Flooring and tiling checks in Kerala
Levels, slopes and the wet-area waterproofing live under the tiles. Water finds every shortcut taken here.
The checks at this stage (3)
- Photograph before this is covered
What disappears at this stage: levels, slopes and wet-area waterproofing, once the tile bed is laid. It cannot be inspected again without breaking something, so the photos taken now are the only record that will ever exist. Skipping this stays on your handover record permanently.
- Tiles laid to falls where water must drain, and bedding is full
A bathroom floor laid flat holds water against the skirting until it finds the wall behind. Hollow tiles crack under a dropped weight and lift at the corners.
- Tile batch and shade recorded before laying starts
Ceramic shade varies between production batches. Discovering it halfway through a floor means either living with a visible line or buying the whole floor again.
What good work looks like
Glue bed or mortar bed - the tile decides
Ordinary absorbent ceramic can sit on a traditional mortar bed. Dense vitrified and porcelain tiles cannot - they need a proper tile adhesive of the right class, or they sound hollow in a year and lift in two.
- Adhesive bags showing a proper IS 15477 type marking
- Adhesive class matched to the tile body and location
- Vitrified tiles never going onto plain mortar
- Vitrified tile on a mortar bed to save the adhesive cost
- One cheap adhesive used everywhere
- Unbranded bags with no type marking at all
IS 15477:2019 (adhesives) · IS 15622 (tiles)
Wet areas: waterproof first, tile last
The order is fixed: waterproofing membrane, turned up the walls; then screed; then the slope check; then adhesive; then tile. Tiles are not the waterproofing - they only hide whether it was done.
- A continuous membrane turned up the wall at edges
- A flood test done and held before tiling
- Waterproofing photographed before the screed hides it
- Tiling straight onto screed with no membrane below
- Membrane stopping at floor level, not turned up
- Later drilling puncturing the finished membrane
IS 3067:1988 · IS 2645
The floor must fall to the drain
A toilet floor slopes gently but definitely to the trap, set in the screed before tiling - about one unit of fall for every sixty across. The proof is simple: pour water and watch. It should all leave, with the trap at the corner so no dead pocket stays wet.
- Poured water draining fully to the trap, no ponding
- The slope built into the screed, not begged from adhesive
- The floor trap sitting at the extreme corner
- A dead-level floor relying on the wiper
- Ponding patches that stay wet all day
- The trap placed mid-floor with corners that hold water
NBC 2016 Part 9 · SP 35:1987
Straight joints, and the right grout for wet rooms
Spacers keep joints even - uneven joints are the first thing the eye catches forever after. In showers and wet zones, epoxy grout resists water and stains; ordinary cement grout does fine everywhere else.
- Spacers in use, joints even across the floor
- Epoxy grout in the shower and wet zones
- Grout packed full, not smeared thin
- Joints wandering wider and narrower across a wall
- Cement grout in the shower going grey in months
- Hollow, half-filled joints that crumble out
Trade practice - grout is outside IS 15477
Let the floor cure before it earns its living
The adhesive needs its curing window - typically no foot traffic for about a day and no heavy loading for about a week, exactly as the maker of that adhesive states. Walking early breaks the bond invisibly; the hollow sound arrives months later.
- The new floor barricaded through the first day
- Heavy work kept off for the maker's stated period
- The exact brand's datasheet setting the wait
- Trades walking the floor the same evening
- Ladders and scaffolding straight onto fresh tile
- A generic timing used for every adhesive brand
Manufacturer figures - always the named brand's own
Red flags and money traps
New floors need their curing window - typically a day before foot traffic and about a week before heavy loading, per the adhesive maker. Trades walking early break bonds invisibly; the hollow sound reports it months later.
Protect: Barricade fresh floors. The schedule bends; the bond does not.
In wet zones, epoxy grout shrugs off water and stains; cement grout goes grey and porous. Everywhere else cement grout is fine. Paying for epoxy exactly where water lives is the cheap version of this decision.
Where: Epoxy in showers and wet zones. Cement elsewhere. Joints even, packed full.
Cartons carry a batch and shade code. Confirm the whole quantity for a continuous area comes from one batch before laying begins, and keep spare boxes from that batch for future repairs.
Trade practice, not a code: Manufacturer batch/shade marking on the carton — established trade practice, not a code requirement