Faulty Workmanship

I had some work done on my house which involved knocking down a wall between two rooms. When the wall was knocked down the builder found that the floors were not level. He suggested laying ply wood on one of the floors to bring it up to the level of the other room and then tile over the ply wood. Over time the tiles which were laid on top of the ply wood have cracked sporadically in numerous places (about a quarter of the floor tiles). I have since had a tiler call to the house and he lifted one of the tiles and told me that the reason for the problem was that the ply wood was not put down properly and there was too much give, he told me that I would be wasting my time if I replaced the broken tiles as the same thing would happen again. It seems like a case of faulty workmanship but Im not sure what steps if any that I can take?? Do you think my home insurance would cover this or do builders have insurance for this type of thing?

Hmmm,, not sure what can be done now.

There's a subjective aspect to this.. so it's neither right nor wrong. It's wrong in the sense that the plywood base floor isn't rigid enough for tiles, and so must be re-done.

If it was done in the previous 12 months I'd get back onto the original builder, and ask for his insurance details, if he has insurance. If he does it will likely wake him up, as he won't want claims made.

But the repairs are a large job, and so he won't want to re-do the work. That's why he has insurance.


Other than that I don't think much can be done, excepth lobbying the government to ensure that builders etc are up to scratch in the future.

dejected said:

he told me that I would be wasting my time if I replaced the broken tiles as the same thing would happen again.

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If you remove a tile or two or three you would reinforce that area with a few extra hammer in fixings (6 x 80 would do the trick)

Each ply sheet should have been placed using at least 16 of these fixings initially.

I'd have thought that the supports under the plywood aren't sufficient.

David may be correct, in that putting in more fixings may help.. but it could also be that the plywood itself needs to be removed, and proper supports placed below that. There shouldn't be much flex in 18mm plywood.. unless something silly like thinner plywood was used, or even sillier if the edges of the plywood sheets are unsupported.

I'm uncertain exactly what's needed. Hopefully Davids solution will work if you're paying yourself.

Hi Dejected,

Welcome to AAM.

I have moved your thread to Homes and Gardens Forum to see if there is any further advice that you can get with regard to the repairs.

A copy of this thread will remain in the Consumer Issues Forum also for one month so the move is covering both options.

Best of luck with your endeavours with the builder.