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Tiling

Cracks in the surface of ceramic tiles - and spreading like wild fire!

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 2.41 PM

Hi there, We had a bathroom fitted less than 6 months ago. We had a basic white tile fitted above the bath, but have notice that cracks have started to appear in the surface of the tile - and they are spreading rapidly. There's also a gap appearing in the grout. The company who did the work, blame the tile, suggesting that 'it is not suitable. 'The adhesive is flexible and therefore shouldn't be the issue.' This issue wasn't raised at all before the work was carried out. The company manager had suggested we buy more, more expensive tiles and he will tile the wall again. However, I am suscpious. The wall is adjacent to the stairwell of the flats, and has a large variation in temperature. Previously the section that has been tiled was wallpapered and the paster that was there originally was tiled on top of. Should this wall have been treated before the surface was tiled? Or could there be too much adhesive behind the tile causing it to crack? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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2 Answers

Anonymous user

Sounds to me like there's movement in the wall. I would of probably dry lined that wall before tiling it, especially considering it had wall paper on top of plaster. Not ideal for tiles really, however I've seen worse that's been fine. If your around the Hampshire area we can have a look for you to give another opinion.

Answered14 July 2016

Anonymous user

First of all the tile company should know if the tile is suited before they started the work, Second,if there is cracking of the tile and there is gaps in the grout it means there is some sort of movement or they did not fix them properly. They should of cleaned all the paste from the plaster and then applied a primer coat. You say they was a cheap tile ,what size was the tiles as if they were bigger than 300mm they might have used the wrong adhesive,it really boils down to (in my opinion) to fixers error,eg,lack of prep and if the wall was suspect they should not of tiled it.

Answered16 July 2016