Dive Brief:

• Bad mortar is blamed for the failure of floor tiles installed just six years ago at the Utah Capitol.
• The tiles were expected to last for 50 years but have been coming loose for about two years.
• The replacement is being paid for with a $4.4 million insurance settlement. Any cost overage will be absorbed by the project's general contractor.

Dive Insight:

This is a classic "chain of failure" construction story -- one link goes wrong and entire project fails. All of the tiles must be replaced -- they cannot simply be put back in place with new mortar. The subcontractor that performed the initial work is now out of business.