Porcelain tile coming loose from cement floor

11 years ago

I recently did a total renovation in an apartment in a high rise building. I used very high end materials and a well-known contractor with a good reputation. There was a tile floor which he removed and installed a larger Porcelanosa tile. Now some of the tiles developed a "hollow" sound and the grout is cracking out. The whole tile isn't loose, but only in spots. What do I do? Can this be fixed? Will the tile eventually break? Apparently either the bond was broken or the tile was not installed correctly. Whose responsibility is this?

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PRO

Cabot & Rowe

11 years ago

Its the responsibility of the person to whom you wrote the check.

Cracked grout = movement. Tiles don't like movement. We need to know a lot more about the construction of what's under the tiles. Take a bunch of pictures and head on over to the John Bridge Tile Forum.

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Comments (6)

PRO
The Carpet Studio
11 years ago
Seeing as you are in a high rise, I can't imagine too much movement at this point is causing the tile to become loose. If it sounds hollow, I would bet there wasn't enough thinset on the back of the tile (referred to as back buttering) before they laid it. I would call the flooring guys to come out and take a look at it.
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Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
11 years ago
A hollow sound means the tile is loose and could possibly break. I would definitely get those guys back and make them fix it.
PRO
Carpet One Columbia
11 years ago
Check for expansion or "soft" joints throughout the installation. They should be every 20-25' in each direction and around the perimeter or any vertical surface. Many grout manufacturers make silicone or acrylic siliconized caulk to match their grout colors. If there are no soft joints it can be fixed by cutting out the offending grout and adding silicone plus replacing the hollow tiles.
PRO
Avanti Tile & Stone / Stonetech
11 years ago
One of a number of things. Extremely cheap morter....$5 a bag or so, failure to "burn" in some morter on the back of the tile, morter set on the floor too long and "skinned over" preventing a decent bond, failure to remove dust from the back of the tiles, trowel too small for effective coverage......and probably a few more I forgot.

Only way to tell is to pull a couple of the offending tiles and inspect what is there. Do this and post some pics and we might be able to tell you what went wrong...
PRO
Cabot & Rowe
11 years ago
Is this over wood framing topped by a pumped layer of masonry? You could easily have a fair amount of movement from the substrate.