floor tiling disaster

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March 9, 2006 at 11:32 am #6267
romansnews	I have just tiled a kitchen floor only to find that all the grout has cracked to an unacceptable level. As far as i am concerned the floor preperation was good and solid. However , i fear that the mistake i may have made was to use left over wall tile adhesive as i had lots of it. The grout was a raedy mix unibond grey. I now discover that a few tiles are rocking very slightly although not enough are moving to cause the all over cracking that i have. Is there anything i can do to save this situation. Is it worth regrouting or should i just bite the bullet and lift the tiles and start over. If i do this last and most likely option can i reuse the tiles( assuming of course that i dont break them ) as they are about £400′s worth. can anyone please help.
March 9, 2006 at 10:47 pm #6270
timfoley	Romansnews, My feeling is that you have no alternative but to remove the tiles which, judging by your description shouldn’t now be too difficult, and re-install using a suitable floor laying adhesive for your floor type. If your floor is supended you will need to install a plywood substrate prior to laying the tiles. It is the movement of the tiles, after using the incorrect adhesive, that is causing the grout to crack. Sorry to be the bearer of this bad news but I really feel you have no alternative.
March 13, 2006 at 4:12 pm #6278
romansnews	Tim Thanks for your swift reply which i suppose was just a confirmation of what i already knew. I’ve already lifted a couple of tiles just to see how easy they would lift and it seems that i should save most of them.Although this may not cost too much in replacement tiles it is going to cost at least 2-3 days labour and is a mistake i will never make again. Thanks again for your help Ross
March 26, 2006 at 4:38 pm #6285
Simpo	We had the same problem (see ‘kitchen installation hell’) but I wouldn’t advise using the old tiles again unless you can get all the adhesive off. The cowboys who did our floor tried that and the same thing happened again – if any adhesive is left on it will be unstable.