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Repairing Tile
 What’s worse when you find a ceramic or porcelain tile cracked? Besides the eye soar, finding why it happen is half the battle. Why has a wall tile fallen? We had one client who pushed her foot through the shower wall while shaving the back of her leg; another client dropped a bottle of wine and chipped his ceramic floor tile. Accidents on tile happen all around us, some our fault, and some can be the fault of an installation or natural occurrence. Sasso Bello can help you with all these tile repairs. In fact, our company has been helping people with small one or two tile replacement to whole bathroom remodels for many years. Can we do the same for you?
Tile repairs consist of many questions that need answering.
Here are few you may consider when facing a tile repair:
1) Is the tile made of stone or man-made like ceramic or porcelain?
Does the tile have a flat finish or polished (glass like)?
 Is the tile available to purchase in the market today? If not, what can be done to remedy this problem if we can’t find a matching tile?- Where is the tile repair located? Is there further work to remove the broken tile out from behind a fixture like a toilet?
- Is the grout sanded, non-sanded, or epoxy?
- Can the grout be matched? What if the grout is soiled? How about sealing the new tile?
- Is the broken tile in the shower, floor, wall and does the new tile require a special installation like a porcelain tile or glass tile? Especially when considering adhesion or a repair in a shower.
- Maybe the tile is only chipped. Can the chip be reinserted back into the tile?
- Can a ceramic tile, if cracked, be repaired without removing the tile?
- Can a tile in a shower be replaced in one day? If no, why not?
Here are some of the most common problems related to tile damage:
Tile underlayment problems--
Tile cracks, tile movement, and tenting are the result of bond failure of bad "mud", insufficient support of the
sub-straight, insufficient sub-straight (concrete slab) cure time before the tile was installed, and improper expansion joints. Moreover, a concrete slab could be holding more moisture then needed to bond the tile to its surface.
- Bad “mud” could be the result of pour mixture, i.e. not enough sand in the mud or too much water used in the setting. Improper mud mixture allows for cracking and a pour setting bed. Mixture ratios should be followed to ensure no mistakes.
- Floor joist may be too far apart and lack support to carry a load, or a plywood sub-straight is not screwed down every 6” to the joist. When laying tile these omissions may cause the floor to move and tile cracks could happen in the future.
 A Broken tile removed from a concrete slab and a crack is observed underneath is evidence that the slab is shifting or settling. Although you can’t stop the cracking in the slab, the new tile installed over the crack will need prepping. This area would need a isolation membrane installed first.
- Popped tiles or “Tenting is the result of many problems. Tenting is an uncontrolled environment where the humidity and temperature are not constant and tiles can expand or contract if they’re confined. When they expand horizontally and have no place else to go, they will move vertically “up”.
In some cases, tiles have to release the lateral pressure every 10 to 15 feet in all directions and install flexible caulked grout joints, especially at objects, i.e. door jambs, casing, center islands, staircases etc. How long it takes tile to tent is directly a function of at least three variables:
- The rate on concrete shrinkage
- The shear strength of the thin set and
- The expansive forces applied to the tile layer (sunlight for example)
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