The cold broke the floor

[kamarada]

Last night I heard some cracking sounds and strange noises "coming" from the apartment. The next day then I saw that some tiles in the living room had "tented up". Never imagined that this could happen. One friend told me that is because of the cold weather and the low quality material and work. Anyone had experienced this in Thailand?

[stoneyboy]

Yes it happened to my mate a few weeks back up here in Phetchabun.

As your mate said its due to significant change in temperature and shoddy work.

[Happy Grumpy]

low quality material and work. Anyone had experienced this in Thailand?

I've lived in Thailand for 40 years and never experienced any of that. Perhaps you're imagining it due to confirmation bias.

[luke000]

Doesnt heat make things expand and cold makes things shrink?

[stoneyboy]

Doesnt heat make things expand and cold makes things shrink?

As in contraction and expansion.

[saakura]

It is not uncommon. Please google "exploding tiles" and you will find a wealth of information on the causes and prevention.

[lopburi3]

The tiles were laid with no grout lines between them?

http://www.laticrete.com/portals/0/tds/tds252.pdf

[Jingthing]

Yep. Happened to me multiple times. Related to cold and shoddy tile work. Oh well!

[sappersrest]

Yes happened to me to, pain to repair. good luck.

[Mrjlh]

Freezing water expands. If any water is trapped under the tile it could freeze with this "cold spell" we are having (if it got that cold), causing the tiles to rise up. Another possibility is the land you build on is always settling. That too could have caused the problem and the most likely reason. Look for other very small cracks in walls and ceilings.

[steve187]

thers has occured due to ( as someone already posted) no grout joints in the UK, the British Standard for floor tiles is 3mm. you will also see, on lifting the tiles they are as clean as new on the bottom, in fact what has happened is that the tiles and sand/cement they used to 'fix' the tiles has parted company.

No porcelein tiles will stick to sand/cement it has to be a suitable 'thin set' tile adhesive.

This happened in a friends house in 2 of his bedrooms, one while he was asleep and he is a heavy guy, it still lifted, I removed all the tiles, saved them for the 2nd bedroom and over skimmed the exsisting sand/cement with 'thin set' and then re-fixed the tiles using 'thin set' laid to UK standards. I then did the same with the 2nd befdroom re-using the old tiles, from the 2 rooms.

as stoneboy posted its basic contraction and expansion.

I tile as a living in the UK, so an easy ( ish) repair for me,

Edited January 26, 2016 by steve187

[bwpage3]

Shoddy work in Thailand? You don't say!

[bankruatsteve]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

[Jingthing]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

It's not BS. I wish it was.

[kamarada]

Thanks for all the comments. To update on the matter, now we have to remove all the loose tiles and change some of them, broken on the process.

[kannot]

i leave an expansion gap round the edge and at door thresholds............crap work no knowledge..........normal

[kannot]

Thanks for all the comments. To update on the matter, now we have to remove all the loose tiles and change some of them, broken on the process.

and wait for the "next time"

[kannot]

low quality material and work. Anyone had experienced this in Thailand?

I've lived in Thailand for 40 years and never experienced any of that. Perhaps you're imagining it due to confirmation bias.

yes of course.........never happened did it

[IMA_FARANG]

Was the ground temperature below freezing?

Water tends to expand when it freezes to ice.

If you lay a tile floor on a substance that has a lot of water in it, and the ground temperature goes below the freezing point, then the water in that substance the tile is laid on will freeze to ice and expand to lift the tile above it

Hard to believe that in Thailand the temperature would be that low.

But the effect is well known in the northern U.S. in winter.

It is called "Frost Heaves" and causes potholes on roads and sidewalks (pathways) to form in extremely cold weather.

The pressure underneath from the freezing ice will cause the tile or other substance to Lift the floor above.

Unlike other liquids water expands when it freezes to ice. That is why ice floats on top of a pond instead of sinking to the bottom of a pond.

[Crossy]

Concrete expands / contracts at about 3 times the rate that clay tiles do (14.5 vs 5.9 x 10^-6 m/(m K)). Granite is about 7.9 x 10^-6 m/(m K).

So the floor got 3 times smaller than the tiles, no grout, therefore something had to give.

Expansion rates from here http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html

[rawhod]

Those who say it is BS, do a google search for "floor tile bridging".

It happened to us a few years back in our town house, explosively...

[willyumiii]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

I agree.

It got down to what? maybe 12c?

It not like it was freezing,or even really cold!

[stoneyboy]

Those who say it is BS, do a google search for "floor tile bridging".

It happened to us a few years back in our town house, explosively...

Don't let it worry you,if they don't know no different think of it as a plus.

I pride myself on knowing useless information,otherwise known as common sense and general knowledge.

Edited January 28, 2016 by stoneyboy

[eyecatcher]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

I agree.

It got down to what? maybe 12c?

It not like it was freezing,or even really cold!

I agree also but you are wrong about the temp.....it did get down to 11 (in chiang mai)

There has been no rain and unless you have just moved into a two month old building there is no water left in that connie slab.

So what can expand? Nothing.

Contraction maybe but we are talking just a bit cold for a jumper 11degs is an average English day and i have never seen any tiles lift in an outside garage floor....or crack.

[stoneyboy]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

I agree.

It got down to what? maybe 12c?

It not like it was freezing,or even really cold!

I agree also but you are wrong about the temp.....it did get down to 11 (in chiang mai)

There has been no rain and unless you have just moved into a two month old building there is no water left in that connie slab.

So what can expand? Nothing.

Contraction maybe but we are talking just a bit cold for a jumper 11degs is an average English day and i have never seen any tiles lift in an outside garage floor....or crack.

Because in England they were laid by trades people for a tidy sum,not Somchai Dititwrong.

[eyecatcher]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

I agree.

It got down to what? maybe 12c?

It not like it was freezing,or even really cold!

I agree also but you are wrong about the temp.....it did get down to 11 (in chiang mai)

There has been no rain and unless you have just moved into a two month old building there is no water left in that connie slab.

So what can expand? Nothing.

Contraction maybe but we are talking just a bit cold for a jumper 11degs is an average English day and i have never seen any tiles lift in an outside garage floor....or crack.

Because in England they were laid by trades people for a tidy sum,not Somchai Dititwrong.

I have also had a few khun somchaiknowsfukall and they last ten minutes.

To be honest my example in the uk wasnt fair as you very rarely see concrete tiles on a concrete ground floor perse.

Also lets also note that the recent temperatures though not a stretch on Europes temps tradespeoples experience...even prof archs and engineers is going to be lacking without experience.

I think the lifting tiles is nothing to do with ice and expansion but more likely a rapid cooling down of the underside of the concrete floor relative to the top surface....so you get exactly the same effect as the rain season when the ground is so saturated the clay begins to heave.

And heaving creates humping as we all know.

No one mentioned this but in conjuction with a heaving floor just look on your roof for cracks in the central ridge tiles. There may well be some.

[bangmai]

Mine tented two weeks ago, after 28 years. I wondered if electrical current from ungrounded appliances (desktop PC) had anything to do with it.

[Thorgal]

I would rather suspect the routing of the electric cables. If they haven't been installed deep enough in a PVC flexible hose...

Can be seen in his 2nd picture.

Damage in his room is axial. Not in some random spots or on general surface.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Thorgal

[willyumiii]

Just to say, I think this is BS. Hope the OP got his chuckles.

I agree.

It got down to what? maybe 12c?

It not like it was freezing,or even really cold!

I agree also but you are wrong about the temp.....it did get down to 11 (in chiang mai)

There has been no rain and unless you have just moved into a two month old building there is no water left in that connie slab.

So what can expand? Nothing.

Contraction maybe but we are talking just a bit cold for a jumper 11degs is an average English day and i have never seen any tiles lift in an outside garage floor....or crack.

To my knowledge,

The only things that get larger when they get colder are water and nipples!

Edited January 28, 2016 by Crossy
A (rather nice) photo that could be deemed inappropriate removed. Sorry chaps.

[steve187]

it does not have to freeze to cause tiles to lift, as crossy posted its down to contraction, the concrete base contarcts at a different rate to the tiles, and with no grout joint, the tiles will lift, in the UK the british standard for floor tiles is 3mm, ( there should also be an expansion joint every 8 metres) i have customers that ask for a smaller gap, (to make the nice expensive large format tiles look better, some tiles are now 1.5 metres and 800 x 800 is fairly common). i always refuse as 3mm is the 'BS' and if the s***t hits the fan i want to know that i did it the best i could, i'm a professional its my reputaion thats on the line.

the same thing can happen when tiles are laid on water underfloor heating pipes, if the temp is turned up too high, too soon.