Q: Tiles Coming Off Wall

Dades

Hi folks,

Looking for some advice on my bathroom tiles. In the last month a block of tiles above the bath have started to come away from the wall. The is a noticeable bulge and a gap has developed between the row coming off the wall and the row below (see pics).



My concern is that the whole bathroom is tiled with these tiles and that I don't want to have to start retiling it. Is there a way to re-stick these tiles back in position, and re-grout them? Or do I need to remove all the offending ones and put in new tiles to match the rest of the room?

New to tiling - but not to getting my hands dirty.
THANKS!

Muineach

Well I'm no expert but I've had some experience at tiling (so that's the liability thing done with :P ).

You can start to take the tiles off one by one but what will probably happen is that a lot of the tiles will come off in one go, if you can get them all one by one then you shouldn't need replacement tiles. But you will have to clear away the grout from the back of the tiles and walls, now here's the tricky part depending on how unlucky you, the plaster behind the tiles may have become damp, just tap on the plasterboard and if its sounds hollow (different that the non-damp patch) you may need to get it re-plastered. But you will have to take the grouting on the wall off and get the plaster level again for the tiles to be put back up.
Again don't trust me, I'd get some else advice though, if you selling the house I've heard of a person using superglue to hold the hole thing together and then regrout over it, I wouldn't recommended it .

smashey

This happened me last year and it was water from the shower. It wasn't sealed properly and the water got in behind the tiles.

tradesman

carefully take off the tiles, as said before a lot of them may come in one go! use a scraper or similar. If some of your tiles have adhesive on the back soak them over night and the adhesive falls off! Then clean the wall. make sure it is dry. Is it a plasterboard or sand and cement wall. If plasterboard and the plasterboard is damp it may be better to take out the damp section and put in wbp board. or cement based board. Screw this to the studwork. Tiles must be laid on a solid base. Bythe look of the pics your wall is in a bad way. Is there a shower being used over this bath? Also while you have the bath exposed check that the bath is secure against the wall as any slight movement will disturb the new tiling again. If the bath is moving make a steel hook and slide it under the rim of the bath and then fix the upstand of the hook to the wall.

looksee

Cover the bath before you start tipping at the tiles or you could end up replacing the bath too. (either put a board over the bath or put plenty of padding in it)

Dades

Thanks guys.

Yeah, the house shower is in that bath. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet soon and start finding out what lies behind those dodgy tiles.

The tiles always had a slight bulge but I was using a 'bath seat' across the bath for the last month as I broke my ankle. I think this seat has been putting pressure on the tiles...

Fingers crossed what's behind them isn't too scary.

CHEERS!

John Mason

The Atheist wrote:

Fingers crossed what's behind them isn't too scary.

CHEERS!

good luck, the same thing happening in my house just after i bought it and when i took the tiles down there was a big nest of centipedes living behind the tiles!!!!!!!!! i didnt put padding down in my brand new bath before i took the tiles off and it is marked and scratched so would really really pad the bath out

Muineach

oh yea be careful removing the tiles, theye might not look sharp but the are !

Dades

Jasus sharp tiles and carnivorous centipedes!

*puts job on long finger*