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Expert Answers
What is causing some of my tiles to sound hollow?
QUESTION
I had approximately 2,000 square feet of porcelain tile installed in a new home. The tile was finished a little less than a year ago and we moved into the house in December.I have very distinctive hollow sounding tiles in approximately 5% of the installation, unfortunately they are mainly in the kitchen. Mapeguard 2 was used on the floors as a crack suppression underlayment. I gently brought this up to the salesperson earlier but was told it had to do with the Mapeguard underlayment. I believe that this is incorrect as the hollow tiles are isolated most of the other tiles are solid as a rock. I mean the solid tiles sound just like you are tapping on the concrete.
Do you believe that the Mapeguard has anything to do with the hollow sounding tiles? Should I have the salesperson/installer address specific hollow tiles?
ANSWER
ANSWER - Peel & Stick Crack Isolation membranes can cause the tiles to sound different than if they were installed directly over a concrete slab.Although all of the tiles installed over the same substrate should have the same sound. If only a few of the tiles sound different then that might indicate that there are excessive voids under those tiles. Or one of the components under the tile isn't bonded.
Bottom line would be that there is something different under that tile assembly or its substrate that is causing the different sound.
A hollow sounding tile doesn't mean there is a problem unless there are resultant damages.
2 thoughts on “What is causing some of my tiles to sound hollow?”
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Donato,
I disagree with your answer. We had 3,000 feet of stone installed over mapeguard 2 and had numerous hollow tiles. We pulled the tile up and the mapeguard had numerous hollow pockets underneath the membrane which was causing the issue.
Hollow tile sounds can indicate that there might be a debonding problem or void under the tile, but not in all cases.
Some substrate conditions can give a tile a hollow type of sound when there is no problem. Such as a non-bonded mortar bed that is on top of a cleavage membrane or a tile bonded to a membrane or if the concrete substrate has voids within it or if you are sounding tile over stud framing it will give you a hollow sound.
You can’t assume a hollow sound is a problem without actually intrusively inspecting the conditions.