Tile be back

[j4]

There have been loose tiles around the bath for months. I've fixed a couple; not too hard, apart from sticking a screwdriver in my hand while trying to use it to scrape old tile-glue off the back of a tile.

This time six tiles in a row were coming loose. I thought it would be a simple matter of letting the tiles fall off gracefully, scraping off the old sticky, applying some new sticky, and repositioning the tiles. Same as last time but a bit more comprehensive (and hopefully without sticking screwdrivers in my hands -- never let it be said that I don't learn from my stupid mistakes).

All seemed to be going fine until the last tile in the row, behind which lurked Screaming Horrors. I mean, seriously, what on earth is going on behind that last tile? There's a sort of open box (the white bit) at the back of the space; the two dark struts appear to be made of wood, and when poked slightly with a screwdriver the left one wobbles like a loose tooth. Why would you have that behind some bathroom tiles? Is our house actually made of bits of cardboard held together with duct tape?

Should I hide something interesting in there so that the next person who does this gets a more pleasant surprise?

[ETA: don't know why the flickr tags link isn't working for anybody except me, but this should give the idea...]

Comments

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there was one of those indented soap dish tiles, which was replaced with a normal tile when the bathroom was retiled. And they didn't have cement to fill it with, so they just grabbed some spare bits of wood to prop up the tile while the grout set.

Put in a note and a twenty pence coin before retiling, is my suggestion.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Good idea. :-)

Is it okay to just stick it back on, though? I mean, the wood is kind of looking a bit mouldy. Should I find some new bits of wood?

I mean, I strongly suspect it'd be okay, but part of me thinks "no! don't botch! do it properly!" :-}

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

For some unknown reason the tag link isn't working. But, yeep! Somewhere to put a time capsule, or maybe a plot point? 8-)

[j4.livejournal.com]

Link works for me...

I don't think I have any plot points. :-( I was meant to pick one up around chapter 3, I think, but I was faffing and forgot.

[emperor]

I also get "no photos tagged DIY".

Is the space too big to fill "properly"?

[I should mention that I know ****-all about DIY]

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

There may have been pipework of some sort coming out there in the past. Though why they wouldn't fill it when tiling is a mystery.
Without seeing the pic I can only guess, but the wood is probably just packing and can go, though you might want to put something back where it was, to stop the wall behind slowly crumbling into the space.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Yeh, that's roughly where a side tap would come out. I bet they realised it was too big to fill with stuff like Polyfilla and couldn't be arsed to do it properly. Some of that expanding foam stuff would be favourite, or a halfbrick surrounded by Polyfilla (other proprietary fillers are available)

Plumbers: an epithet

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

It is "normal" to find all kinds of horros behind tile. I have seen newspapers, builder's rubble, and dead rodents under a shower tray perched precariously on breezblock (neighbour decided to DIY replacement of the downstairs shower stall: yuck), and newspaper from 1919 used to plug gaps; in my old house there was very crooked plaster underlying a layer of wallpaper under a layer of tile under a layer of rebar and cement under another layer of tile. (I did all four walls of stripping and retiling with the help of my tenant, in part, who was a DIY-loving physicist, bless him, and my did we have fun, amongst the 25 bags of rubble...)

Like oldbloke says, foam filler is your friend; at the very least, put anything you decide to leave in the way of notes in a glass jar with a cork stopper, otherwise they will act as mould media. Back your tile with a smaller one, first.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

My money's on a soap dish tile too - my granny's bath had one in just that sort of position. cf this image, though hers was a bit more recessed.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Should I hide something interesting in there so that the next person who does this gets a more pleasant surprise?

The images this gives me are very Amelie, fwiw.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Should I hide something interesting in there

A note made of letters cut from newspaper headlines reading "I wIlL kIlL aGaIn", perhaps

[lnr]

FWIW your DIY tag now seems to be working, although it wasn't earlier.

It was really weird going to the picture, clicking on the tag underneath and being told there were no photos with that tag. Silly Flickr!