Can I Fill Cracks in Broken Floor Tile?

Find out when and how to fix cracked floor tiles, and when those cracks are the sign of a bigger problem – and solution.

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LESLIE: Margaret in Arkansas is on the line with at tiling question. What can we do for you?

MARGARET: I’ve got a big imagination. I was hoping that there was a product out there that would equal it.

LESLIE: OK.

MARGARET: I’ve got an old floor that I was hoping that I could maybe fill the cracks and the little places it’s chipped out and then refinish the whole floor to where it looked like new.

TOM: Yeah, that’s – I would not pursue that. Because you know what? First of all, the reason it cracked is probably because the subfloor wasn’t properly installed or has weakened for some reason. Because tiles don’t bend. And if they’re cracking, that means that the floor is weak underneath.

So, except for the occasional odd repair when you’re just fixing one or two cracked or broken tiles, it’s not the kind of thing that you want to invest any time in whatsoever.

MARGARET: So, the best thing is just to take it up or …?

TOM: You can either take it up or you could actually put a new floor on top of that if you don’t want it to be tile. You could, for example, install a laminate floor on top of that, which goes down in interlocking pieces. And then that sort of floats on top of the tile; it’s not physically attached. It just sort of stays in place by its own weight. It’s really beautiful and very durable stuff and not too expensive. Certainly a lot less expensive than redoing the tile floor.

MARGARET: OK. Laminate is what it’s called.

TOM: Laminate. It’s called laminate floor. Lots and lots of different types out there.

MARGARET: OK. Thank you so much.