Widespread or in Large Areas
Below we set out, in sequential form from greater to lesser gravity, a group of malfunctions in ceramic floorings that will, in most cases, require building work to repair.
These involve debonding and arching which affect significant areas of a flooring, even though the flooring may be small, frequently accompanied by a hollow sound. In some cases it may be said that the ceramic flooring has failed.
Case 1
Arching, also known as buckling or a ‘pitched effect’, occurs in two contiguous rows in a particular area of the flooring at some undefined time, which may be a few months after the installation or several years later. Before the flooring remains ‘pitched’, the tile level rises, the tiles are trodden on softly, they sound hollow and grout springs out of the joints.
On the other hand, once all the loose tiles have been lifted, the fixing surface may exhibit a uniform and well-cohered appearance, with more or less wide cracks, or with manifest disaggregations accompanied by profound cracks.
This very serious malfunction is not to be associated with any particular spaces. It has appeared in a 6 m2 bathroom 7 years after the building was constructed, just as in 22 m2 dining rooms, covered decks, uncovered terraces, and large flooring surfaces.
In all cases, the rest of the floor should be examined in respect to the following:
- If the installation has been done with an open joint or not and, in an affirmative case, the state of the joints (debonding, cracks, transverse ruptures) should be inspected
- If movements have taken place where the flooring meets the skirting or the wall tiling (cracking of the joint in the change of plane, or even sinking of the flooring with regard to the level line)
- If buckling also exists in other areas of the flooring, with a greater or lesser degree of development, from a hollow sound to a feeling of sinking when the floor is pressed
- If there is a correspondence between the manifestation of the malfunction and the place where it occurs (centre or symmetry axes of the floor, equidistance to columns, trafficked areas, between construction elements that constrain that part of the flooring, in the centre of the decks, etc.)
- If perimeter movement joints have been installed, whatever the surface area occupied by the flooring
- In large surfaces (more than 40 m2 in interiors and 25 m2 in exteriors), it should be verified whether there are intermediate movement joints or field division joints, as well as their state of conservation
Once the size and the water absorption capacity of the tile are known, it is of interest to determine the materials and the tile installation technique.
Case 2
Widespread debonding has occurred in the flooring, in randomly distributed groups of tiles across the entire flooring, though most frequently in traffic routes. Broken or cracked tiles are not detected, at least in any significant way.
The sound produced by tapping or rolling differs highly among the tiles. After these verifications we should, either fully or partly, carry out the complementary inspections suggested for case 1.
The state of the fixing surface, especially its cohesion and eventual cracking, should be verified.
In outdoor floorings in geographic areas with frost risk, the disaggregation should be examined of the bonding material and/or of the fixing surface, in the areas where the debonding has occurred. Also the appearance of the joints.
Widespread debonding, in particular areas of a flooring installed on an anhydrite base. This malfunction is infrequent in Spain, since this type of material is not widely used.
The tiles are extracted with their backs covered by bonding material and fixing surface, with a greyish-white colour.
After the extraction, the fixing surface displays a powdery and disaggregated state.
More or less scattered debonding coinciding with traffic routes, and the presence of cracks, fractures, and spalling in ceramic floorings of publicly trafficked architecture and industrial floorings.
It is necessary to ascertain the type of traffic to which been the flooring has been subjected and, after lifting up the tiles, the tile installation technique and the state of the surface.
The appearance of the grout joints will help diagnose the cause of the debonding.
In floorings of dwellings and building areas with exclusively pedestrian traffic, without any particular risk of mechanical aggression, debonding may coincide with traffic paths, but without the presence of rupture and spalling.
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