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

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.