Swimming Pool Glass Tile Mosaic Cracking - Tile Edge Quality

Poor Edge Tolerances

There are many reasons why glass tiles crack.  The most common is damage to the tile - a chip, scratch or impact.  These traumatic events occur during the manufacturing, handling, shipping or installation process.

Manufacturing Processes

Glass tiles are made into small squares by a number of various processes.  Cast or pressed, individually cut or snapped are the three most widely used methods.

Cast Tiles
Cast tiles are created when molten glass is poured into molds, individually forming each tile.  The process may be inverted, when a cookie cutter style press stamps out individual and distinct tiles.

Cut Tiles
Cut tiles are formed by cutting the tiles from a larger sheet of glass.  The tiles are usually then re-fired in a kiln to relieve stresses imparted during the cutting process.

Snapped Tiles
Snapped tiles are a more rudimentary method of forming tiles.  These are made by one of two processes: 

• a cookie cutter style mold presses the tile shapes into molten glass.  The cutter does not separate the tiles into individual pieces, leaving them connected by a thin layer of glass.
• molten glass is placed onto a mold tray and allowed to cover the mold.  It is then pressed or allowed to fill the cavities.  The tiles are connected by the layer of glass that remained across the dividers.

After annealing, they are later "snapped" apart, creating the separate pieces.  The process of snapping imparts chips and stress along the edges of the tiles.  Unless the tiles are re-fired in the kiln, these stressed tiles are handed off to the consumer.

Hard to Detect

These chips and stresses are hard to detect.  Since the tiles are usually mounted on an opaque paper, inspections are difficult for the end user, if not impossible.

Resulting Cracks

The stress that concentrates around these imperfections from thermal expansion will cause the tiles to crack.  Because not every tile has these imperceivable flaws, the cracking will occur randomly and the manufacturer will blame the installation practices.


Paolo Benedetti - Aquatic Artist "Creating water as art."™ 
Aquatic Technology Pool and Spa ©www.aquatictechnology.com 
You may contact Paolo Benedetti at: info@aquatictechnology.com or at 408-776-8220

Swimming Pool Glass Tile Expert Cracking Wine Country

Another game of "blame the installer."

The bottom of the totem pole

The poor tile installer is always at the end of the pecking order.  And the recycled glass tile mosaic manufacturers know that these people have the fewest resources to defend their case.

Business Ethics?

As long as a recycled glass tile mosaic manufacturer continues to produce products that cannot withstand temperature gradients (thermal shock), their glass tiles will continue to crack.

Once the tiles are installed, they can blame an improper installation.  

But what if the same tiles are left unmounted in a tupperware pan in the swimming pool?  What if those same tiles crack, though they are unmounted?  Can't blame the installer.... hmmm.

Cracked Glass Tiles

Show me any 2 year old installation of glass tile mosaics made with recycled content, and I'll be able to locate cracked tiles.  

Click on the image to view the cracking in these 4x4 glass tile mosaics.  They are from the same recycled glass tile manufacturer as the small 1x1 tiles in the image below.

Yet, there are countless installations of glass tile mosaics that contain nothing but virgin materials, that are in a pristine condition.  Hmmm...

Buying recycled might be savy, but buying Virgin is smarter !

Purchasing glass tile mosaics that contain recycled content may be trendy and hip.  But chipping out broken glass tile mosaics is far from glamorous.  All of those broken glass tiles end up in the landfill anyway, along with the mortar bed, thinset and grout.... not to mention the time, agony and money.  Those glass tiles cannot be recycled again with all of those contaminates.  How is that GREEN?

Inherent manufacturing flaws, broken edges and surface imperfections - any may contribute to cracking.  Click on the image to enlarge it and to view the random cracking up close.

Therefore, virgin materials of the first quality are actually more environmentally savy.  They are destined to remain in their installed state for years, staying out of the landfill.

Paolo Benedetti - Aquatic Artist 
"Creating water as art."™ 
Aquatic Technology Pool and Spa ©www.aquatictechnology.com 
You may contact Paolo Benedetti at: info@aquatictechnology.com or at 408-776-8220