LESLIE: Murray in Oklahoma has a tile floor that just does not want to stay put. What’s going on?
MURRAY: Well, what’s happening is that I wish I knew what was going on. I have a brand new house; I purchased it about two-and-a-half years ago. And about a year ago, my tiles started to be lifting off the floors. I have a two-story house and all of a sudden I hear these cracking sounds in the middle of the night and when I wake up in the morning, the tiles are lifting off the floor in a v-shape – inverted v-shape.
LESLIE: Murray, is it happening all over the floor or just in one area?
MURRAY: No, it’s happening in – it had started happening in just one area and now it’s kind of – it’s spread to basically half the ground floor it’s happening to.
TOM: Wow.
MURRAY: I’ve had people come through and professionally replace them.
TOM: Right.
MURRAY: They’ve looked at the tiles to see if there’s any water underneath them and if there was any cracking and they can’t find anything and they just shrug their heads and they just replace them.
LESLIE: I wonder if it’s just a misapplication of the adhesive, not enough adhesive.
TOM: Or the concrete floor, the mix wasn’t right and it’s sort of got a dusty surface or a deteriorated surface. When it comes up, does the glue stay down on the concrete floor and it comes up off the tile or does the glue stay on the tile?
MURRAY: No, glue stays on the tile.
TOM: Ah. See, yeah.
LESLIE: Yeah.
TOM: That’s what I was thinking; that maybe this surface of this concrete floor was, you know, dirty, it wasn’t cured right, it had something …
LESLIE: Not fully dry.
TOM: Yeah, had something on it that’s causing the glue not to adhere to the floor. Typically, glue has no problem adhering to a concrete floor because it’s so darn porous. And if that glue is staying on the tile …
MURRAY: Yes.
TOM: … then obviously it’s not sticking to the floor. Now, the tiles that you – have you – the tiles that have come up, have you tried to readhere with them with a product like Liquid Nails?
MURRAY: Not Liquid nails. No, I’ve never heard of that before.
TOM: That’s a really good do-it-all adhesive. It comes in a caulking tube so you can use it as you need it and then, you know, basically cap it and save it for the next project. That’s a good product that will definitely adhere these tiles back down again.
MURRAY: (inaudible at 0:12:41.0)
TOM: Yeah, you know, you get a regular caulking tube like you would use to caulk windows; stick a tube of Liquid Nails in there and then just put a few beads of caulk down on the tile and then press it back in place and that should adhere it quite nicely.
MURRAY: OK, it’s called Liquid Nails.
TOM: Liquid Nails. Yep. Available at home centers, hardware stores everywhere. Comes in the small tubes and also the big tubes.
MURRAY: Oh, OK. I will try that. Thank you very much for that suggestion. I really appreciate it. You guys are great.
LESLIE: Thanks.
TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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