Crack in floor

Kashkai

As most long term members of this forum will know, my self build was the nightmare of nightmares, so I don't want to and won't go into the disaster that it was.

However, the problems keep on coming so I'd like some advice as to what I should do about the latest issue:

The floortiles in the kitchen developed a hairline crack about 8 months ago that is spreading. This crack appeared to start under the island unit (which is about 6ft x 3ft with a heavy granite counter top) and spread out about 12 inches either side of the island unit on a diagonal path. The crack appeared to have stopped spreading for a while and I thought that perhaps the heavy island unit had been the cause and the tiles under the island weren't strong enough for the weight or the tiler had left voids under the tiles.

However, the hairline crack is now spreading again and appears to have lengthened by about 3 - 4 inches, ie. tiles adjacent to the original crack that were untouched are now showing signs of cracking themselves as the original crack lengthens. This leads me to believe that I have a much more serious problem of the slab itself splitting which is placing pressure on the tiles and making them crack as the slab itself splits/subsides. There are some minor hairline cracks in the walls near the ceilings but they have been there since day one and I'm sure they are settlement cracks as opposed to being directly involved with the floor problem.

Anyways, what to do? If I go digging up the affected tiles, I don't think I can get replacements as the tile shop is closed down and these tiles are all over the kitchen (26ft x 12ft), the utility and the loo off the utility. If I could get replacements, do I just remove the broken tiles and replace these or will I have to dig up the whole bloody slab, ruining the damn kitchen in the process (how I'll manage to keep wife and 5 kids fed with no kitchen will be fun).

Has anyone ever had a similar problem and what caused it? I'm thing worse case scenario myself where the wife's pride and joy €25k kitchen is ripped out, the whole floor is dug up, no kitchen for a while, trying to mind 5 kids from the sitting room, through the bombsite kitchen to the bedroom end of the house (this kitchen literally IS the heart of our house and everything passes through it!) not to mind the bloody expense. I hate this house.:mad::mad::mad:

Irjudge1

Any Pics OP?

brundle

If the crack is continuous across numerous tiles, it must surely be due to problems from underneath and not just badly bedded tiles.
Could possible be due to lack of expansion joints in the concrete screed.
What is your floor construction?

Kashkai

The floor is a single concrete slab (no expansion joints) on top of insulation and hardcore that is down about 2 and 1/2 years now. The builder was a cowboy and thats why I'm thinking worse case scenario of a slab thats too thin and has thus cracked, subsided. If I could get replacement tiles, I'd try laying them on a flexible adhesive that would accommodate some minor movement in the slab but that might be a waste of time.

BTW I did have spare tiles left over but they "disappeared" from the house prior to the builder fecking off - we had a major dispute at the time and this was just one of many issues.

mickdw

Difficult to say what the problem is here. Are your services cast into the finished slab or what?
Is it a finished raft or finished floor on strip foundation. Im assuming strip foundation from what you said.
It may be just down to expansion problems. I much prefer using a screed and weakening it at each doorway to reduce likelyhood of cracks.
Were the flour finishes put down when floors were very fresh?

Quick question: did the slab have any reinforcing in it, sounds like the Island unit may have "sunk" a bit.

Joey the lips

Hi Dave

Just a word of caution. Flex adhesive although used on wooden floors which flex is mainly designed to allow the tile to flex and not the floor. I doubt any adhesive will work here so what you can do if you manage to get the tiles is silicone them down and use grout with plenty of admix to make it flex. A tiler will explain better but ufor the type of movement in a concrete floor is to large for adhesives.

Sorry for the troubles dave