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#396213 01/03/11 09:17 AM
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There have been three instances of floor tiles "popping" out, not one but several at a time. All of them have been within the last couple of months, and between the Island Supermarket and BYC. Has anyone else noticed this happening lately? I am wondering if the ground is shifting or if it's just a fluke that this has happened like this. Ours was in one of our rooms downstairs.....another was in one of the apartments above Fairdale Plaza.

Odd, just thought I would check and see if anyone else has noticed this.


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I think it has more to do with moisture and temperatures than with shifting ground. I hear of this happening to people often.

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Common when it gets colder for prolonged period in a concrete building.

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I can see that for the ones on the ground, as it was "cold" for a few days this past week. The other one was on the second floor of a building, not when it was cold.....


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Originally Posted by shuffles
I can see that for the ones on the ground, as it was "cold" for a few days this past week. The other one was on the second floor of a building, not when it was cold.....


In november it was very cold here, for a while. That was probably when the loosening occurred, then slowly but surely the adhesive between the floor slab and the tile will have been getting weaker and weaker until .... POP.

It is something to do with the fact that typically the tile layers here do not lay down enough thinset adhesive (should be 1/2 inch thick) and because they rarely put in expansion joints to allow the tile to move a little during temperature fluctuations. Because the tile can't move (hits the walls) it gets jogged loose instead of expanding and contracting.

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The thinset should be applied on both the tile and the floor.
They often use material that is too dry or don't use thinset at all just wet cement.
All about ignorance among guys who have otherwise done a lot of attractive tilework.I fired two in a row for refusing to do it correctly even after learning how.
Your concrete may fail also over time unless you cured it and that is rarely done in Belize.Windy and sunny conditions make that problem worse.
The cost of curing is almost zero. The cost of not curing? See all this cementwork with the surface letting loose?
This effect is called spalling from badly cured concrete. It must be kept very wet for a week after hardening. Not a light mist for a couple minutes. Most Concrete work in the Cayes would have been torn out right away in a real project with an inspector in the 1st world for lack of curing.

Last edited by Dane; 01/03/11 12:35 PM.
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The tile popping up is a temperature versus improper installation situation.
Tile and concrete are of different density, hence they expand and contract at different rates. That is the reason for tile grout. Tile grout expands and contracts. For years (and sadly--to this day) tile setters did not use grout. I was expensive and deemed useless. They grouted the tile with cement or used the thinset as grout. This does not allow for expansion and contraction. When the temperature gets cold for a few days the concrete structures actually shrink. And up pop the tiles as they contract at a different rate. Every popped tile I have seen here was grouted with cement or cement based thinset.

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Another common problem is the tile applied too soon on concrete dried less than three months. Look on the tile back for your answer. Glue didn't touch in spots on the floor?Too irregular floor and not enough thinset. Concrete surface pull off with the tile?
Thats spalling.
Tile cracked esp. on the edges of the tile and the room? Expansion problem as noted by others. The temp range is so small there should be no problem without a bad installation.Much tile work lives in the 80+degree range of differential temps., sometimes for thousands of years long before grout was invented.

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Dane
We are talking about tile that explode in the middle of the night shooting shrapnel everywhere. I lived in a place like that 17 years ago. It is always on a frigid (for here) night after 3 or 4 days of cold weather. That's how long it takes for a concrete structure to cool. It's pretty freaky and dangerous. The bigger the tile the more dramatic it is. The next time I get a call from some folks (I get 2 or 3 a year) who are scared shitless I will invite you over

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Quite interesting post.I have not seen one explode. If it happens soon could you look on the back and see if the tile glue adhered to the floor and tile everywhere?

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