What is the most common tile problem?

Customers can be quick to blame the tile when it comes loose or cracks or when the shower leaks, but rarely is the tile itself the real problem. While many issues facing the unsuspecting homeowner can be obvious, flooring is not one of them. Showers are especially difficult to evaluate, and often cost unsuspecting buyers thousands of dollars in repairs and days of inconvenience.

The tile industry, unlike many other floor covering products, has well established Standards for Installation published by national bodies such as the South African Bureau of Standards and the American National Standards Institute. Tile installations have specific tried and tested guidelines to follow to assure successful installations.

The most common complaint by far is loosened tile. Technically this is called delaminating or debonding. This is when tile has come loose from the substrate (mounting surface). The tile may sound hollow, have a grinding sound, or actually ‘tent’ up from the floor. This especially occurs on concrete slabs. The cause of the failure is almost invariably poor installation and 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 different rates than a concrete slab. 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 differential expansion,  the tile will come loose. Only the grout will be holding it in place and only for so long. 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.