cracked grout, quick fix?

trowel monkey · Post by **trowel monkey** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:56 am

hi all, first time in tiling forum and have what could be a 'don't be ridiculous' question to finish with but here goes...and be nice

gutted bathroom because of leaky tap, replaced rotten floorboards with (cue spitting sounds) chipboard flooring, would have used ply had i known better at the time.

anyway, bathroom finished, bit of studwork built, boarded and tiled, loads of stuff screwed through chipboard and into joists (which is why i'm desperately trying to avoid replacing the chipboard).

tiled the floor with 2 part flexible adhesive, tiles still seem to be well adhered but because of movement in the floor and then the tiles the grout has eventually cracked, overboarding with aquapanel is an option assuming i can get the tiles up ok but would bring my floor up way too high.

stand by for the silly question:

any reason why i can't rake out the grout and use sealant in the tile joints? it's only a small area of around 3sq. metres

m3 fitter · Post by **m3 fitter** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:24 am

the grout is cement based and won't rake out as easily as you think, normally an edge or two will chip in the process of raking out the joint, to try and silicone every joint is just a non starter, even a proffessional mastic man, could not achieve the desired look, i doubt if you could remove the tiles without cracking them or leaving them adhesive free for retiling, just bite the bullet and do it properly, use schluter ditra mat to uncouple the floor after removal of the tiles, as per this link and purchase new tiles to fix, use flexi adhesive and grout the ditra
http://www.schluter.co.uk/produkt.aspx? ... g=funktion
also gets over your height problem, hope it helps

trowel monkey · Post by **trowel monkey** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:05 am

certainly does help, seems like i don't need to replace the s**tboard floor with ply afterall which was my nightmare scenario!

any idea how much that matt costs m3?

thanks for replying by the way

m3 fitter · Post by **m3 fitter** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:30 am

approx £10.00 per m2, available in most good tile shops

trowel monkey · Post by **trowel monkey** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:48 am

thx m3

you certainly know your stuff mate, been tiling for a while?

Only-Me · Post by **Only-Me** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:41 pm

You may have to replace the chipboard anyway.

The 2 part adhesive sticks like poo to a blanket and is a right bitch to remove tiles and old cement without ripping the chip to shreds.