Insufficient contact between the ceramic tiles and the wall and floor leads to problems such as loss of support, load-bearing, falling off, arching, inability to drill holes, and easy cracking. Most of the cases where hollows occur are bricks with a water absorption rate of less than 0.5%. Especially now that floor tiles are popular on walls, it is not uncommon for hollows to fall off.
Most hollow drums appear in one or more of the four corners of the tiles. The inspection is very simple. Just tap lightly with a small hammer to listen for the difference in sound. When tapping, tap on the four corners and the middle, a total of 5 Click to confirm whether the drum is hollow.
1. What are the causes of hollow drum
1. The cement gray is insufficient, not full and uneven;
2. Trampling on the tiles before drying causes them to loosen;
3. The cement markings are not enough and the old walls are not sprinkled with water;
4. The gap is too small (tiles that shrink and heat expand against each other);
5. The porcelain tiles are not soaked in water for insufficient time;
6. The wall has a waterproof layer but no tile glue or roughening treatment;
7. There is no tile adhesive or tile backing glue used on the floor tiles on the wall. The viscosity is not enough, resulting in hollowing;
8. Other reasons are welcome to add.
Nowadays, floor tiles are mostly constructed using the dry-laying method (that is, semi-dry cement mortar is used as base, and plain cement or tile adhesive is used before drying). There are many reasons for hollowing.
2. Treatment methods for different hollow phenomena
1. The hollow drum falls off
If the degree of hollowing is severe and the tiles have been completely loose or even fallen off, it means that the cement mortar layer under the tiles and the wall base (or floor base) have also become loose and "delamination". At this time, you can use tools such as a shovel Clean off the cement mortar layer, reapply the cement mortar and lay the tiles. It should be noted that if the tiles are only partially peeled off, do not hit the mortar on the foundation surface hard to prevent loosening of the originally solid tiles around them.
2. Hollow corner drum
Scrape the gaps in the tiles at the corners of the hollows, and then mix the cement into a very thin cement slurry. Use a metal hammer to hit the hollows to make them vibrate.While moving, pour cement slurry from the gaps so that the cement slurry gradually fills the hollows. After the cement slurry has solidified, recheck whether the tiles continue to hollow.
3. The middle part of the ceramic tile is hollow
At this time, you can choose to use a suction cup to suck the hollow tiles, lift them out straight, and then re-pave the hollow tiles according to the specifications. Another method is to break the tile from the middle and use a pry bar to carefully pry the damaged tile from the center to the surrounding sides until the tile is completely loose. This treatment will not cause damage to the surrounding tiles. After taking out the tiles, continue to re-lay them according to the specifications. However, in this case, when taking out the tiles, the hollow tiles will be damaged, so you need to find spare tiles of the same style and color. In addition, please note that when removing bricks, you must not smash them directly. Strong external impact may cause the hollow area to expand.
4. The degree is mild and the location is biased
If the tiles on the wall and floor are partially hollowed out, but it does not affect the installation of cabinets, mirror cabinets, showers, water heaters, etc., and the location is behind cabinets and other furniture, then the hollowed tiles will not be pressed against the tiles by the cabinet board. If it falls off easily, you can also consider leaving it alone. However, if it affects the installation and daily life, or the hollow position is conspicuous or has a high usage rate and a lot of stress, it is still necessary to knock out the local tiles and re-pave them according to the above conditions.
5. Large area hollowing
If there are hollows in more than 1/3 of the paving area, the entire tiles need to be pried out and re-paved. Generally speaking, this kind of large-area hollowing is usually caused by improper construction, and the construction party should bear the cost of tile damage and artificial auxiliary materials. At this time, all the bricks need to be taken out, the cement layer on the wall and floor is cut out, and then the base layer is remade and the ceramic tiles are laid.
3. How to check the hollow drum
Since the ceramic tiles generally cannot be inspected when they are just pasted, and hollowing often occurs during the drying process, acceptance can usually only be carried out on the second or third day after they are pasted.
Here I would like to remind everyone to go to the construction site more often during the tiling process, and bring this small hammer to check for empty drums, and then stick the bricks properly.The bricks will be ready for inspection in a day or two, so hurry up and accept them while the master is still here! It was found that on-site processing time and cost were the lowest.
4. How to remedy the hollow phenomenon?
Tile hollowing is one of the common problems during home decoration acceptance. It is usually caused by improper paving construction or poor quality of ceramic tiles, or the bond between the ceramic tiles and the structural layer is not strong. Hollows on the paved wall will undoubtedly cause many problems, so it is important to deal with them in time. Depending on the comprehensive consideration of the hollow drum area, location, type and other factors, different hollow drums have different treatment plans. Ceramic tile hollowing inspection Of course, before deciding on a treatment plan, you must first check whether there is hollowing on the walls and floors of your home.
When repairing hollow tiles, you often need to replace damaged tiles. If you do not keep spare tiles, you need to confirm with the tile seller whether you can find products with the same color number (preferably the same model, the same production batch), otherwise it is easy to occur Color difference.
