Watch Out For The Tile! Part II

Carlo Americo Odella, President Europamerican Tile & Marble

Dirty grout or widely varying grout color is not necessarily an indicator of poor housekeeping by the former owner! In the past, fairly small tiles (8x8) were used on floors. These often were solid color tiles and it was a practice to have fairly wide grout joints and more importantly not to seal the grout after it was installed! When a mop was wiped across the ceramic tile it absorbed the water and dirt and then when it rubbed across the rough grout surface the mop released the dirty water into the pores of the unsealed grout joint, much like pouring dirty water on a piece of cake! The grout would then absorb the dirty water and become dirty and discolored from top to bottom! The old dirty grout needs to be replaced or at least steam cleaned and then sealed to restore it’s proper color.

            On occasion, you will note that tile has cracked along the outer perimeter of a room or that a crack will run across two or three consecutive tile. Tile is not smart enough to crack in unison! An exterior cause has forced the tiles to crack. Often cracks on the outer perimeter are an indication of a slippage between the poured slab floor and the outer foundation walls. This “slippage” can often be caused by drought or a long wet rainy period or a prolonged period of extreme cold. The foundation is forced upward by ice or water or falls due to drought. Any tile that is glued to both the slab and the foundation wall is then sheared off as the floors and the foundation move in opposite directions. There is no easy and clearly not an inexpensive fix for this problem unless a sufficient quantity of the original tile was kept in reserve for use for repairs! Use of alternative or replace tiles that are not of the original shade and caliber (size) will cause the problem to be amplified as the replacement tiles will “stick out like a sore thumb”!

Watch Out For The Tile Part III