Oh bugger, tiles lifting.

[joe90]

Well I am not a happy bunny, my kitchen diner was tiled a few months ago, porcelain tiles on screed and I followed all the advise on here but since the kitchen, skirting etc has been fitted a few tiles sound hollow and I believe they have come unstuck. Because I don’t want to rip out skirting and kitchen I intend to try to take up the loose ones and re fix. My question is what is the best way to remove the grout, I think if if try lifting tiles without they will drag other tiles with them. 

[Ferdinand]

25 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Well I am not a happy bunny, my kitchen diner was tiled a few months ago, porcelain tiles on screed and I followed all the advise on here but since the kitchen, skirting etc has been fitted a few tiles sound hollow and I believe they have come unstuck. Because I don’t want to rip out skirting and kitchen I intend to try to take up the loose ones and re fix. My question is what is the best way to remove the grout, I think if if try lifting tiles without they will drag other tiles with them. 

 

What is your situation on spares?

 

My tiler said chip out the tile starting at the centre to avoid damaging adjacents when replacing tiles.

 

But I am sure someone will have done it.

 

This chap suggests a Multitool with the diamond faced blade, but that is in "I may be gone sometime" territory.

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Onoff]

I've used the multitool diamond blade to run down the grout lines and then the chisel blade to take of the excess on the tile back / wall floor.

[Onoff]

Just hoping I don't have to do it where I forgot to back butter the tiles on the floor of the wet room corner! 

[Mr Punter]

If it just sounds hollow, it may be fully adhered over much of the tile, so I would either leave it (preferred option) or break it into pieces with a sharp blow in the centre.  What adhesive did you use and do you have UFH?

[Stones]

@joe90

 

Might be worth trying this:

 

https://www.fixafloor.co.uk/

 

we used it for a few of our oak flooring (bonded to slab) which hadn't adhered during install, and its worked a treat.  

 

[joe90]

Thanks Stones, never seen that before, see it’s good to ask, you never know what’s out there ?

[joe90]

56 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

If it just sounds hollow, it may be fully adhered over much of the tile, so I would either leave it (preferred option) or break it into pieces with a sharp blow in the centre.  What adhesive did you use and do you have UFH?

 

Its driving me nuts cause I know they are loose (other floor with different tiles is fine), used flexible adhesive with three coats of primer, yes we do have UFH but it’s not been switched on yet (on my extensive to do list)

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, joe90 said:

 

Its driving me nuts cause I know they are loose (other floor with different tiles is fine), used flexible adhesive with three coats of primer, yes we do have UFH but it’s not been switched on yet (on my extensive to do list)

Do all the tiles sound the same ? Eg ones a thud and another a clack ?

[nod]

Get a a 1 mil grinder disc Nip the joints out make a hole Get a chisel under The tile should come out quite easy Chip away at the adhesive tgats left As long as the grout isn’t touching the good tiles 

you’ll be ok

[joe90]

14 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Do all the tiles sound the same ? Eg ones a thud and another a clack ?

 

Some sound “solid” but some sound hollow, especially if you drop something on them, fork when washing up for example. I am just worried that if I start digging them up then tiles under the kitchen units or skirting will come up with them which will be impossible to sort without trashing my new kitchen.

Edited September 15, 2018 by joe90

[Nickfromwales]

22 minutes ago, joe90 said:

 

Some sound “solid” but some sound hollow, especially if you drop something on them, fork when washing up for example. I am just worried that if I start digging them up then tiles under the kitchen units or skirting will come up with them which will be impossible to sort without trashing my new kitchen.

Just can’t fathom out why they’d be popping. ?

Can you get a deffo hollow one up from somewhere at least slightly inconspicuous? Be interesting to see if the adhesive has stuck to the tiles and lifted from the floor / vice versa. 

[dpmiller]

what sort of screed, and other than the primer how was it prepared?

[joe90]

Flow screed, new type that did not produce scum on the top but I did scrape it In case and used three coats of primer as directed by Nick. I will lift one and report back ?

[CC45]

Good luck with that @joe90 - know the sound but I left ours there since they weren't causing any probs.

 

 

[nod]

3 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Just can’t fathom out why they’d be popping. ?

Can you get a deffo hollow one up from somewhere at least slightly inconspicuous? Be interesting to see if the adhesive has stuck to the tiles and lifted from the floor / vice versa. 

If you back buttered the tiles 

There is not much more that you could have done 

Don’t beat yourself up over it 

Because a few have lifted it doesn’t mean the rest will 

Not a big job to lift a few and reset them 

[Nickfromwales]

35 minutes ago, nod said:

If you back buttered the tiles 

There is not much more that you could have done 

Don’t beat yourself up over it 

Because a few have lifted it doesn’t mean the rest will 

Not a big job to lift a few and reset them 

Primered to death too though. ! Weird. 

[joe90]

2 hours ago, CC45 said:

Good luck with that @joe90 - know the sound but I left ours there since they weren't causing any probs.

 

 

 

Thanks, they aren’t causing a problem apart from annoying me and the missus. I might not do anything with it yet as we are 90% finished but feel like 90% still to go! (Like Jeremy said ?).

[Triassic]

We had a large format tile that sounded hollow in a previous house. The agreed course of action with the tiler was to drill a number of small holes through the grout around the problem tile and to inject a resin adhesive around and hopefully under the tile. It appeared to work as the hollowness was greatly reduced.

[CC45]

That resin idea sounds worth a bash.  Expensive?

[Ferdinand]

7 hours ago, joe90 said:

 

Thanks, they aren’t causing a problem apart from annoying me and the missus. I might not do anything with it yet as we are 90% finished but feel like 90% still to go! (Like Jeremy said ?).

 

Aha. The second law of programming. 

 

"The Last n% of a program takes (100-n)% of the time to complete".

 

I have a Plan F for you. Prevent all the echoes thusly, and save the repair time:

 

 

At this point I think I need to run and hide.

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Ferdinand

[nod]

12 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Primered to death too though. ! Weird. 

I don’t know about you Nick 

But once over we used to mix the grout like cream poor it on the floor and spread it out with a spatula To allow the grout to flow under the tiles Then we would scatter wood shavings to soak up the excess and polish the tiles to near perfect 

That was my job for six months when I first left school No chance of any hollow spots

Now we mix the grout like paste and just fill the edges 

Perhaps that why old tiles are such a nightmare to remove 

 

[Nickfromwales]

I mix it a bit thicker than double cream and ram it into the edges and intersections by pressing down hard on the grout float. I do that until I see it pushing back up out of the adjacent grout lines so I know there’s not really any more grout that will ‘go’ under / in. Gets  a sweat on, but worth the effort imo.

I routinely dab each corner of the tile with a tablespoon sized blob of adhesive and let that ooze into the intersections and then sponge the excess back before putting the spacers in. I never put the spacers in so they stay btw, just one of the 4 legs in at about 50mm in from each corner so I can pull them out and discard later.

 

[daiking]

On 15/09/2018 at 22:26, Triassic said:

We had a large format tile that sounded hollow in a previous house. The agreed course of action with the tiler was to drill a number of small holes through the grout around the problem tile and to inject a resin adhesive around and hopefully under the tile. It appeared to work as the hollowness was greatly reduced.

 

What product was this?

[Triassic]

Google is your friend here, search for resin inject hollow tiles.