Help! Tiles falling off in shower

Bridgette01 · 26-11-2011, 11:49 AM

Hello All, Half the tiles in my shower are falling off or about to. The tiles were originally fixed in place with what appears to be 1 or 2mm of tile adhesive (see photo) The back of the removed tiles show a very small contact area with the adhesive. There is cement sheet used as a back board and it appears to be pretty much dry. I suspect this cement sheet has asbestos contained in it as the house is built in the 60's.

I am able to simply peel the old tile adhesive off the cement sheet (or simply flick it off ) and re glue and grout the tiles back on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

brenx · 26-11-2011, 12:51 PM

If you can peel of the adhesive easily? That would be the best bet provided the cement sheet isn't wet. Generally the tiles will only start to fall off if moisture has got in via the grout.

The cement sheet will have a warning if there is any asbestos in it but the adhesive may have removed it? It's possible that the sheet has been replaced since the 60's. I think this due to the tile design.

Bridgette01 · 26-11-2011, 01:39 PM

Yep, adhesive is falling of the cement sheet and the cement sheet is dry

Jim Goose · 26-11-2011, 01:57 PM

Asbestos sheets dont carry a warning .....
Any old flat fibro which has the egg cup pattern on the back contains asbestos, as well as all those old giant corrigated roof tiles.

Before tiling to fibro you need to apply a sealant and it appears the sealant has lost its grip (as you suspected).

Kinda a tough situation as you dont want to use a scaper to remove the old selant and tile adhesive just in case you dig into the fibro as you dont want to disturb it. But depending on how many tiles are affected it would be better to just lightly pull on them and try and remove the sealant etc....

If the sealant doesnt come away easy then your really in a bind and may have to fork out a lot of money to remove the fibro. You can get it tested however just to be sure that it contains asbestos.

If your worried about fibres coming away buy some fibro sealant (water based) and simply paint it on for now. It dries clear and needs to be applied anyways before you apply the tile adhesive.

jaydee · 26-11-2011, 05:12 PM

Sounds like the fibro wasn't treated first giving the cement/glue a good surface to adhere to. Just like a primer on timber etc.
Don't envy you the clean up.

Bridgette01 · 26-11-2011, 05:33 PM

Thanks for every ones input, 1 x 6 pack later and this is the final result...patch up job...minus grout...

2 broken tiles later......

brenx · 27-11-2011, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

Asbestos sheets dont carry a warning ..... snip

Most of the sheeting I've seen does. I used to work in the hard garbage industry. Residents would always try to hide it, some left notes not asbestos yet written on the sheet during manufacture was a warning saying "contains asbestos etc etc"

I dare say though there would be tonnes of it that doesn't carry any warning as it probably was produced before it was discovered how dangerous it was to handle.