Help!: What has caused my cracked tiles

[Cullis01]

Just had a new bathroom fitted. Shower area is tanked with a Novellini wetroom kit and tilesafe. 3/4 of the rest of the bathroom walls are tiled with 450mm x 225mm Love Cermaic Tiles Travertino Bianco colour and fixed with Topps Tiles standard flexible self mix adhesive. Walls are of mixed construction, either plasterboard, plaster board with 6mm hardybackerboard, or plastered brick construction.

The problem now is that probably one third of the 160 tiles have cracked. Not just a single crack but many have several cracks all over the tiles. The majority of cracked tiles are in the shower area, but there are also cracked tiles on other walls away from the wet areas.

Have been in touch with the tile merchants who called in the suppliers. They sent a report saying there has been no other problems reported with the 10,000 tiles they have sold from this range. They say it is probably movement in the walls. There is no physical evidence of movement anywhere in the bathroom, and it would have to be occuring in all the walls affected, which are 5 different areas. The tilers say they have never seen anything like it. If it were movement they would expect to see a different type of cracking along the line of stress, and cracking in the grout - which is not evident.

Anybody have any ideas ? I'm at a loss as where to turn next. Obviously we have spent a lot of money on this bathroom and everybody is saying it's not their problem.


What should I do ?


thanks


Steve

[Sir Ramic]

Ready mixed adhesive over tanking ??? Not a method I would use. IMO it should have been a Single part flexible cement based adhesive.
Any movement joints in the corners ??

[Sir Ramic]

Photos would help too

[Cullis01]

Hi Sir,

Thanks for your reply. The tiler tells me it was self mix flexible adhesive not ready mix. There is no evidence of any movement in the corners or anywhere else in the room. The cracks are not very obvious in the tiles, you have to get up very close to see them or use the reflection from the lights. Some of the tiles have up to 10 cracks running across them where others just a single crack. They do not follow a pattern from tile to tile they just appear very random. Have tried taking photos but because they are not easily visible to the eye they do not come out in the photos either.

thanks

Steve

[jay]

are the cracks traveling all the way across the tile or just starting then stopping at random lengths and was the substrate (walls) jointed and taped .maybe pics under flash might show up better

[Ajax123]

Based on your description forgive me for what may seem a daft question but are you certain they are actually cracks. I wonder if some staining may have come through the natural fissures in the tiles and highlights them but they are not actually cracks. How deep into the tile do the cracks extend. It may be worth removing oneluike to see if it shows as cracks all the way through the tiles.

The other thing that springs to mind is possible thermal or natural drying shrinkage in the substrate.

[suave]

you say they are not easily visible,is it not possible they were missed whilst getting installed? just a thought.

[Sir Ramic]

Not "Crazing" in the tile is it ?

What I meant by movement joint was, there should be movement joint left i the internal corners just in case of movement...so are the internal corners filled with silicone or grout ?

[timeless john]

Is it a high glazed tile? - sounds like Sir has it in 'crazing' .

[Dave]

Yep, sounds like glaze crazing. Pics will clarify that.


Sent from my iPhone

[The hammer]

I'm with Sir, Timeless & Dave on this defo sounds like "crazing"

[Phil Hobson]

As above, sounds like crazing to me some highly glazed tiles are prone to this. It could be the tiles have absorbed moisture from the adhesive causing the biscuit to expand slightly. This was one of the reasons sand and cement fixing was stopped. Most tile manufacturers cover themselves by stating that crazing is an inherent feature of ceramic tiles. Sorry this does not help you, but as said pics would help.

[Marble Life Ltd]

It could also have come from a fault in the tiles themselves during the firing process

Kev

[Dave]

It could also have come from a fault in the tiles themselves during the firing process

Kev

Interesting, in what way..all info is good.

[Dave Ramsden]

This didnt show up in the search but I just posted a similar question tonight. The info Ive found here will be very helpful and Ill be watching other posts too.

Do we think that an extra glaze layer or thicker glaze would solve this problem in future?

[Marble Life Ltd]

Interesting, in what way..all info is good.

Dave

Numerous reasons:

Fault in the Biscuit
Firing Time
Firing Temperature
Glaze Thickness
How they are treated after firing
Way They are packed

How many times have you had tiles especially 150mm square whites and been able to almost see the biscuit from the glazed side???

Ultimately like everything else you get what you pay for

Kev
Marble Life Ltd

[Dave]

Dave

Numerous reasons:

Fault in the Biscuit
Firing Time
Firing Temperature
Glaze Thickness
How they are treated after firing
Way They are packed

How many times have you had tiles especially 150mm square whites and been able to almost see the biscuit from the glazed side???

Ultimately like everything else you get what you pay for

Kev
Marble Life Ltd

Too may to mention.. lol..

my thoughts would be that if it was at manufacture time then faults are normally apparent when fixing.. but this seems to have happened afterwards..?..

pics.. we want pics..