Significant Lippage on kitchen floor tiles developed over 4 months

FutureTech on 21/05/2018 - 20:03
Last edited 21/05/2018 - 20:09

Hi all,

Moved into my new apartment in Jan (off the plan) all is well except that the ceramic tiles on kitchen floor have developed significant lippage among themselves over the course of 4 months. Now when I step on the edges and corners of the tiles at a lot of places I can feel that it is uneven. Also, the grout has become brittle and cracked around affected tiles. The worst place seems to be where pressure is usually applied i.e. one in front of the kitchen sink where I stand a lot and where the fridge is (so one of the legs of the fridge is on a corner of a tile where it sinks and the other corner of the same tile diagonally opposite the sinking one goes up)

I wonder if you guys reckon that it was because of that they were not tiled properly. I already notified the developer who will send a contractor to check it out tomorrow but should I insist that they re tile the whole area (it's about 9 sqm and is surrounded by carpets and cabinets on the sides)? In case they refuse to rectify how much cost am I looking at in terms of having someone over and re tile the space (including cost of new tiles)

Thanks in advance for your advice, I was a happy camper before I started to notice this. Now it causes a lot of grief😂

Home & Garden

Comments

  • whooah1979 on 21/05/2018 - 21:28

    winter is coming to sydney. it's normal for the floors and walls to contract in winter and expand in summer.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_expansion

  • gooddealmate on 22/05/2018 - 19:08

    This is definitely not normal. If the grout is cracking and tiles moving they haven't been laid right. Have the tiles been laid on to a substrate other than concrete? This is the most common reason for the tiles failing if the tiler has not used tile backing board (cement sheeting) on top of the wood floor.

    If it is concrete, then I would check to see how much of the floor is failing, if the tiles are becoming unstuck they will make a drummy sound when tapping them. If it's only a few, these can be replaced.

    It may be because the tile adhesive had skimmed over before the tiler laid the tile or perhaps the floor had not been properly cleaned of dust and debris. You can tell this by lifting up a tile and seeing whether the glue is stuck to the tile or the floor. Either way, you'll be covered for getting the job fixed and I would be pushing to get the whole kitchen floor replaced as more tiles are likely to fail.

    Source: Im a tiler by trade.

    Also, as for the above comment, expansion/contraction shouldn't be an issue for a small area like a kitchen.

    • FutureTech on 22/05/2018 - 20:04

      Thank you so much for the input mate. The contractor is saying that they can only replace tiles that are excessively lipping at this stage as the rest are "within tolerance" saying that if I can't see the problem when I am standing 1.5m away then it's OK. Also I looked up the relevant sections of building code of Australia and it is saying the standard is within 2mm and I suspect the majority of the lippings are below that (despite the fact that I can feel it's uneven when I step on it ). Also he was trying to convince me that this issue must have been there in the first place as there's no way that the tiles could have moved after laid. To be fair only two spots around which the grout cracked so I don't know if I should believe him or not.

      So in the end they are going to replace 4 of the tiles and apply additional grout where required. I suppose I'll just have to live with the rest and hope for the best…

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