'I didn't know walls are supposed to fall off': Local influencer wakes up to find his kitchen tiles popping off

After being woken up by a loud noise, local influencer Thomas Kopankiewicz came out to his kitchen and was greeted by a rather astonishing sight. 

Quite a number of his kitchen wall tiles had suddenly popped off, and were piled on the floor in a heap. 

Showing the damaged wall in the video posted on Thursday (Feb 9), Kopankiewicz lamented: "I didn't know walls are supposed to do this, I didn't know it's supposed to fall off." 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@heythomask/video/7198129935012138241[/embed]

The content creator then showed the other walls that also took damage, and included a short clip of him cleaning up the mess. 

Kopankiewicz also confessed to his audience: "I just left my job, I don't have money to renovate this place." 

To remedy the situation, he came up with a 'nifty' solution — by using masking tape to put the tiles back on the wall. 

"Slowly put it back, this works," he joked while giving the camera a thumbs up. 

Over in the comments, netizens poked fun at Kopankiewic's predicament by saying it was 'peeling season'.

Some netizens also suggested various reasons for the popping tiles.

In the thread, Kopankiewicz said that he has been living in this flat for about 15 years, and the tiles might be around 20 years old too.

AsiaOne has reached out to Kopankiewicz for further comment. 

Reasons for popping tiles 

According to an article by The Straits Times, there are many reasons why tiles may pop. 

One of these includes weather changes, which causes the thermal expansion or contraction of tiles, leading to a loss of adhesion between the tiles and the screed surface.

Another factor could also be poor construction or quality of the tiles. In some cases, the cement base is not mixed properly, so when tiles are laid on top, the bonding between them is incomplete. 

Although flat owners are generally responsible for the maintenance of their flats, the Housing Development Board (HDB) will help flat owners repair dislodged tiles originally provided by HDB for a period of up to 15 years. 

Unfortunately, for flats that are more than 15 years old, flat owners will need to engage their own contractors to carry out the tile replacement. 

ALSO READ: 'Thought the building was about to collapse': Grandma and toddler stunned as floor tiles in Tampines HDB flat explode

claudiatan@asiaone.com

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