Cracked Grout - Tile Advice

[Bill]

@Tom Astley,
That was an unreasonable ussumption on your part, that the op is looking for trouble,
if you no longer wish to comment, then don't.

@3_fall
You have misinterpreted my statement - I think the OP is looking for trouble that is not there with her tiling - not this thread. It is an opinion just like which you have given so if anyone is being unreasonable, then it is you.

 

[natalie stanley]

Thank u,
Well we don't limit the number of visits, u can come back as often as u need or want Natalie.

Hello everybody - thanks again for your advice and opinions so far. The clicking/creaking noise in the floor has become more frequent however it does appear to be isolated to one area of the kitchen floor. The best way to describe the sounds are that they sound the same as what i hear when i walk in other rooms of the house that have original wooden floorboards (sanded and varnished) which leads me to believe it's likely to be coming from the subfloor/joists. Can anybody shed any light? There doesn't appear to be much movement (i've tried the water test) and so far no sign of cracked tiles or grout, thankfully. If there is a problem with the joists/subfloor, i'm hoping the ditra will protect the tile and stop anything penetrating the tile and grout - is this possible?

Thanks again

 

[Old Mod]

Ditra matting is designed to protect your floor from lateral movement Natalie, (side to side) not deflection, (up and down)
So if the floor is bouncing it's unlikely the Ditra will afford much protection.
As far as stopping anything penetrating the tile and grout, this too is unlikely.
If the Ditra is taped and jointed then it provides a waterproof membrane and vapour barrier below the finished floor surface.
I'd imagine that it's unlikely that it's taped because a kitchen is not generally treated as a wet area.
If there are no external signs of damage to the floor, try tapping the effected area with your knuckles, see if there is a change in sound to the surrounding tiles. This is not a definitive test of course, but can be a good indicator that there MAY be a problem below. It won't be a subtle change in noise but generally quite distinctively different.
But of course this would only be guess on my part, it would really need to be visually inspected, especially if there are no outward signs of damage.
If all appears to be in order and no tiles are starting to break free, then if it's not broke, why try to fix it, for now.
If the area appears to increase in size, then there's a chance the floor is starting to de bond from the Ditra.
But again, this is just supposition.
Sorry it's not much help, I'd just keep an eye on it for now.
And if you're going to have some kind of catastrophic failure, taking one or two tiles up and trying to repair the sub floor is not going to stop it.
Failures on that scale, will happen anyway.

 

[bcd-87]

Good morning

I'm hoping somebody can help and give me a good honest opinion.


May last I had my kitchen tiled. The subfloor is 18mm ply with ditra.

Shortly after the floor was finished around a month later I noticed a crack in the grout running horizontally by the back door. It seems to coincide with where the ply underneath meets. The tiler said it wasn't abnormal to have cracks. It hasn't got worse but I am curious to understand why it's happened. By the doors to the back door part of the floor is concrete. I have photos to show the they didn't ditra over the concrete so half the tile is on concrete and the other on play and ditra. The crack is running a along the grout line after that tile. Thoughts? Another tiler seems to think it's because they didn't ditra over the concrete.

At the other end of the kitchen there are cracks running along the grout where the grout meets the old wooden stairs. I'm particularly concerned by this as the tiled floor directly where the cracked grout is make a little creaky noise when walked on. Not all the time but sometimes. I'm not entirely sure if it's the old stairs creaking or the ply underneath. Having looked online it says that sanded caulk should be used when grouting next to wood.

I have had the tiler who carried out the work back around however he thinks the cracks aren't a sign of anything bad but of course he would say that. He seems to think an old house such as mine has movement which could cause cracks in the grout..

Any thoughts you can share would be greatly appreciated. I've attached some pictures so you can see how the cracks look and may help you advise..



Thanks in advance

Nat

View attachment 80029 View attachment 80030

Oh no.. that's bad