Sorry to hear your story. Another example of why it’s so important to have insurance. Legal costs will always outstrip the actual claim value. It gets very expensive very quickly.
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Discuss Ultra thin porcelain tiles de bonding in the Canada Tile Advice area at TilersForums.com.
Get a report by somebody other than TTA. I'd say. They'll just appoint the same tiler for the report and come out with the same results.Ring Judge Rinder......he will back you up no problem.
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Seriously, either your solicitor is thick or you ain't telling us the truth.
Law states you have to be able to rectify the problem (if there is one) and for the sake of £1800 against maybe £50 - 100k ......get your own TTA report done if you are that worried.
Bought on behalf of client Bal PTB for floors & Bal flex fibre plus for walls from Topps Tiles & invoiced customer. Was bulk buying to obtain better prices. At the very end of the job, Topps were no longer doing the multi offer on the Bal adhesives but were doing it on Topps adhesives. As I only needed one bag to complete the final bit of wall tiling but would need more for the future stage of works being the kitchen (which i never ended up doing), it was agreed to buy the Topps adhesive instead in bulk.What incorrect fact are they assuming ,
Walls are meant to be within 3mm.Bought on behalf of client Bal PTB for floors & Bal flex fibre plus for walls from Topps Tiles & invoiced customer. Was bulk buying to obtain better prices. At the very end of the job, Topps were no longer doing the multi offer on the Bal adhesives but were doing it on Topps adhesives. As I only needed one bag to complete the final bit of wall tiling but would need more for the future stage of works being the kitchen (which i never ended up doing), it was agreed to buy the Topps adhesive instead in bulk.
TTA saw the bags of Topps tiles adhesive and just assumed that this was used on all the walls and floors everywhere.
TTA also assumed a solid ground floor shower room floor tiling was tiled onto a solid screed, when, in fact it was levelled with Hardi backer boards.
Client was short of tiles on every room and needed to buy more. However, one room (an en-suite bathroom floor) the client failed to buy more tiles needed, as he was told by his supplier that they did not have any more from the same batch.
As only 1 full tile was needed which would be seen plus various others needed beneath a bath that wouldn't be seen, I was asked to use a discarded cracked tile. The TTA assumes this cracked tile occurred since completion but it obviously didn't and you can see the floor grout within the crack.
TTA report continually mentions that no expansion joints were used but all wall and floor areas were far below 5m
TTA report criticises a wall that was not perfectly level showing a photo using a spirit level but as far as I am aware, there is nothing within the standards that all existing walls must be made perfectly level. Nothing was fixed to this wall other than a towel rail radiator, which had adjustable brackets to ensure that it was perfectly level despite the wall.
I'm in the middle of my thoughts on this one. on one hand, I am sympathetic for the stress you and your wife are going through. The amount they are trying to claim is totally inappropriate and disproportionate in my opinion. And as above, by law, they cannot make any claim against you unless they have given you the opportunity to resolve and you refuse.
But this is a specialised tiling project. Not one I would personally suggest a plumber take on without sufficient training specifically in thin porcelain and the correct knowledge of what preparation is required, no matter how much the customer leaned on you. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and in hindsight, you'd have walked away on the understanding that you yourself knew before you had started, you were not experienced enough to take it on.
Only the wall fixing code of practice (BS5385 Part1) was updated to eliminate ply as a suitable substrate. But for floors, 9mm ply is still not recommended as per BS5385 Part 3:2014 and never has been in past editions as far as I can recall. WPB ply of 15mm minimum thickness, screwed at 300mm intervals, is still allowed for floors although cement board would still be a better option. And for thin tiles, I'd be more comfortable with using 12mm Hardie instead of 6mm, purely for the rigidity required for the type of tile being used.
As above, for Ditra, the minimum tile thickness allowed is 5.5mm (as per Schluter's Ditra25 installation instructions). So in the knowledge that the tiles should have been between 4.8 and 5.5mm, fixing on Ditra was a significant risk. Before fixing, the tiles should have been inspected to ensure they are of suitable dimension/thickness for installation on the intended prep, before possibly going back to the supplier to resolve if the were not fit for the specific installation, or adjust the preparation method to suit (an alternative decoupler for example, or not plywood). If they were only 3.8mm you may have had a case for false advertising or being given incorrect information, but you've fitted them now, you've accepted them for what they are. By law, the supplier or factory is under no obligation to provide a resolution once the product is used, although they may offer assistance with a replacement product as goodwill.
Thin porcelain tiles are quite bendy over the length/width of a tile. I remember an image that someone posted a while back showing how flexible a 1200x600 can be under force. The adhesive is not designed to stretch to that extent, so under point loading, if the floor is not braced sufficiently or under the Ditra compressing, you are at risk of the adhesive shearing around the area of pressure.
If you can get it in writing from BAL or Schluter that the tiles were suitable to lay on Ditra, and 9mm ply, you may have some form of defence, but I fear even they would struggle against the TTA as they are both members, and BAL's head of technical is on the TTA's board of directors.
Although you haven't made it easy for yourself, I do wish you all the best in getting this sorted.
Silicone to edges, although to be fair some grout did get in as well when spreadingI've only read this quickly . But firstly are they suggesting topps adhesive is sub standard if they are im sure as a member of the tta topps would like to hear this .
Did you grout the corners of the room or use a silicone joint .
This whole house had been underpinned the previous year. There was not a single straight and true wall within the entire house built in 1903, looks like I'm screwed!Walls are meant to be within 3mm.
So it says in the British Standards that if you put a 3 meter straight edge on a wall, there should not be a gap bigger than 3mm (I think) over that distance.
I'm assuming that's the photo you are talking about.
It's impossible in a real world to be fair.
Whoever came up with that rule didn't tile a wall in a house for sure.
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