Loose kitchen floor tiles

[Mike Roberts]

First time poster. Hello all


We had a leak from our dishwasher, which has since been replaced. The problem is, I suspect that the leak went undetected for quite a while and has affected the surrounding flooring.


Some of the floor tiles near to the dishwasher 'flex' slightly and give off a 'popping' sound when stood on. You can see one or two of them visible move when stood on. I would say there are about five affected tiles in all.


Has the leak affected the subflooring? Could I get away with attempting to take the affected tiles up (without breaking them) and reapply them?


What do you think are the best and worst case scenarios here?


Thanks.

 

[Spud]

Call your insurance company and ask them to get someone round to inspect the damage

 

[Gazzer]

What is the subfloor ?

 

[Mike Roberts]

What is the subfloor ?

Hi Sir Ramic. It's a wood subfloor. I guess that compounds the issue? If subfloor needs to be replaced, could only a section of it be replaced? Other tiles not close to the dishwasher are perfectly fine.

 

[John Benton]

Check your insurance policy. As far as I'm aware all insurance companies now have changed the excess for water damage, whether it be caused by flooding, a leak, washer, central heating etc. to £250 no matter what the circumstances. It will be in the small print where you didn't know they had changed it!!!!

 

[CJ]

Just this evening went to see "an insurance job"
Boiler in the utility room has leaked, and blown an area of tiling. (20 odd years old) also on flooring grade chipboard.

apparantly the insurance has agreed to pay for utility room and kitchen tiling to be replaced. 18m

So it might pay to phone insurance company and check.

 

[Andy Allen]

Is it a floating floor?

 

[Dan]

Insurance aside: have you lifted any tiles? Can you get pictures on the forum for us to take a look at?

 

[Mike Roberts]

Insurance aside: have you lifted any tiles? Can you get pictures on the forum for us to take a look at?

I'm definitely planning on doing just that, Dan. There is a specific tile which really does 'pop' when stood on, so this is the one I'd like to lift.

What are the basics re: lifting a tile? Obviously, I don't want to crack it.

Thanks

 

[Mike Roberts]

Will try and lift it, Dan, so I can see what it's like underneath. I'm a little worried about damaging the tile, though. What is the best method of lifting a tile and not breaking it?! I'm thinking removing the surrounding grout with a multifunction tool, and gently prising it up, assuming it will come up easy as the bond is clearly loosening. Any advances on this? Thanks, by the way!

 

[Mike Roberts]

Can anyone help? I'd like to ascertain the best way to lift a kitchen floor tile without breaking it. Ta muchly!

 

[Dan]

You'd want to use a grout rake (http://www.tradetiler.com/grout-rake.html) or a machine like a fein multimaster (you can hire these from the odd shop) http://www.tradetiler.com/fein-multimaster-tilers-kit-select-voltage.html with the type of head that looks a bit like a grout rake. Take out all the grout around the tile, then hopefully the tile will come up. You might still crack it, usually when replacing a cracked tile it wouldn't matter about the tile, you'd just remove the grout around it so you didn't upset the joining tiles. You'd then smash it and get the bits out using a chisel or pretty much anything that seems to work.

In your case you're hoping it has debonded from the floor, and that the grout is holding it in place. Hence the popping / clicking sound. What you might find is the subfloor is popping and the tile has actually still got a strong bond to that, in which case you could do with then using some tool to cut the sub floor surface in the shape of the tile, so the lot comes up.

Not ideal.

I'm assuming the subfloor is wood..? I can't actually see where you've said?

 

[Mike Roberts]

Yeah, it's wood subfloor. I'll follow your advice and simply see how I get on. I'm worried about cracking the tile as they were laid when we moved in, no spares, and I've no idea where they are from!

My suspicion is that the tile has debonded from the subfloor. On the main problem tile, you can see where one of the corners lifts and raises as you apply weight to it. Anyway, we'll see. If it is a case of the tile has debonded, hopefully I'll be able to prise it up without breakage.

 

[Dan]

I'll be brutally honest here and say that it sounds like the lot is going to have to come up. I'm not sure what you'll achieve by getting one or two up. The rest will eventually have the same issue if the wood has got soaking wet and then dried again, it's a matter of time really.

You could do with investigating and getting a couple of pictures uploaded. But perhaps at the same time, have a scan over your insurance documents and see what the terms are.

 

[CJ]

Sometimes it is a case of bite the bullet and rip up and prep properly....then re do. It's a pain in the backside.......but if not, you could be re fixing odd tiles here and there for an age.