When renovating a new home, many people simply can't make it to the renovation site every single moment to keep an eye on the progress. Most of them are busy working during the day, so they usually only check in after work. If they spot any problems, they’ll directly contact the construction workers. Today, we’d like to share the story of just such a homeowner: He has to go to work during the day and only visits his new home in the evenings. However, this homeowner is quite meticulous—he always marks any areas he notices that seem problematic, then sets aside some time to discuss these issues with the construction crew. Even when laying the tiles, he made numerous markings, though he wasn’t entirely sure what they meant. What he didn’t expect, though, was that after the installer saw the marks he’d made, they reached out to him immediately, informing him that they couldn’t continue working anymore.

You absolutely must not install tiles this way—there’s severe hollowing, you could even fit a whole key inside!

When renovating a new home, many people simply can't make it to the renovation site every single moment to keep an eye on the progress. Most of them are busy working during the day, so they usually only check in after work. If they spot any problems, they’ll directly contact the construction workers. Today, we’d like to share the story of just such a homeowner: He has to go to work during the day and only visits his new home in the evenings. However, this homeowner is quite meticulous—he always marks any areas he notices that seem problematic, then sets aside some time to discuss these issues with the construction crew. Even when laying the tiles, he made numerous markings, though he wasn’t entirely sure what they meant. What he didn’t expect, though, was that after the installer saw the marks he’d made, they reached out to him immediately, informing him that they couldn’t continue working anymore.

Let’s take a look at the photos—the wall tiles haven’t been fully installed yet. However, the homeowner has marked nearly every corner of the wall tiles. Actually, it’s quite right for the homeowner to make these marks, because there are air bubbles in those areas.

However, what the homeowner didn't expect was that when the contractor came back the next day to resume work, after seeing these signs, he didn't explain to the homeowner what had caused the hollow sound. Instead, he said he had some personal matters to attend to and couldn't continue tiling anymore. He suggested that the homeowner find a new tile installer to take over the job. After the newly hired tile installer explained the situation to the homeowner, the homeowner was still very upset, feeling that the previous tile installer had been utterly irresponsible.
That’s because the new tile installer said that all the areas marked showed signs of hollow spots. As you can see from the cross-section of the wall, the issue wasn’t due to inadequate cement shrinkage—it was caused by improper installation. As a result, the cement wasn’t fully filled in. Moreover, on the wall where the tiles had been removed, we could clearly see that the exposed cement had virtually no adhesion at all.