Letting out my property - tile lip (tripping hazard?)

stuart45

The main danger with tiles is slipping when they are wet. An uneven actually gives you more grip.

Albermarle

Would you say a slight tile lip (e.g. 1mm or so) is reasonable? Personally I think the chances of tripping  over it are slim

Slim to non existent risk ( in my opinion)

Tali1989

stuart45 said:

1-2mm isn't considered a trip hazzard. I've put riven slate tiles in the bathroom that will have that in places. Even 4mm isn't. I've got rosehead nails that stick up that much. 
There's different ideas from people on the height that a sudden change in height becomes a hazzard, but some some day 1/4 inch, others 1/2 inch.
The council used an inch for their pavements.

That’s what I’d have thought - the pavement outside my house (council owned) is completely covered in uneven slabs, almost none are completely level and none have grout between them. Something I never even noticed or thought about until now. 

user1977 said:

Tali1989 said:

tacpot12 said:

Has any visitor to you home every stumbled due to the uneven tiles? If they have, then I think you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Also, bear in mind that a small child (toddler) might trip over a much lower obstacle than an adult. If your home is one that it more likely to be let to young family, you might want to consider whether you want to have to deal with a parent who is upset because their child has hurt themselves.

It's very unfortunate that you didn't acheive a good quality of finish and now want to rent your home out. It's not going to be an easy problem to fix, but it would be a lot easier if you had a spare tile. With a spare tile, you can break the old tile to remove it, grind away the excess adhesive, and reset the spare on a level bed of adhesive. 

Would an insurer likely not cover a trip due to the tile lip (if there was an accident/claim) due to the fault being down to poor-workmanship and/or pre-existing?

No, that's not how insurance works for this sort of thing.

How does it work exactly? I intend to get landlord insurance with property owner’s liability, would insurance cover me if a tenant trips for example?

As I say, there are hazards that are impossible to rectify in my opinion - e.g. the house is built on a hill so there is a low step between two different rooms - am I supposed to warn tenants about potential trip hazards? Even the stairs are very steep and narrow - the hazard was actually worse before I removed the carpet on the stairs in my opinion. 

user1977

Tali1989 said:

stuart45 said:

1-2mm isn't considered a trip hazzard. I've put riven slate tiles in the bathroom that will have that in places. Even 4mm isn't. I've got rosehead nails that stick up that much. 
There's different ideas from people on the height that a sudden change in height becomes a hazzard, but some some day 1/4 inch, others 1/2 inch.
The council used an inch for their pavements.

That’s what I’d have thought - the pavement outside my house (council owned) is completely covered in uneven slabs, almost none are completely level and none have grout between them. Something I never even noticed or thought about until now. 

user1977 said:

Tali1989 said:

tacpot12 said:

Has any visitor to you home every stumbled due to the uneven tiles? If they have, then I think you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Also, bear in mind that a small child (toddler) might trip over a much lower obstacle than an adult. If your home is one that it more likely to be let to young family, you might want to consider whether you want to have to deal with a parent who is upset because their child has hurt themselves.

It's very unfortunate that you didn't acheive a good quality of finish and now want to rent your home out. It's not going to be an easy problem to fix, but it would be a lot easier if you had a spare tile. With a spare tile, you can break the old tile to remove it, grind away the excess adhesive, and reset the spare on a level bed of adhesive. 

Would an insurer likely not cover a trip due to the tile lip (if there was an accident/claim) due to the fault being down to poor-workmanship and/or pre-existing?

No, that's not how insurance works for this sort of thing.

How does it work exactly? I intend to get landlord insurance with property owner’s liability, would insurance cover me if a tenant trips for example?

Yes, and presumably you already have insurance which covers you for visitors slipping/tripping and claiming against you (because it's a standard inclusion in home insurance), so it works in much the same way. Someone makes a claim, you pass it on to your insurers to argue about it. In the same way that if somebody claims you caused a road accident while driving, your motor insurance would deal with the claim.

You're not going to find a list of specific "rules" about hazards you need to tell visitors/tenants about (or fix), but I can't see you need to do anything about bleeding obvious intrinsic features like "these stairs are quite steep and narrow".

sammyjammy

You need to stop overworrying or you're not cut out to be a landlord, I agree with the stairs, mine are really steep and I used to slip all the time until I removed the carpet and used floor paint on them.  I have rough slate tiles on my kitchen floor, within a tile there can be 2-3mm difference so what you are saying is insignificant.