Mosaic floor tiles in wet room lifting

Lex Luthor

Happy new year...!!!

After a shower this morning I noticed the floor tiles "floating" under my feet

Got out and noticed that there was small areas of grout missing and the tiles are lifting....looks like water must have penetrated underneath and is starting to lift them

Did a bit of googling and seems to be somewhat of a common issue with wet rooms. I'm guessing it needs a tiler back in to get the floor done again, its not even down 2 yrs, so was it just bad workmanship incorrect adhesive, incorrect grout or something that is common and will continue to happen?

Thanks

K.Flyer

It could be a number of things.
If base underneath is wooden and there is ANY movement whatsoever in the floor, then mosaic tiles will eventually start to come away.
Otherwise it is bad tiling, and poor quality grout and tile adhesive.
Take a look at swimming pools, usually mosaic, submerged in water and staying in place.

Lex Luthor

Its only on one particular part of the shower floor. The floor boards were removed and in the area of the shower, a rigid former was put down
Its in the centre of this that the tiles are lifting, I can see parts of the grout gone aswell

the edge tiles in the shower wet area are still down. Also in the rest of the bathroom where the mosaics are down on top of marine ply they are still stuck firm

My guess is just a bad grout job that lead to water getting in underneath

Would it be much of a job to get it repaired? New tiles or can we use the existing mosaics?

K.Flyer

Should be no issues using the old mosaics as long as they are not damaged.
Just leave them to soak in a bucket of water for a few days, scrape them clean and re-use them.

Dtp1979

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Its only on one particular part of the shower floor. The floor boards were removed and in the area of the shower, a rigid former was put down
Its in the centre of this that the tiles are lifting, I can see parts of the grout gone aswell

the edge tiles in the shower wet area are still down. Also in the rest of the bathroom where the mosaics are down on top of marine ply they are still stuck firm

My guess is just a bad grout job that lead to water getting in underneath

Would it be much of a job to get it repaired? New tiles or can we use the existing mosaics?

If they're getting loose close to the waste then it's probably down to the plumber no securing it properly.

Lex Luthor

Dtp1979 wrote: »

If they're getting loose close to the waste then it's probably down to the plumber no securing it properly.

this is what I noticed, a while back some of the grout came away from around the waste drain area, didn't think much of it as it wasn't a lot but now water seems to have gotten in under the surrounding tiles and looks like it caused the issue of them lifting

Looking around the main floor of the rest of the bathroom, I can see small gaps appearing in between some of the other mosaics, so I'm thinking that the grout used and possibly adhesive was not up to the job

Some_randomer

Hi @Lex did you ever get this sorted? I'm having the same issue - mosaic tiles on a wet room floor coming off around the drain.

Some people recommended putting in a low profile tray instead of new tiles, so just wondering what you ended up doing.

Lex Luthor

Some_randomer wrote: »

Hi @Lex did you ever get this sorted? I'm having the same issue - mosaic tiles on a wet room floor coming off around the drain.

Some people recommended putting in a low profile tray instead of new tiles, so just wondering what you ended up doing.

Hi, ya this is what I did
I got the tiles refitted after they lifted the first time, but it wasn't long before they were loose again
Swapped everything out for a low profile tray
Best thing I ever did and not sure why I didn't think of it in the first place

Some_randomer

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Hi, ya this is what I did
I got the tiles refitted after they lifted the first time, but it wasn't long before they were loose again
Swapped everything out for a low profile tray
Best thing I ever did and not sure why I didn't think of it in the first place

Great thanks for the quick reply - I'm veering this way as well. Was there anything special you needed to do for the tray, like put in wood underneath, or did you just silicone it in place?

Lex Luthor

A sheet of marine ply went underneath
Because the drain for the new tray was in a different place to the drain already put in, a bit of relocating plumbing work needed to be done
The trays are heavy aswell, not to be underestimated
It went in and then silconed in place