Hi,

I have a dilemma, I have a few cracked floor tiles in various locations (about 4) some are hairline cracks, other are more pronounced (see pics). Problem is I have no spares or am not able to locate any (tried several sources). My question is, is there anyway to reiar these cracks ? Or is it better to just find the most similar tile I can and replace the few here and there. I do not what to replace the whole floor. Thanks in advance to anyone who can assist.

There is a way to fill the crack but it will not completely go away, you could give it a shot. Read about it here:

HOME IMPROVEMENT : Ceramic Tile : Tile Repair : DIY Network

Your best option without redoing the entire floor would be to replace the broken ones with a close match, but that may look odd if you can't find a good matching tile.

Do you know why they cracked? Drop something on them? If they just cracked you may want to investigate why so it does not happen again, the floor underneath may have an issue.

A couple of the tiles are close to the edge (where the concrete slab meets the frame - command place for cracks from what I hear) the other few I believe were not mounted correctley as there was always a hollow sound when I droped something on them from day 1, should have filled it in then I suppose.

You have received some good advice but this is like a band aide on a leaking dam, it will continue to fail. From what I can see this was likely not installed correctly so most any temp fix will fail. Is the floor under the tile concrete?

Yes, the floorunder the tile is concrete

Hi again NF:

At this point I would crack those tiles out of there and replace with closest matching tile possible.

The tiles will probably pop up pretty good, but if meet with resistance just give them a good few cracks in the middle of the tile to break into smaller pieces.

Most important here will be to not damage any tiles next to damaged tiles... so when removing the tiles and the OLD THINSET MORTAR under tile work toward damaged tile and away from good tiles, and remove the grout that surrounds each tile carefully so don't chip the good tiles.

Then want to use a thinset mortar to set the tiles in. To be sure correct installation I add thinset to floor and then "butter" the backs of each tile so no voids under any tiles ever (buttering back just means to float a thin layer over the entire back of tile so entire tile covered). Just be sure not to go too thick... don't want new tiles higher than older tiles

Let tiles set overnight, then grout with matching grout color. Hopefully that will be the end of that... ;)

Let us know what you think... Have good day ALL... Mark

.

Most tile installations on concrete eventually look like yours. All concrete floor crack and if you have tile on them the tile will crack too. DITRA Installation Instructions - Schluter-Systems Ditra pretty much solves this problem by creating a surface that will allow a micro slip surface on the concrete. Down side you would need to start from scratch with w new tile. I think your floor will look like a checkerboard in a few years