Why tiling your terrace is a bad idea?

From huge buildings, medium-sized homes to small homes most of the houses have a terrace in India. And, the majority of the terrace will have rainwater leakage or any other form of leakage at a point. Rain is the most common cause of terrace leakage. Terrace leaks can occur when the terrace floor is not cleaned properly, and water collects between the trash.

Terrace leaks on tiled terraces are the most damaging and costly. Installing tiles on the terrace is the simplest and the easiest than installing them in a home or a bathroom. However, it is difficult to maintain, and if not correctly kept, the flat or floor below the terrace would experience rainwater leaking 100 per cent of the time during the rainy season.

Why do most terrace with tiles faces leakages?

The answer may be found in the gaps that form between each tile over time. Yes, it is a basic issue, yet many waterproofing professionals overlook it. The issue with putting tiles on a terrace isn't that they'll break.

However, after a year or two, the grout material used to cover the space between each tile wears out. The leakage caused by the spaces between the tiles is greater than the leakage caused by the tiles themselves. Only when a damaged tile on the terrace is overlooked does a leak through the tiles occur.

So how do water leakage on a tiled terrace work?

Two possibilities lead to leakage on the terrace with tiles:

a) Water leaks through the gaps of the tiles.

b) Water leakage through broken tiles.

a) Water leak through gaps of the tiles:

When the grout material is exposed to high temperatures, it cracks and produces micro-milliy gaps (which will not be visible to the human eye), allowing water to seep through the tile gaps.
This enables water to soak through, causing the joints between each tile to deteriorate. This will occur in all of the tiles that are present on the terrace. Once the water has collected beneath the tiles, it begins to leak through the below floor.

b) Water leakage through broken tiles.

This rarely leads to major damage, because it is a visible one and the homeowners most of the time get it changed asap. But some of them ignore the broken tiles which result in huge damages.

So is it worth tilleing your terrace?

Team at Wet2dry Solutions opinion is a no. But if you want your terrace to be tiled go for it. But it comes with yearly maintenance, if not taken seriously the damages caused due to the leakages will cost more than the maintenance charges.

Whereas terraces without tiles just have to undergo regular normal waterproofing which will cost less money than laying tiles and you don't have to worry for the next 15 to 16 years.