QUESTION

Tile Tenting and Hollow Sounding Tile - I had a house built in Florida and closed in December of 2005. I have 16" tile throughout the house which is tenting in two places and sounds hollow in almost every area. I've contacted my builder and started a claim under Florida's law covering latent construction defects. Right now I'm trying to line up a potential consultant to inspect this problem because I don't know what solution, if any, my builder and tile vendor might offer. So first of all, do you offer service in Florida? Do you review offers to repair this if my builder proposes such a plan?

ANSWER

ANSWER - We do have inspectors in Florida.  We can perform an inspection and investigation to determine what caused the failure, to determine if the installation and tile meets industry standards and the standard of care for the industry, and we can provide recommendations on how to remediate the problems.

When tile is installed correctly it will not tent and should not sound hollow. Generally speaking when there is a failure it is not due to a single deficiency, but rather due to compounding deficiencies.  Generally speaking when a tile sounds hollow in some areas and not other areas it is an indication it has lost bond to its substrate.  When a tile tents (lifts up off floor in certain areas) it is an indication the tile was not properly bonded to its substrate for various potential reasons, which is the primarly problem. There may be a bond breaker contaminate on the substrate or on the back of the tile.  There could be a problem with the adhesive in that it was allowed to skin over and lose its ability to bond adequately.   Not having adequate movement joints (expansion joints) installed in the floor could be a contributing factor causing the failure.  There are probably other compounding factors contributing to the failure.  It is important to find out what is wrong before you repair or reinstall the tile to avoid another failure.