sound hollow (even the un-damaged one's)?

If they sound hollow, look hollow and are hollow where they have failed, then replacing the lot is the best way to go. Just make sure the next fixer does a proper job.

Good luck.

My ex-boss used to love dot&dabbing. Hence why he is my ex-boss and I work for myself now!! I have to admit I done it myself whilst working with him, even though I knew it was wrong. I discussed it with him - he just said it's quicker so don't put any addy on the walls!! Bloody cowboy!!