Alarming Floor Tile Problem

[simon43]

My ex rents a 3 storey shop-house, built about 5 years ago. Each floor is laid with 0.5 meter ceramic floor tiles, afixed to the concrete underneath.

Last night she heard a terrible bang and found that on the second floor, 2 adjacent rows of these tiles had been pushed upwards, lifting about 3 cms upwards along the line where the 2 rows joined.

This looks very alarming, but the floor tiles in all other areas and floors are ok. There is no visible structural damage otherwise.

The landlord's handyman says that this problem can occur if the room is too hot in the day and too cold at night!

I know nothing about floor tiles. Can anyone suggest what might cause this problem?

Thanks - Simon

[trogers]

Tiles have been laid 5 years ago. Thermal changes would have caused tiles to pop long ago. More likely there has been movement in supporting structures, probably footings or piles, and changing the deflection of the floor slab, either reducing floor deflection or twisting the plane of the floor. Check and see if tiny cracks appear between wall and floor, or columns.

[Pib]

Yeap, slight foundation movement/settling.

[transam]

Tiles have been laid 5 years ago. Thermal changes would have caused tiles to pop long ago. More likely there has been movement in supporting structures, probably footings or piles, and changing the deflection of the floor slab, either reducing floor deflection or twisting the plane of the floor. Check and see if tiny cracks appear between wall and floor, or columns.

Think l agree. When the tiles in LOS are laid they must be soaked in water before they are laid so they expand. If not your problem occurs. If they do their stuff now then there is movement somewhere.

[steve187]

I would think tile expansion, (there are no grout joints left in tiles here, the british standard for floor tiles is a 3mm gap) if there are no signs of other movement. Tiles are soaked overnight so as not to dry out the sand and cement fixing material too quickly, this should not be done when using tile adhesive

[simon43]

OK, if it is a movement of the supporting structure, why has this only affected the middle floor, whilst the ground floor and third floor are unaffected?

Simon

[trogers]

OK, if it is a movement of the supporting structure, why has this only affected the middle floor, whilst the ground floor and third floor are unaffected?

Simon

Being a shop house, the ground floor slab should be designed to receive double or triple the live load compared with living spaces on the upper floors, thus beams and floor slab would be larger and thicker resulting in less deflection changes.

Also, different floor finishes have different 'give' to changes in deflection.

[Carib]

Don`t worry Simon, happened to me in my place in Thailand as well as in my other place in the Caribbean, it had nothing to do with construction, since it both are houses on a firm concrete slab with no upstair floors. Happened to friends of mine too.

Seen it happening with tiled walls too in the rainy season.

[cmsally]

I had it happen in an old bathroom. I think it was just a case of slowly coming unattached from the cement below. No problem with new tiles that replaced them.

One good idea to allow for expansion is to caulk the largest gap (between tiles and wall), to allow for expansion.

Presumably this happened with the smaller lightweight tiles; it happens quite often. Very rare to see it with the larger tiles that weigh more though.

[Elwood62]

there is to be a minimum joint then also every 3m an expansion joint or this will happen. 99 % of the time it is due to these factors

[simon43]

Certainly, the large floor tiles were laid without any grouting space between them. So even if there is a compression movement of just 1mm, the tiles have to go somewhere ==> upwards.

Still, it looks rather alarming to see 2 whole rows of floor tiles forced upwards along their joining line!

The landlord says he'll replace the tiles, (presumably just cut one row down slightly, since no tiles are actually broken.

Simon

[MikeyIdea]

This happened at the 2nd floor of our disaster recovery site during the red skirt protests last year. We cramped in twice as many people as originally intended on that floor so management got a bit worried

The main point is that as an American multi-national, we had structural integrity and load carefully checked - it came out totally clean, no issue

[ralston3057]

Simple answer: You have clay tiles and clay continuously expands with moisture. It takes time but it keeps growing and growing and withou expansion joints (which are not used), then the tiles buckle upwards from the compressive stresses which develop from restrained growth. They have to buckle upwards b/c they cannot buckle downwards. Simple solution: Replace the buckled tiles.

Alternately, remove and replace and use stone tiles. Stone expands minimally with changes in moisture.

Now, you can pay me $1500 dollars b/c that is what I would charge an insurance company in the USA

[BuckarooBanzai]

Simple answer: You have clay tiles and clay continuously expands with moisture. It takes time but it keeps growing and growing and withou expansion joints (which are not used), then the tiles buckle upwards from the compressive stresses which develop from restrained growth. They have to buckle upwards b/c they cannot buckle downwards. Simple solution: Replace the buckled tiles.

Alternately, remove and replace and use stone tiles. Stone expands minimally with changes in moisture.

Now, you can pay me $1500 dollars b/c that is what I would charge an insurance company in the USA

This I can believe! Also believe temp differential is related. Aircon upper floor over open porch lower floor buckles right down the middle after years. House built like a brick shithouse so do not think it is settling. Scarey the amount of buckle.