one of the local flooring shop that also does installations (came highly rated base on online reviews) came in to measure the square footage. i told him i'm thinking of doing all floor tiles all over the house. he said, if i do go with floor tiles, there's always the chance that once the tile settles, in the future, there's a chance the tiles will crack.

i asked him what the chances of that are, he said he's seen it happen a lot, as much as 75%. i asked him about subfloor preparation to prevent that from happening, and he said even with proper preparation, there's always the potential.

that's a shockingly high number. I don't know anything about flooring, so i came here to ask. i know he is giving me a worst case scenario.

i also asked him the difference between 6x24 vs lets say a 7.5 x 40" tiles. he said the larger tiles tends to have a lot of bowing/deformities out of the box as compared to 6x24

but anyways, i'm gonna have 2 licensed tile contractors come in next week to get an estimate and i'll ask them what they think. i'll probably get hardwood floor contractors to come in also.

i'm now considering engineered hardwood. but it will depend on cost of materials + installation, that will be the deciding factor.

The bigger the tile, the more chance that it has a bowing issue. I would use a smaller tile and no more than a 1/3 stagger to avoid lippage. As to cracking...I don't see it. If the slab is good, the tiles are good and the installer knows what he's doing, it shouldn't be an issue.

As Avanti Tile states, a concrete slab install (ie. the thing under the carpet is concrete slab) shouldn't have an issue with cracking of tiles. We say "shouldn't" because we assume the tile setter will be contracted, and paid, to do a TREMENDOUS amount of subfloor preparation. I always make the statement that carpet hides the WORST subfloors in the world. Because of this, it is normal to budget "worst case scenario" for this which is $3-$4/sf simply for concrete subfloor preparation.

The thing that causes tile floors to crack - wooden subfloors that are do not have the right deflection rating for tile. This is a completely different animal and it is what causes such HIGH rates of problems with tile. Again, this is WOODEN SUBFLOORS sitting over wood joists. This is where the high rate of concern comes in.

But a HIGH END flooring professional who knows how to assess subfloor deflection ratings will have the ability to FIX the subfloor deflection rating. It isn't cheap. It takes a bit of skill. New plywood/Avantech has to be added. Floor heights are going to change. Doors probably have to be taken down and trimmed....but this is all possible. If the company offers HIGH END installations.

So....back to reality. First things first: which subfloor do you have? Concrete or wood? Is this a house, a condo, a townhouse?

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/homeowners-guide-to-hiring-qualified-tile-installer

I second everything he's saying.

Thanks so much for the advice. It’s a 1 story house, built in 1992. Currently the living room, dining room 3 bedrooms, the 1 guest bathroom has carpet flooring, the kitchen and laundry room has linoleum, and the main entry and master bathroom has small square white tile flooring. the The subfloor itself is concrete.