Tiles on the bathroom wall keep cracking

last year

We updated our spare bathroom in Feburary. We love the result, but tiles on the wall keep cracking. First, my husband found a hairline cracks on two tiles so we called a contractor and he fixed it. A couple weeks after, I found similar crack right next to the tiles he fixed. This has been happing only around the same spot. Also the grout is cracking there for some reason.

We asked the contractor why this has been happing but he is not sure...

In the same bathroom, sometimes the door dosen't close smoothly although it was replaced when we updated the bathroom. But sometimes it closes fine. The same thing also happens to our master bathroom so my husband thinks our house constantly moving. But how??

I'm assuming something was not installed right underneath.

I'll highly appreciate your thought. Thank you!

This is what my husband found first.

Cracked grout

Before tiles were installed.

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Ripped Jeans Construction

last year

last modified: last year

Well, I can't tell where the first crack is on the wall, but I have a pretty good idea why the grout is cracking in photo 2:

You backer board needs to be taped with thinset at the seams to create a monolithic surface. That grout cracking coincides almost perfectly with the untaped horizontal seam across the center of the back wall. The way the niche is just cut out and basically floating further exacerbates the problem, so I imagine that's why you're first seeing problems close to the niche. Basically, the board behind is flexing at the seams, and you're seeing the result in the tile.

Edit: if I had to guess, the door isn't installed with a proper reveal, so expansion/contraction with weather cause it not to close sometimes.

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Comments (6)

Kate
last year
Not sure about your tile, but we lived in a house built mostly on clay soil. When the weather was dry cracks appeared in the same location. I patched repeatedly over the years to no avail no matter what I tried, in short the house constantly moved depending on the type of weather. Not much we could do that didn’t require a small fortune in foundation work. We just learned to live with it and keep on repairing the same crack.
K thanked Kate
artemis78
last year
last modified: last year
Same situation as Kate (except we have spent the small fortune on replacing some of the foundation—still doesn’t fully resolve that particular issue, as both the structural engineer and contractor stressed!) We just put in a tile shower in a part of the house that does get a decent amount of movement, so I’m curious to see how it fares; our existing bath is tiled too and hasn’t cracked in the 25 years since the PO put it in. Did you have issues with the door pre-remodel? We have two that close properly in the summer and not in the winter if we get rain (we are in a part of the country with dry summers, for the most part, and increasingly dry winters too!) because the clay swells and shifts the house slightly. That cracks plaster so I imagine it might crack tile/grout too even if the surface was prepared correctly. But if the installation didn’t allow for movement (properly seamed walls, caulk instead of grout where the plane changes) it might accelerate cracking.
K thanked artemis78
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Jake The Wonderdog
last year
I agree with Ripped Jeans Construction.

Tile doesn't flex - it just cracks and breaks. The backer board is supposed to be taped and mudded with thinset at the joints. Those joints look like they were taped with mesh tape but not mudded.
K thanked Jake The Wonderdog
K
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
@Ripped Jeans Construction @Jake The Wonderdog

Thank you so much for your advice.

The cracked tiles are located right above the cracked groat.

We contacted our contractor yesterday and explained what posibbly causing this issue. Hopefully he will fix it.
artemis78
last year
I also just realized looking at your photos that they seem to have added the niche after they started tiling--so maybe that caused some problems too if it wasn't properly tied in. I am curious to hear how it works out.