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Some of the tiles in our 10 year old ceramic bathroom floor creak when walked on, a couple have cracked and the grout is cracking and coming away in some places. Can a floor like this be revived by replacing the grout and cracked tiles or would this be just like bandaging a compound fracture?? How long “should” a properly installed ceramic floor last?
Beatrix
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I'll bet all of this year's profits that you have loose tiles. Not knowing the particulars, they were probably set directly on wood, possibly with mastic; or, if over cement slab, an improperly cured slab.
However, this could be a remodel over a wood subfloor where the vinyl was ripped out and tile put down. If this is the case, you may have the problem of inadequate support from below in the form of too widely spaced joists.
Loose grout is a symptom of loose tiles. Rap against each tile to check for hollow sound. If it sounds hollow, that tile should come out. If many tiles sound hollow, you have to make the call of whether to replace the whole floor or not. The rational for this is, where there is one loose tile there are others.
It is truly a shame for you say the installation is only 10 years young. Ten years is hardly any time at all. I have seen tile installations on walls, floors, countertops, interior, exterior that are well past that age. In many, many cases, the installation is over fifty years old.
Unless the tile is discontinued or very expensive, or there are just a few that need to be replaced, I would not waste the time to clean-up each tile to use again. On the other hand, you could make it your new found hobby.
Post a follow-up so we may know how it goes.
*Rich,Your bet was a safe one!! We have quite a bit of ceramics, but this one floor is a dud. The house itself is 10 years old,we moved here two years ago. After "rapping" the tiles, it looks like the entire floor will need replacing-these tiles were set directly on wood with no wire mesh-what a shame. Beatrix
*There are Roman tile mosaics that are 2000 years old. Most are in pretty poor shape. There are Byzantine mosaics that are over 1000 years old and are in excellent shape. So... a good tile job should last between 1000 and 2000 years.