Cracked Tiles

[farhanjnawab]

Dear All,

Background : A housing flat around 40 feet by 60 feet, ceramic tiles were installed in all the 5 rooms.

Problem : In one of the main hall room, two pieces of these tiles were broken. Now all the tiles in that flat have been cracked and broken, except in kitchen and terrace. We are assuming that air might have passed thru that these two broken tiles and might have made the other good tiles crack. Is it true? or there are other reasons for such a damage?

We must note that wherever the tiles were in continuity to the initial broken tiles, only they are cracked later. The kitchen and terrace tiles were installed separately at a lower level and are not in continuation to the main hall tiles.

Please put some light on the reasons of such a failure.

 

[Ron]

Most likely has nothing to do with air, and everything to do with the substrate. Assuming concrete substrate. If so, it is probably shrinkage in the concrete doing one of two things...failing the tile as it forces it into compression from the shrinkage, or shrinkage cracks in the concrete reflecting through the tile.

 

[farhanjnawab]

Sir, there is no concrete beneath. It is dry lean sand-cement mortar. Please comment

 

[bimr]

farhanjnawab,

What is construction of the subfloor (beneath the mortar bed)? As you will see from the attached link, there may be a multiple of reasons for the problem:

http://www.tileusa.com/loose-crackedtile_faq.htm

If all of the tiles are cracked, you either have defective tile or the subfloor has excessive deflection.

Please include more information on the application.

 

[Ron]

Can you post some photos of the problem?

 

[dik]

Are the tiles installed, the correct ones? I don't know why all the tiles would crack. Were they wall tiles and accidentally installed on the floor? If they are the proper tiles, then the problem must be with the substrate. Some tile locations must be outside the normal traffic areas and if these have broken then there may be a problem with the manufacturer. How large are the tiles? Smaller ones would be less likely to break.

Dik

 

[letrab]

Lack of expansion joints can also lead to several tiles failing. But for all the tiles to fail I would look at the quality of the tiles first

 

[msquared48]

Could be a differential deflection problem in the wood floor structure supporting the tile. Do you have a diagram of the floor framing and where the cracked tile are?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[msquared48]

Also, are these 6", 8", 12", 18", some other size, or a mixture of sizes?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask