Watch Out For The Tile!

Carlo Americo Odella, President Europamerican Tile & Marble

Actually tile isn’t what you should be watching out for! Tile is almost always a good and positive thing to have in a home! However, you do need to be aware of how it was installed and what it was installed upon, to determine if the tile is a blessing or potential costly curse!

Grout, and not tile, is the usual potential source of, or at least indicator of difficulties. Standing water will penetrate Portland cement at about ¼ an hour! Since grout is made up of mainly Portland cement it is not waterproof (even if sealed)! As a result all grout will allow water to pass through it in wet areas!  Shower walls and seats, particularly opposite of the shower head, are potential costly trouble spots. When water penetrates the grout it should hit cementious backerboard or water proofing membrane, it which case no damage or trouble will occur. If it hits plaster or drywall, problems leading eventually to replacement of both the wall and tiles will occur! If the problem is ignored, difficulties with water seeping to a lower level of the house or termite problems are the inevitable result.

Grout is not flexible and will crack if the tile moves. When grout cracks however, it is a sign that the tile may not have been properly glued to the underlayment or old floor. If the grout is cracking or crumbling and you hear a hollow sound or crackling under your tile, that means serious trouble and most of the time calls for full replacement! If mastic rather than thinset glue was use, if Luan or other inappropriate underlayment was used, the tile and glue will separate and the floor tiles will stay in place only due to the pressure between the tile, grout and walls. Often even if only one tile or even a grout line, is removed, the whole tile installation can pop up off the floor when the pressure is released!

Watch Out For The Tile Part II