Wall tiles need help!

hols89

Hi we have had a new bathroom fitted just under two years ago and the wall tiles on the external wall keep coming away from the wall, some are hollow and some the grout has cracked. None have actually fallen off but have pushed away from the wall. 

We have had them replaced three times over the last year and half. It seems to be happening on that one wall only. This time one of the tiles has actually cracked horizontally and another 4 have quite a few hairline cracks throughout them. This hasn’t happened before. When the tiler did the work, he did tile on top of old tile however. It’s the wall next to the shower head. We are stumped, and so is the tiler. We did have the little bathroom done which is below and all them seem okay. The same wall in the bathroom below is now an internal wall due to a single extension. Anyone got any ideas what we should be looking for? Could it be a leak or damp maybe coming  through the external wall? Thanks for any advice you can give. 

Rosa_Damascena

Damp / water ingress does seem like the most obvious cause but how will you know unless the tiles come off the wall?

I'm no expert but tile on tile to me seems like a shoddy shortcut. That, plus the fact it is stumping your tiler suggests to me you need to upgrade your tiler.

Doozergirl

Movement in the base is exactly what will
cause grout to come out and tiles to crack and lift. 

The only solution is to lift the lot and secure a firm base for new tiles. 

You say you have a single storey extension - did this involve a knock-through?  You can and get some settling onto a new joist which can cause cracks, and if your house is old, then it can also affect the original plastering and cause that to blow.   That might cause a longer term issue of movement as it gradually puts more and more pressure on two layers of tile, then pops.  

Movement can happen with knock throughs that are fully signed off, but if this is continuing then I'm going to ask if a structural engineer was consulted and if all the relevant sign offs have been obtained? 

hols89

Thank you for your replies. 

House is 1930s - The extension was built 14 years ago so isn’t recent. A normal door way was knocked through at both ends of the house along that wall as it is a two room extension. Would you still get movement all this time later?

The old bathroom tiles were on for around 15-20 years I think and they never moved. The tiler said it would cause too much damage to remove and being a novice I didn’t think anything of it. Will all have to go now.  Could it be because of the old tiles then? It will all have to come down so will see what’s what’s underneath. 

Would it be better just to get a SE in to have a look? 

FreeBear

hols89 said: House is 1930s

The old bathroom tiles were on for around 15-20 years I think and they never moved.

The tiles were probably put on top of lime plaster. For small tiles, this is usually OK as long as the plaster underneath hasn't blown. Putting another layer of tiles over the top is just asking for trouble. You have no idea how well the first lot of tiles are bonded, and a glazed tile is not the best surface to stick to.

Stripping the wall(s) back to bare brick, whilst messy and bumps up the cost, is the best thing to do. It also gives you opportunity to insulate the external walls - There are a number of insulated construction boards available that can be tiled directly on to. Elements board or Q-Board are two that spring to mind. There will be others. The alternative is Celotex and cement board using the warm batten method.

hols89

Okay thank you. I don’t think the ones before were glazed though. 

However yeah I agree if I had thought of it properly I would of had it all stripped back. Will need to do this now. Thank you for your reply. 

hols89

Just found out after my dad went in the loft that when the extractor fan was installed no outlet for this was put into the roof/no where for the steam to escape apart the loft. Apparently it looks like it has been extracting all the stream against the wall in question. I’m hoping this might possibly be the answer to why they have been popping off.