www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Well, I originally thought as I'd bought some pretty nice tiles that I'd have somebody do it for me. I walked in after he'd done the job to find 5 tiles smashed on the floor after having fallen off the wall! One even landed in the ceramic shower base!

I knocked on all the tiles left on the wall to find that all but about 10 were loose, most fell off after a good 'knock'. Gutted.

Maybe stupidly I'd presumed he would have prepared the wall before tiling...But he didn't. It had old paint/loose plaster on it to start with. The tiles that had fallen off all had the adhesive stuck to them, and on the wall were marks where the paint had come off along with the adhesive.

Obvious really. I was furious as I have two kids, dread to think what could have happened...

So I did it all myself, removed every single tile. Scored all the wall, tidied up plaster etc then refitted them all!

I'm not at all surprised they fell off.. they should be laid on a full bed of addy, not dabbed on..

What the

That is very bad. I'd be asking for a refund

I hope you didn't pay him!

wine~o wrote:I'm not at all surprised they fell off.. they should be laid on a full bed of addy, not dabbed on..

I've read lots of conflicting views on this, and even visiting different retailers around my way got a different answer every time

When I pulled each tile off, I had to knock off all the adhesive on the back of every single one, and believe me, it was stuck like sh*t to a blanket. So I wonder how well even a bed of adhesive would have stuck to the 'Paint' on the walls?

After removing the tiles, and removing all the lumps of adhesive, scoring all the walls etc, I did re fit them all using dot and dab again. They seem rock solid now, they even sound very solid when giving them a 'Knock'. Unlike previously when they sounded 'Iffy' and proceeded to fall off the wall.

Rorschach wrote:I hope you didn't pay him!

Unfortunately I'd already paid after seeing the job done, and when I went down a couple of days later...Disaster. Queried him, he seemed shocked saying he's never had it happen before. I told him about the paint on the walls, but he was convinced there must have been something wrong with the adhesive...

Offered to come back and 'Have a look' but I've had enough of idiots (Had a few on my house renovation) and told him I'd do it myself, so I did, literally straight away, no messing. Even the spacing is better now too.

You should never tile over paint.
And you should never dot n dab unless your walls a so out there's nothing you can do (other than renew the wall)
You need as much coverage on all tiles .

I had something similar when some cowboys did my bathroom. They did not prime new plaster, so tiles almost fell off. Most were stuck to blobs of cement too. The irony is that the cowboys were called Apache. So, the name was almost spot on, but not quite. I did get most of my money back!

CorradoG60 wrote:

wine~o wrote:I'm not at all surprised they fell off.. they should be laid on a full bed of addy, not dabbed on..

I've read lots of conflicting views on this, and even visiting different retailers around my way got a different answer every time

When I pulled each tile off, I had to knock off all the adhesive on the back of every single one, and believe me, it was stuck like sh*t to a blanket. So I wonder how well even a bed of adhesive would have stuck to the 'Paint' on the walls?

After removing the tiles, and removing all the lumps of adhesive, scoring all the walls etc, I did re fit them all using dot and dab again. They seem rock solid now, they even sound very solid when giving them a 'Knock'. Unlike previously when they sounded 'Iffy' and proceeded to fall off the wall.

Rorschach wrote:I hope you didn't pay him!

Unfortunately I'd already paid after seeing the job done, and when I went down a couple of days later...Disaster. Queried him, he seemed shocked saying he's never had it happen before. I told him about the paint on the walls, but he was convinced there must have been something wrong with the adhesive...

Offered to come back and 'Have a look' but I've had enough of idiots (Had a few on my house renovation) and told him I'd do it myself, so I did, literally straight away, no messing. Even the spacing is better now too.

You could have taken him to the small claims court. But you'd need to prepare a case.