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tile adhesive
Created: 7/22/2006    Updated: 7/22/2006

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Q   After only 5 years in a new home, our floor is coming loose from the slab. When you walk across the floor, you can hear the hollow sound where the tles are loose. Do you think there was something wrong with the adhesive? or was not enough used? or what? I would appreciate any advice.
A   The leading contender for delaminating or debonding tile is lack on movement accomodation. By this we mean tile that has come lose from the substrate (mounting surface). The tile may sound hollow, have a grinding sound, or actually come flying off the floor. This especially occurs on concrete slabs. The cause of the failure may be primarily due to a lack of control joints or soft joints in the tilework and around the perimeter of the area and/or insufficient coverage of adhesive. It is important to the long-term success of a tile installation to provide for movement, which is certain to occur.

The technical reason this failure occurs is that ceramic tile expands and contracts with moisture and temperature at a different rate than a concrete slab or plywood does. Generally speaking, concrete slabs tend to shrink as they cure. This shrinkage can take place for many years. If there is no space to allow a release of the tension created by this “differential expansion”, the tile will come loose. Only the grout will be holding it in place and only for so long. In the case of plywood, seasonal movement of not only the sheathing but also of the structure occurs with the change of the seasons. Ceramic tile must be installed with the proper setting materials and provisions made for this expected movement. Also buildings move with seismic shifts, settling, heavy winds, material changes over time, and other factors. It cannot be stressed enough that movement accommodation and/or control joints are required in a tile job of any size, even the smallest bathroom.


Dave Gobis CTC,CSI
Executive Director
Ceramic Tile Education Foundation
www.tileschool.org

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