Tile replacement

[phm]

Hi there.

We are buying a property and some of the tiles on the floor in the bathroom are broken. The building inspector said that the tiles around the waste have broken because they are big (probably 10cm square) and they are on a lean due to bathroom design. I noticed that there is the odd tile broken elsewhere on the floor, too.

Now all I know about renovating is, which end of a hammer to bang, so I was wondering if it an easy process to remove these broken tiles and replace the ones around the waste with smaller ones and perhaps replace the other couple of broken tiles with new ones. The house was built in 1992 so I'm guessing that it may be impossible to get the same ones, but it might look good to put a couple of contrasting tiles throughout the floor.

We are going up to the house on the weekend so and suggestions on whether this is possible and if so, how to do it, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ani]

Hi phm

10cm tiles are actually small! If they are breaking when they are that size, I'd suspect the screed wasn't laid properly originally ie: draining slightly towards the waste. Sounds like they had to slope the tiles sharply to get to waste level .If that is the case they will likely keeo breaking.

I'd also pour a cup or two of water on the floor and see if it goes towards the drain or into one of the corners!

Doubt you will match the tiles now. If it is a smallish room, I'd retile it after fixing the levels. It is quite easy to tile as long as you don't need to do too many cuts.

PM me once you have seen it if you want more info

Cheers
ani

 

[Bushy]

Have a look in the ceiling or on top of the kitchen cupboards - sometimes you might find some spare originals ,or just drop a line to the previous owner .We actually found the spares we needed on top of the cupboards.
Regards Bushy

 

[phm]

Hi there.

Thank you very much for your replies. Ani, thank you very much for your offer. We were going up to the house this weekend, but found out on Friday that the outgoing tenant wanted the some more time to clean up. So now it will probably be a trip up this week.

Bushy, that's a good idea. I had contacted the owner via the agent, and they didn't have any tiles but I did get a tin of paint, so that's good. I'll have a scout around in the other suggested areas.

Thanks, I'll see how I go.

 

[Jas]

Check under the house too - spares get put there as well.

Jas

 

[WillG]

Hi Phm,

Your original question asked how to remove tiles.

You can do it with a chisel & hammer. It may pay to drill some holes in the tiles first with a masonry bit then get the chisel into them. The hols will make it easier to get the tiles up

 

[sbe]

Broken tiles can also occur when the tiler didn't screed the tile adhesive correctly, and the tile isn't properly supported. eg nothing in middle, or only something in the middle, nothing at the edges..

You can tell this by tapping lightly on the tiles (that aren't broken). The sound is very different between properly done ones and the hollow sound of not so well done ones.

Could help to see if the problem will continue or not......

Cheerio.

Simon.


ps. If it's on a slab, you may want to check for slab cracks. If on floorboards, check correct adhesive used (should be more flexible, and should the grout).

 

[WillG]

sbe,

I believe the term used by tilers is 'drummy'. Analagous to hitting a drum !

 

[phm]

Hi there.

A big thank you everyone for your help.

As with all good plans, ours had to be changed. We ended up having only one day to do everything, due to an outgoing tenant requiring more time and a new tenant moving in, two days later. Consequently we did what we could in a day, and had to pay a tiler/handyman to do the rest.

At least I now know that I need to allow at least three days to do finishing touches to a reasonably tidy house.

Good news was that the new tenant moved in on settlement day.