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QUESTION
Why did my tile Tent after 16 years? - This week the 12 inch tile in her kitchen started tenting early in the morning. The insurance adjuster came out to look at it and he said that tile usually doesn't tent after 16 years, which is I believe the age of the house. I have lived there for 7 years. He then sent an architectural engineer out to look at the tile. The engineer removed a 3 inch square section of tile and dropped some water on the concrete below to determine if the concrete had been sealed. He determined that it had not.I believe that a more thorough investigation of the cause of the tenting should have been performed. Could you give a possible explanation for why the tile would tent suddenly after 16 years? We know it's not a sinkhole, which the adjuster didn't rule out. We did receive 9.86 inches of rain in September, which is 175% more than the average of 5.64 inches. 6,86 inches were received in the three weeks prior to the tile tenting, beginning 9.14.14 through 09.30.14. So maybe that is a contributing factor?
ANSWER
ANSWER - Tile tents for a number of compounding deficiencies. First the tile isn't bonded as well as it should be for various potential reasons. There probably are no movement joints at the perimeter of the tiled areas and within the field of tile in longer spans. The tile looks to be a porous body type of tile meaning that it has a higher coefficient of expansion when subjected to moisture or heat.Why the tile tented after 16 years? Again probably for compounding reasons. The tile has probably been poorly bonded and under tension for quite some time. Then the rain may have caused the concrete slab to be subjected to additional moisture that then migrates up to the tile causing the tile to expand, which was probably the straw that broke this camels back.
To determine why the tile wasn't bonded better than it was would require removing tiles and performing various tests and observations.
To fix the floor will likely require removing all of the tile and re-installing the old tile if it came up cleanly without the thin-set mortar attached to its back or to replace it with new tile. Of course it needs to be installed correctly per industry standards to ensure a successful installation.
17 thoughts on “Why did my Tile tent after 16 years?”
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Marvelous information, though sill have to find someone I can afford and my insurance company did nothing for me.
Maybe after 16yrs the waterproof membrane beneath the slab has been compromised by movement, tree roots etc allowing the unprotected slab areas to increase moisture absorption. Insurance covers the resulting damage from an Insurable event, never the cause of damage. In most cases I have come across it is an incorrect adhesive issue , lack of expansion joints or method of application.
It is possible that there was a vapor retarder under the slab, but that over the years it has degraded.
I don’t know about the tree roots being significant unless there was structural damage to the slab.
In many USA states the insurance company will cover the resultant damages from the event, even if a contributing factor to the damages was due to an improper installation. In some states they won’t cover it if there was a faulty installation that contributed to the damages as a result of an event. The insurance will not cover pre-existing conditions.
I agree that the contributing factors to tenting are lack of bond strength, lack of expansion joints, and there could be other factors in terms of materials and methods used.
As a 25 year installer, if it was down 16 years, there was no bonding issue. It’s always easier to blame the installer.
Tile mortar is NOT cement. It will slowly soften when exposed to water. If the area received that much excessive rain, the ground pressure w the water over saturated the slab, it swelled enough to buckle the tile.
If the surface is prepped properly and there is full transfer, the tile will stay in place.
Had the house settled causing down pressure on the outer edge of the slab? Everyone has seen a crack or seam start to show in their older homes or a popped nail or screw head, that is all caused by pressure.
That’s my 2 cents. I have never had to replace any tile on slab and have only seen 1 tented tile job.
Whether the tile was bonded well or not is irrelevant in this case. Even a tile bonded well can fail if at some point in its existence it is subjected to a stress that is greater than its ability to withstand the stress.
A tile floor that is subjected to excessive moisture can cause the tile to expand causing the stress. If there are no movement joints to mitigate the stress, then the tile can fail.
Thin-set mortars that are suitable for exterior applications do not get soft over time. They actually get harder due to the cement it contains. That is why they can be used in swimming pools and other submerged applications. If it is the wrong kind of thin-set mortar not suitable for exterior and submerged applications, then it can get soft and degrade.
Saturated concrete slabs don’t exert pressure on to tiles. They can cause the tile to expand as explained above. The only way moisture can cause a pressure is if there is hydrostatic water pressure. The only way you can get hydrostatic water pressure is if water is draining down from a high elevation to the lower elevation where the concrete slab resides. Or if after a rain the water table rises above the level of the concrete slab, then that can cause hydrostatic water pressure. Otherwise materials like a sponge absorbs water and may expand, but the water doesn’t exert a pressure. Water is like electricity in that it always takes the path of lease resistance.
We perform forensic investigations throughout the the USA , so we see a lot of failures, but overall it is only a small percentage of all installations.
The key to avoiding failures is to follow industry standards, manufacturers’ directions, and building codes. Standards are established by industry consensus groups in order to avoid reoccurring problems.
About 4 years ago I had tiles tent in the middle of my bedroom 10 feet from an outside wall, in the middle of dry season. The house was 8 years old. Built in the tropics (Panama) so, no frost and there was no seismic activity. No leaking plumbing (I’m a plumber) and no rain for 2 months and not ever in direct sunlight. Any thoughts on why? Ok, so last night, at the other end of the house it started again in the middle of my living room 30 feet away. The house is 12 years old now. Frustrating. Info would be much appreciated !!
The reasons that ceramic floor tiles debond and tent up is because the tiles are constrained within an areas and then they have expanded. If tiles expand while being constrained then they how only one way to go and that is up. A contributing factor might be that the tile wasn’t bonded to its substrate as well as it could have been.
The more porous the tile clay body, the greater propensity it has to expand. The expansion can be caused by moisture either from water, or vapor or humidity. And/or the tile can expand from being subjected to higher temperatures.
Typically the tiles that tent have been subjected to cycles of expansion and contraction from moisture and temperature variations over a long period of time that eventually get to a point of releasing that pent-up stress by debonding and tenting up.
That is why movement joints are required for tile installations both at restraining surfaces , change of planes and materials, and within the field of tile.
My 18” x 18” tile has buckled and tented after 16 yrs. Without warning there were loud cracking noises that lasted for several minutes. We did not see the tile rise because we evacuated the house as a precaution. An hour later I investigated to find the cause of the noises. I found no cracks in the sheetrock, no sticking doors, and no cracks in the exterior stucco. However, I found the tile in the family room nickeled (tented) near the center of the area. There are ridges in the four (4) directions tapering away from the peak. The ridge moving toward the exterior wall rised an inch above the base plate it butted against. There did not appear to be expansion joints as far as I could tell.
Is this an unusual tile buckling occurrence?
How do I present this to my insurance company?
Normally there are a combination of deficiencies that lead to a tenting problem. The tiles are butted up against the perimeter walls and there are not movement joints. The tile isn’t bonded as well as it could be so it is more susceptible and less resistant to stress. The tile maybe a more absorbing tile that will expand more when subjected to moisture causing a greater level of stress on the tile.
A contributing factor could be that during rainy periods that your concrete slab is being subjected to moisture that will then migrate into the absorbing tile that causes the tile to expand. The expanding tile is constrained by the perimeter walls it is butted up against that causes the stress on the tile. Once the stress is greater than the restraining bond of the tile, then the tile releases and tents.
Normally insurance companies will not cover a failed tile situation like this unless it was caused by a flood or water leak incident.
We have a 15 yr old (northern Florida) house, same tile thought 1500 sq’. We noticed titles had hollow sound and one day (Dec. 19) 4 tiles in the living room (largest area) were tented tiles. We pulled them up and all the bonding is on the tile, very little on the slab. Cannot tell if there was ever a barrier between slab & tile. We filed a claim with insurance, denied. Engineer report stated no expansion joints in a 30′ span which would have given our floor ability to “breathe”. We hired a public adjuster (PA) and he asked if we ever had a water issue. We remembered 2 yrs ago our washing machine broke. We were gone for weekend and discovered on a Monday. Water was on floor, just in laundry room, we cleaned it up and we repaired our machine. Fast forward 2 yrs, tiles tent & 33% of tiles are hollow sounding. PA stated that could have been the reason tiles throughout house have de-bonded and we used them to file claim against insurance carrier we had 2 yrs ago (different co). Of course, they are denying. We are at a place now whether to proceed to a lawsuit and don’t know if its worth it. Estimate to repair from our contractor was $32,000. PA estimate was $51,000. And it is tile that we cannot match. I don’t know what caused the tenting & this de-bonding. Is it just age, wear & tear or the weekend water from washing machine? Is it worth a lawsuit? What if they settle for $10k? That won’t help us!
Some believe that the tenting is sole due to lack of movement joints. From my experience tenting of tile is due to multiple compounding deficiencies. Lack of movement joints cam be a primary factor, but it is normally also due to the tile not being bonded as well as it should have been. Tile tenting is when the tile assembly expands beyond the tile attachment being able to resist that stress. If the tile is bonded well it may not tent, but there could be cracking or other systems. The fact that the thin-set adhesive stayed bonded to the back of the tile rather than to the concrete slab suggests that the concrete slab might have had a curing compound or other contaminate that could have prevent or limited the bond strength. That said, sometimes tile floors will be in compression and/or it will go through cycles of expansion and compression that at some point the bond releases causing a series of tiles adjacent to each other to debond and tent up.
With that said, normally the insurance companies don’t consider whether the tile was installed correctly or not when evaluating a claim. The key supporting evidence is whether there was resultant damages from the insurable event that the tile floor was subjected to. If the tile had tented as a result of the washing machine water leak, at the time of the incident, the insurance company would normally cover it.
If the tile tented 2 years later after the washing machine event then I would not expect them to cover the cost of repairing or replacing the floor.
The tented tiles don’t mean the entire floor is compromised. If you can remove the tented tiles without breaking them and clean them up without damaging them you can re-install them. Although you need install movement joints at the perimeters of the tiled areas and within the field of tile every 20′ to 25′ in each direction if it is that large of an area.
I’ve sold tile for 40 years. I’ve seen this twice, once in my own basement. Both homes were 45-50 yrs old with no problem. One had been tile for 40 years, the other 25. Both had an addition put on the abutted the area that tented. I wondered it changed the water pressure in some way.
Tenting isn’t due to water pressure. Moisture could be a contributing factor as it causes the tile to expand. Tenting is due to the tile expanding and contracting and being constrained without having movement joints installed to mitigate that stress. Tenting isn’t something that is caused by a single event, but rather it is the result of the tile going through multiple cycles of movement and eventually exceeding the ability of the tile to stay bonded, which could be after many many years of performance without the problem.
Donato – thanks so much for this information. About a dozen of the kitchen tiles (ceramic over terrazzo installed about 12 years ago by the previous owners) in my Tampa FL area home “tented” over the weekend – seemingly out of nowhere. I was convinced that we had a major disaster. After reading your postings, I used my multi-tool to remove the grout from the affected area and sure enough, the tiles just lifted out! Zero adhesion to the terrazzo. Now I plan to just use the multi-tool to remove the out adhesive from the tile backs and re-install them. Any suggestions on a better adhesive product for the re-install?
You should scarify the terrazzo with a grinder and then clean it. Make sure it readily absorbs a drop of water. Use an ANSI A118.4 or better polymer modified thinset mortar to bond the tile to the terrazzo. First use the flat side of the notched trowel to forcibly apply a thin layer of thinset to the back of the tile and to the terrazzo. Then add more thinset with the notched side of the trowel to make sure you are getting full contact between the tile and the terrazzo.
So now you have treated the symptom of the problem which was the tile tenting. The cause of the problem is that you probably didn’t have any movement joints at the perimeter of the room or every 20 to 25 feet through out the floor. So unless you fix the problem the symptom could reoccur. Some people caulk the replaced tile grout joints with a traffic grade ASTM C920 sealant, which is normally a polyurethane sealant and hope that will help, which it may or many not help.
I had ceramic tiles tent almost 1year to the day after a geyser failed pouring a few hundred litres of water down the wall. The water that was on top of a layer of vinyl tiles I was able to mop up. The insurer came in to deal with the resultant damage and repaired ceilings and walls, never once asking about the floor. We had covered the 40 year old tile job with self levelling cement and had put vinyl on top of this. Clearly what has happened as the year has gone on, is that the original tile cement/adhesive has eroded and weakened and with the much stronger cement above, has now began to tent, starting from the point that the water came down the wall. Insurance obviously want to walk away now, but had the checked the damage properly a year ago, they would undoubtedly have found it. What should my argument with them be?
Normally when there is failure of some sort it is never due to a single deficiency, but rather due to multiple compounding deficiencies.
Water does not hurt the cementitious mortars used to install tile. In fact, the water makes the mortar stronger over time.
If you don’t have movement joints installed to mitigate stresses in the tile caused by the tile expanding from the water, it could contribute to the tenting of the tile.
Normally the insurance company can’t claim the tile wasn’t installed correctly. All that matters to the insurance company is whether there was resultant damages from the water loss event. They won’t pay for pre-existing damages. So the challenge is having someone knowledgeable enough to be able to discern the evidence between was was resultant damages and what was pre-existing damages.
You use the term geyser for the water loss. If that means that there was some rupture of a water source outside of the house that literally created a huge force of water, it is possible that water could have applied pressure to the bottom of the concrete slab that then caused a hydrostatic water condition. That is a water pressure from below the tile pushing up, and that is known to cause tiles to debond.
Otherwise, if there is evidence that the water on the vinyl tile was able to migrate below to the original tile that was a porous tile, it is possible it expanded and due to lack of movement joints it caused that tile floor to tent up. The tough part is to be able to prove that.