Tiles "tenting"

sydthebeat · 18-02-2019 4:30pm #1

i did a search and couldnt find a suitable thread so ive created this one.

Has anyone experienced tiles what-is-tile-tenting.html

This happened last week in my kitchen, on tiles that were laid 15 years ago.
Ive had a plumber out to see if it could have been caused by a leak in the floor, and he assures me theres none.

so im wondering if anyone could throw out some ideas as to why this happened.

We heard an almighty pop/crash sound at about 12:30 am one night last week and i came down to find 2 rows of tiles (about 12 in total) had popped up into a "tent" position. I was worried that the kids could cut themselves off them, so i removed them first thing the following morning.

im wondering if it could simply have been a case of cheap ceramic tiles been worn down over that time period, and with numerous washes etc the tile took on moisture and expanded until they ultimately popped off the floor??

pwurple · 18-02-2019 4:41pm

Loads of reasons I would say.... we had this in an old house before, the tiles were simply old, and as the house cooled and heated during renovations they popped up.

Any change to the environment could do it... floor moving for any reason like settling or subsidence, heating, cooling.
Could be a fault with the tiles themselves, in how they were manufactured
Could be that expansion joints were not done properly if it's a large area
Not enough adhesive... wrong adhesive for the floor. Wrong bonding material for a wet area, adhesive could have broken down over time.

sydthebeat · 18-02-2019 4:48pm

thanks..... yeah at the moment im just putting it down to age and degradation. i just dont want to get new ones down without ticking all the boxes of external impacts.

heres a pic of the result

interestingly those "wet" patches havent disappeared at all.... and we're nearly a week after the incident.

Looking at it now with a different perspective the tiles probably arent spaced apart enough initially.... and to be fair they weren't expensive ones to begin with.

ldy4mxonucwsq6 · 18-02-2019 4:51pm

Number of things can cause tenting. Expansion, shrinkage, moisture, temperature changes, poorly bonded or degraded over time.

Any large trees in the area? Have you checked internal and external walls for any changes?

sydthebeat · 18-02-2019 5:07pm

no large trees, but there has been some work done to the external wall of the kitchen , where paths were removed as they were subsiding an pulling down the foul waste pipes to the point of no fall for drainage. the concrete paths were replaced with gravel.... this occured about 5 years ago maybe.

i work in architecture so i understand the damp proofing detail around the floors, and theoretically there should be no way external moisture getting into the floor from under the plinth levels..... though these arent the best built houses so no guarantee.

temp changes should be fine.... the house is pretty much always inhabited and the heating times are well regulated.

i expect it is expansion due to moisture, its just a question of where the moisture came from.

ldy4mxonucwsq6 · 18-02-2019 5:56pm

sydthebeat wrote: »

no large trees, but there has been some work done to the external wall of the kitchen , where paths were removed as they were subsiding an pulling down the foul waste pipes to the point of no fall for drainage. the concrete paths were replaced with gravel.... this occured about 5 years ago maybe.

i work in architecture so i understand the damp proofing detail around the floors, and theoretically there should be no way external moisture getting into the floor from under the plinth levels..... though these arent the best built houses so no guarantee.

temp changes should be fine.... the house is pretty much always inhabited and the heating times are well regulated.

i expect it is expansion due to moisture, its just a question of where the moisture came from.

Yeah I was going to suggest that maybe the slab dpc had been compromised and moisture is seeping in, something got to be keeping those wet patches wet. When path was replaced with gravel were existing drainage areas moved or blocked?

sydthebeat · 18-02-2019 6:08pm

Rudy Mammoth Dice wrote: »

Yeah I was going to suggest that maybe the slab dpc had been compromised and moisture is seeping in, something got to be keeping those wet patches wet. When path was replaced with gravel were existing drainage areas moved or blocked?

no, if anything drainage (storm) increaased due to the removal of the impermebale concrete and the use of permeable gravel. I dont have a worry about that as there is an open land drain to the rear of the property which never shows a high water table...

BryanF · 18-02-2019 9:30pm

Syd
Have you traced the rads/hw/cw

sydthebeat · 18-02-2019 10:50pm

BryanF wrote: »

Syd
Have you traced the rads/hw/cw

Yeah Bryan, I've had a plumber run through the system and there's nothing he thinks is significant. I've checked nearby rads for leaking valves and nothing.

Bonzo Delaney · 22-02-2019 8:09pm

Any joy in finding the problem is the slab under the adhesive damp

30-03-2019 5:26pm

sydthebeat wrote: »

interestingly those "wet" patches havent disappeared at all.... and we're nearly a week after the incident.

Are they actually wet though?

I've seen similar looking wet patches, that weren't at all wet, they just looked that way and the whole floor was patchy with them from the glues used to hold down the initial floor (which were, in that case, thin plastic slate-like tiles, that were presumably meant to be covered over).

Tiles "tenting"

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