Hollow tile solution (tiles that have not had enough adhesive applied to them)

googlefast

neilmcl said:

googlefast said:

neilmcl said:

googlefast said:

Martin_the_Unjust said:

‘Hollow tiles’ do you mean they sound hollow when tapped?

Basically, tiles that have not had enough adhesive applied to them, and when you tap on them they sound hollow compared to the ones that have had enough adhesive.

Sounds like they've used a dot and dab method of applying the adhesive instead of a notched trowel. Nothing inherently wrong with that method as long as they've achieved enough coverage on the back of tile.

They haven't, I saw them fitting some of the tiles and they were using a notched trowel, only some of the tiles sound hollow (like 1 out of every 10), and one of them has cracked already so I think more will crack if I leave it as it is.

Could be faulty tiles rather than lack of adhesive.

No, I do think so, the tiles seem perfectly fine, when I tap on the problematic ones, the noise makes it seem like there's nothing behind the tile, that's why I think they didn't use enough adhesive.

googlefast

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Or a too-springy floor.

Googlefast, if this tile cracked for no obvious reason, just in normal use, then they should come back and replace it. Simple as that.

I suspect you'll struggle to get them to redo the whole floor, tho', unless more tiles start to crack at which point you can then legitimately claim the work wasn't carried out to an acceptable standard.

One tile? Could still be a one-of (I dunno - a particular dip in the floor that wasn't filled with adhesive). Hard to ask them to redo a whole floor based on a single tile.

Did you witness the work? What type of floor do you have? How did they prepare it - any sheets, levelling compound, etc? And then they laid a notched layer of adhesive? Silly Q - how thick? Square-notches? What type of tiles are they?

I've had other issues with this builder and he's not responding to me so my guess so he's out of the picture really, other than taking him to small claims court, I don't think I'll have any other solutions with him. I was looking for diy methods for fixing this, I did a fast Google search and found a few products for this type of problem, but I thought I'll ask people here about their experience first. I don't think, the floor definitely doesn't need to be redone.... hopefully!

The floor is solid, it's a basement so it's probably cement or something else really hard under the tiles. They did use leveling compound. I only watched them working on this for a few minutes so I don't know too much about their process, I do know that they used one of those notched trowels. There's at least 10 tiles with this problem, they're porcelain type 60cmx60cm ones.

Jeepers_Creepers

I cannot think of any reliable way to add further adhesive without first removing the tiles in question - and that will most likely mean destroying them (that's how to remove a cracked tile - break it up!).

Do you have spares? If so, hang on to them should this happen again. As galling as it seems, I really think you are best just getting on and treating them as normal. If one breaks, replace it.

There's the potential of, say, drilling or cutting away bits of grout and trying to force/inject something down there to fill any gaps, but - really - what are the chances of success?

inthesticks

grumbler said:

IMO, this is perfectly normal for  wall tiles and not a "shoddy job".

And certainly this cannot cause cracking.

Absolutely 100% incorrect.
Wall tiles don't have to have 100% contact, but as the OP is referring to floor tiling these DO have to have 100% contact with the tile adhesive. The hollow sound is indicative of a problem. Not necessarily of 'dotting and dabbing' adhesive, as others have mentioned. But 'dotting and dabbing' adhesive will lead the hollow sounds and cracking of the grout and the tiles.

inthesticks

There could be a multitude of problems going on here.....too many to mention here. The builder will be the only one to truly know the whole picture........try getting an honest answer from a builder that 'does tiling'