HELP!

I have to replace 15 cracked tile in my laundry room the tile is about a year old. I really don't want to replace the whole thing so I removed 15 of them. My problem is how do I get the mortar off of the underlayment. I don't want to pound because I am afraid I will break other tiles. What would you recommend to do.

ac101

You can scrape it up. Use a grinder with a tile blade (very messy lots of dust wear a mask) If ive missed anything post back and let me know . GOOD LUCK, AC

massplumber2008

Hi all:

Lynn...if 15 tiles cracked in only one year then I'm sorry to say that you can be pretty sure that the rest of them will be cracking in no time at all.

Do yourself a real favor here and remove all tiles and mortar and then determine exactly why the tiles cracked. Is it that the floor flexes/deflects and there is not enough support under the tiles? If so, then you need to fix that before installing new tiles, or consider installing vinyl tile/flooring in this room to reduce the chances of cracked tiles in the future...

Just my thoughts. Let us know if you want to discuss this more...

MARK

ballengerb1

I have to agree 100%. If 15 tiles cracked in 1 year you likely have a thin/poor sub floor. 3/4" ply or better is needed. Can you tell us what is there right now, just drill through the floor where you have a missing tile if you must. Since this is alaundry room you may need more than 3/4 since a washer and dryer add quite a bit of lbs sq/ft especially when the washer is full. This may be what causes the deflection

lynntheworker

Thanks for all your help. I was hoping that the answer was not going to be take it out. But I think you are all right the best thing to do is replace the floor. Have a wonderful day. I have alot of work ahead of me.

Bljack

Hi there Lynn. Welcome to the forum. Everyone who said it all needs to be redone is completely correct and I'm glad you agree. Most importantly would be to let use know exaclty how this floor was installed the first time, so we can see where things went wrong so that there is not a repeat of the same thing. It could be something like the wrong underlayment, or wrong choice of thinset, wrong trowel size, the floor joists could be spaced too far apart, etc, etc.

If you could reply with your joist size, span from beam to beam, or beam to wall, what you have for the subfloor, and every layer that was on it wehn you installed the ceramic (was it cermiac or stone), did you use a cement board and if so, how did you install it? If not, how did you prep the floor to receive the tile? Do you remember what specific thinset you used to install the tile? Thanks. We look forward to helping you make a floor that lasts forever.