Kitchen Floor Tile Loose Grout

I have a modular house that has a problem with the grout in the kitchen cracking and lifting out. Three times the floor was regrouted and twice the floor was reinforced with extra bracing in the basement. The last grout…

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Is there anything I can put over the tile, like another floor, so i dont have to go through the mess that happens when the old grout is ripped out. the whole house gets covered with a fine film of dust including the inside of all the cabinets.

Our Answer

Wow, what an odd situation! You can add a 2nd layer of ceramic tile over the first but I feat that this may not address the problem. As you know, ceramic tile and grout is not elastic and if there is any flex in that floor, this sort of this could happen again.
A more sure-fire way to deal with this would be to tear out the tile completely and install a mud base. This involves nailing down a woven wire mesh to the sub-floor and then applying a cement (aka “mud”) tile base that is leveled and ends up usually about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick. This would provide a rock solid and non flexible floor upon which you can confidently install tile and grout. I' d also recommend though the the structure below the floor be professionally evaluated so that we can make sure there are no structural issues contributing to this.
If that option is just more than you want to deal with, another way to go would be in to install laminate floor on top of the tile. Laminate floor today is incredibly durable and beautiful. It can look like stone, ceramic or even hardwood.