Tiles down less than a year and now cracking :(

We had a new kitchen installed last year and completely replaced the plywood floor at the time. Other half was mad on Porcelain tiles so after spending a small fortune the carpenter and tiler laid 3/4 inch marine ply on the new floor prior to installing the kitchen.

I have no idea what adhesive and grout were used but I got the lot from a very reuptable company myself.

After 3 months some of the tiles cracked and the builders came back and replaced them (although I had to purchase the tiles myself which cost about €300).

They assured me that the marine ply was adequately nailed down (not sure if they used those screw type nails or at what intervals they nailed down) ..... they also reinfoced the sub floor with blocks underneath before replacing the broken tiles).

I was concerned that this would just transfer the stress/strain on the flooring to somewhere else but I got pretty much laughed out of it.

..... nightmare scenario as there are now more tiles cracking in a different place and the grout is also coming out between most of the tiles.

The tiles were crema marfil (See below) so there are pretty top end of the range

[broken link removed]

Since the builders appear to have messed it up the first time and despite giving them the opportunity to put it right what are my options now ?

Really never want to set eyes on these guys again or at least never want then near my house.

Any suggestions would be helpful since any costs associated with putting this right will end up coming out of my window budget for this year

Can you let me know what you mean by centres ...... when it comes to my building skills I can swallow a brick and thats about all

Tks

I presume alser might mean either how wide the individual joists are or how far apart they are?

Just checked under the floorboards in the living room which is beside the kitchen.

Joists are 14 inches apart from centre of one joist to centre of the next and they measure 13 inches from the edge of the joist to the nearest edge of the next one.


Remember this guy replaced the original floor so I would have expected him to have a Eureka moment and check the gap wasnt too wide while he had the original kitchen out and the original flooring up before replacing the floor in the first place.


Still looking for advice on what I should do next or where I should go to find out.

Its got to be one of two things...

1. the joists are to far apart and the plywood is concaving everytime you step on a part of the between the joists.. or

2. The wrong joists are under the floor. ie if your room is quite wide and long then you need a thicker joist to bear the weight of everythong sitting on them. for example. if you joists are more than 5 or 6 meters long then you need thicker ones but if the joists are only 4 or less you can use thiner ones.

If the right joists were put in then there would be no need to support them from underneath.

I just know this from installing decking for the last number of years. It's the same principle.

Just another quick note..

When walking on the floor, have a look to see if the whole floor is bouncy or just the bit your 'walking' on. If the whole floor is bouncy then you might need to have the joists supported as they could be to thin to hold the weight. You could have 4 or 6 inch joists when you could need 8 inch joists to support the weight better.

I seriously hope you meant "walking on" :O !!!!

I am not sure how long the joists are as they would span two rooms I think; however the kitchen where the tiles are cracking is probably only about 30-40 feet long by 15 feet wide with the joists going along the 15 foot span as opposed to lengthways.

Just wish I had a more definitive view of whether he messed it up or not and if so should I seek legal recourse or just grin and bear it so I can avoid the grief and hassle of the four goldmines

The only thing I can suggest is that you get a structural engineer out to look at it. If he says that the floors are all wrong then you have every right to either get all you money back or have the builder fix the problem.; If it was me, I would not want the builder back as I would not want to face him again. So sue him silly instead. He has caused you a years hearthache plus the cost to get the floor fixed. With an engineers report saying its faulty you have no chance of loosing.

Hi
I cant find if you said what size tiles you used? The larger sizes (esp of natural stone like crema marfil) are not suitable for laying on a suspended floor - they need a solid concrete base.

The tiles measure 60cm * 60cm.

Vendor indicated that these were suitable without having a concrete floor.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Hopefully I can find out where the problem is ... vendor or builder.

From whom did you purchase your tiles? (if that is not too nosey!)

I purchased the tiles from Tilestyle. They spent ages helping us to pick out what tiles, borders and floors would work best together and also gave a pretty fair discount. Have to admit that in terms of service and delivery they cant be faulted which leads me to believe that the product is also fine. I would have no hesitation dealing with them again or recommending them to anyone [I have nothing to do with them].