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I am putting in new flooring throughout most of my house.
The tile floor in my kitchen is only five years old but several of the tiles are cracked.The former owner, who had the tiles put in right before I bought the home, left dozens of spare tiles in the attic.
Is it cost effective to have the old tiles removed and replaced? I asked about this and was told the old tiles would have to be jack hammered and it would be costly to replace them.
I used to do it myself. If there is visible grout, use a hand grout saw to remove the bulk of the grout and break the bonds to nearby tiles. Then take a block of wood and hammer to break up the offending tiles, then get underneath the tile parts with a heavy screwdriver and whack it with the hammer to create an opening. (This is the critical part - if you hold the screwdriver wrong or miss the shot, you can chip the adjoining tile.) From then on it is just removal and leveling out any remaining thinset.
Once the tiles are all removed and the place cleaned up, it may pay you to hire a competent tileman to complete the task. The thinset has to not have significant gaps or the new tile will break, any grout has to be color matched (which can be a bear to do properly with lighter grout colors).
Chances are any existing grout has picked up a lot of dirt, grease, and discoloration. I used a hand steamer to remove that prior to color matching.
All in all, I'm glad to be away from ceramic tile. Other than dents and scrapes, I've always liked sheet flooring better.
Are they randomly cracked or is there a pattern? Do cracks line up?
If you have a pattern where the cracks are along the same line any replacements will most likely crack again.
How many are cracked? If it's lot even if there isn't a pattern I'd be concerned about how well they are installed. You shouldn't have a whole bunch of cracked tiles after 5 years unless they were abused.
Are they randomly cracked or is there a pattern? Do cracks line up?
If you have a pattern where the cracks are along the same line any replacements will most likely crack again.
How many are cracked? If it's lot even if there isn't a pattern I'd be concerned about how well they are installed. You shouldn't have a whole bunch of cracked tiles after 5 years unless they were abused.
The cracked tiles are along the edge where the tiled kitchen meets the carpet of the family room. About five or six are cracked. They had a slight crack when I bought the house, barely noticible but have separated more so the cracks are more noticeable.
The cracks are random, none of the cracked ones are next to each other.
Sounds like they were originally installed over a settling crack in the floor and now you're getting the results of more settling. If so then there is a possibility the new ones will eventually crack again.
Sounds like they were originally installed over a settling crack in the floor and now you're getting the results of more settling. If so then there is a possibility the new ones will eventually crack again.
So what is my best option here? Sorry if this is a silly question, but can settling cracks be repaired? The house is 20 years old.
If the cracks are random, it is not likely to be a settling issue. Take a broom, flip it upside down, and tap on the tiles with the broom handle. The tiles that sound hollow have gaps between the tile and the thinset (unsupported bridging) and are subject to cracks. If all the tiles sound solid, then I would think there might be an issue with a non-level base or settling.
The broom trick is something I picked up from an old boss. We were having to tile a very heavily trafficked hallway with terra-cotta, the tileman came in and did what appeared to be a beautiful job, my boss tapped every single tile and marked the ones that were hollow sounding for redoing. There had to have been over forty of them and the tileman reset them without a whimper. Both he and my boss knew that he had rushed and was going to have to pay for it. NONE of those tiles in that entire area ever cracked.
The cracked tiles are along the edge where the tiled kitchen meets the carpet of the family room. About five or six are cracked. They had a slight crack when I bought the house, barely noticible but have separated more so the cracks are more noticeable.
The cracks are random, none of the cracked ones are next to each other.
Would it be possible to remove the tiles along the edge where tile meets rug and install a wooden threshhold?
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