Replacing Cracked Floor Tiles

 

NEAL: Well, I got a – I laid my tile floor on top of – my foundation is all a cement slab. And here – and you know, within a year of when I did some of the tile, some of it’s cracked and then there’s some that I’ve done, oh, longer than that – probably eight years ago – and some of that started cracking. But I presume that the cement slab is settling and I just want to see what you recommend.

 

TOM: Well, you know, you’re probably better off replacing the tiles. It’s really not possible to do anything that – in terms of a repair – that’s going to look halfway decent. You know, you could always try to silicone over the cracks or something of that nature. Are they separated or are is it just sort of hairline cracks?

 

NEAL: They’re more or less hairline cracks and …

 

TOM: Yeah, what’s going to happen is they’re going to catch dirt and it’s just not going to look good. So I mean if you’ve got a cracked tile, I would just pop the tile up and replace it. Do you think you can find the original tiles?

 

NEAL: I’ve still got some of them.

 

LESLIE: Oh, good.

 

TOM: Well, good. Well then, that would be the way to do it.

 

NEAL: (chuckles) That was good.

 

TOM: That was a wise thing. All those years you’ve been saving those tiles, Neal, because you knew one of these days you were going to need them, right?

 

LESLIE: (chuckles) It was going to pay off.

 

NEAL: I’m trying to do some remodeling and I was going to tile another section of my house. I wanted to have a gazebo or whatever – the front of my house is all windows – and I was going to tile that section, too, but I don’t know.

 

TOM: Maybe you better save those tiles for the repair of the existing floor and choose something new for the new section.

 

NEAL: (chuckling) Yeah, very possible. OK.

 

TOM: Alright, Neal. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.