My Tiles Keep Falling off!
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UncleZen
Posts: 825 Forumite
For the second time in about 3 years, some tiles in my bathroom have fallen off, about 40 of them
Let me describe the landscape:
Its a boxed corner of the bathroom, in the boxed area is the soil pipe and vent.
Heres a link to a picture of the offending corner:
http://ccgi.unclezen.plus.com/live/publicimages/Bathroom1000.jpg
All the other tiles, remain firmly glued to the wall.
You can see from the picture that the boxed area is plywood. Its pretty firm, theres a small amount of flex as you might expect with ply.
It looks to me that the wall was painted once, but ISTR that the paint came off on the back of the tiles last time they fell off.
My guess is that I need to treat this wood some how, but what with? Do I need to paint it?
Do I also need to use a flexible glue (is there such a thing?)
I also need to go through the very tedious and time consuming palaver of grinding off the old glue from the tiles as these tiles can no longer be bought anymore and whilst I have 1 or 2 new ones, I dont have 40 new onces.
Any advice would be welcome please on how to get the tiles to stick once and for all, thanks.
Let me describe the landscape:
Its a boxed corner of the bathroom, in the boxed area is the soil pipe and vent.
Heres a link to a picture of the offending corner:
http://ccgi.unclezen.plus.com/live/publicimages/Bathroom1000.jpg
All the other tiles, remain firmly glued to the wall.
You can see from the picture that the boxed area is plywood. Its pretty firm, theres a small amount of flex as you might expect with ply.
It looks to me that the wall was painted once, but ISTR that the paint came off on the back of the tiles last time they fell off.
My guess is that I need to treat this wood some how, but what with? Do I need to paint it?
Do I also need to use a flexible glue (is there such a thing?)
I also need to go through the very tedious and time consuming palaver of grinding off the old glue from the tiles as these tiles can no longer be bought anymore and whilst I have 1 or 2 new ones, I dont have 40 new onces.
Any advice would be welcome please on how to get the tiles to stick once and for all, thanks.
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Comments
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Plywood isn't a suitable substrate for tiles - they fall off!
Change the plywood for a cement board like Hardiebacker.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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As DG says, you can't tile over ply. I wouldn't bother removing the plywood but instead, screw some Hardybacker over the top (remove the remaining tiles first), then tile back again.
Hardybacker is a bit pricey, Wickes do their own stuff which is a good alternative. It's on sale at the moment and judging by the width (look like 150mm tiles), two sheets of this stuff (£8 each) should be enough assuming 2400mm or less ceiling height.
https://www.wickes.co.uk/STS-Professional-Tile-Backing-Board---10mm-x-600mm-x-1-2m/p/101131Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
Oh, thats interesting, I never knew that, obviously someone didnt mention that to the builders in 1987 when the house was built. Does make you wonder why the other 50 tiles or so, are stuck fast to the unsuitable plywood, and only these 40 have fallen off.
In princial, I'd put up some hardybacker, but I doubt if Id be able to get the other 50 odd tiles off that corner without breaking them. And that'll leave me with a problem.0 -
Whilst I don't suggest using ply - our holiday cottages are all ply surfaces in the bathrooms and all have floor to ceiling tiles on - so it isn't correct to say they fall off. The tiles have been in place about 8 years I and are cleaned top to bottom at least every week, certainly ever 'change over' and deep cleaned twice a year. That said, it isn't something I would do and perhaps when the tiles are next replaced we will go another route. Who knows.0
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That section is probably exposed to a greater temperature variation than the rest based on the picture, hence they fall off and the others appear firm.0
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We had a section where pipes had been boxed in plywood and that was tiled. There was an area where they simply refused to stay put for any length of time, but the rest was OK for years. I don't know if the ply can be sealed to make a better surface.0
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We had a section where pipes had been boxed in plywood and that was tiled. There was an area where they simply refused to stay put for any length of time, but the rest was OK for years. I don't know if the ply can be sealed to make a better surface.
If the OP can’t get the remaining tiles off, then it may be possible to use something like tanking slurry to prep the ply and make it non absorbent so the tile adhesive sticks better.
And use good quality fresh tile adhesive.Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
I like Igols temperature theory. That part of the wall gets direct sunlight for a few hours every morning.0
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If you soak the tiles in water for two days, you should be able to scrape off the adhesive.
The ones you can't remove, you need to 'gently persuade'.
It's a hell of a job: https://forums.landlordzone.co.uk/forum/energy-efficiency-epc-design-repair-improve/1025992-more-builder-s-bungles-to-repair0
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