Shifting floors cracking grout

Gwynston

All the upstairs floors (all hollow) in our 4-y-o house seem to have settled down a bit. You can see where the skirting was fitted in the bedrooms there are now gaps where the floorboards have lowered by a cm. Whether this in itself is a problem, I don't know, but my main concern is that this has made a mess in the two bathrooms. Where the floor tiles meet the wall tiles, the grout is cracked all the way round the room.

Is there an easy way to repair this? Can I touch it up, or would I need to labouriously break out all the existing grout before replacing it with more?

Or do I need to hire a professional?

suitseir

Attn Gwynston.


Just trawling through the message boards and noticed you had a problem with hollo in your upstairs bathrooms.Just wondered if this ever got sorted for you. I have 2 upstairs bathroom (First Floor Concrete) and floor tiles have shifted somewhat. Builder looked at it and said that all tiles to come up and replaced. I think it was bad adhesive put down 8 yrs ago and I know builder thinking the same!!! Other bathroom is fine. He blamed heat from velux hitting the tiles in this unseasonal weather> I blame bad workmanship. Have no other cracks or problems with other rooms. Would be interested to know if you got it sorted.

Gwynston

I've never got it sorted. I'm pretty sure our problem is just to do with bedding down of the hollow floors and lightweight floorboards. In some of the bedrooms, you can see a gap under the bottom of the skirting where the floor has settled down a bit. It's just that in the bathrooms, this makes a right mess of the tiles and grout. So I don't think it's due to heat afecting adhesive, or bad tiler workmanship - simply movement.

suitseir

Thanks for the info.

I suppose the fact that you have floorboards would have a bearing on it. I have carpet in the bedrooms and the skirting boards are where they should be! No gaps, no cracks etc. The other bathroom seems to be fine as well, even though a different tiler did the work there. However, what I did notice in our en-suite was a hollow sound under one or two tiles over the past few months so I reckon that was the start of it. My builder (who, thank God, lives close by) is going to do a job on it. The tiler who did that job for me when he started the job, left it for a few weeks (he suffers from depression) then came back to it and I reckon, rushed it and left a few problems! My wall tiles are perfect, no cracks anywhere and as this is over the kitchen downstairs, there are no cracks in the ceiling either!!! So, I am putting it down to lack of adhesive in a few tiles, and as I am a clean freak and wash the floors probably TOO often, water more than likely seeped underneath and did some damage as well. Looking at them now, they are the cleanes `raised` tiles in the country! My insurance company say it is a maintenance problem and I am not insured for it! Typical! But I am getting an assessor to look at it and have tiles ordered for it! The Joys!!!








QUOTE=Gwynston]I've never got it sorted. I'm pretty sure our problem is just to do with bedding down of the hollow floors and lightweight floorboards. In some of the bedrooms, you can see a gap under the bottom of the skirting where the floor has settled down a bit. It's just that in the bathrooms, this makes a right mess of the tiles and grout. So I don't think it's due to heat afecting adhesive, or bad tiler workmanship - simply movement.[/QUOTE]

patrickolee

I actually have the same problem, cracking gray grout where the floor meets the wall. I grouted that bit myself after the rest was done and I think I forgot to add the flexi stuff. It's the stuff which you add to the grout, when you're tiling on wooden (pliable) surfaces. I think that's when mines cracking, maybe it's the same for yours? I'll have to scoop it all out and redo methinks, sometime... sometime. Getting very lazy these days.

Hugh McManus

Yez could always lash on a bit of white silicone sealant; covers a multitude of evils!

Gwynston

patrickolee, if yours in anything like mine, I don't think the flexible stuff would make much difference. It can only 'flex' so far, and I've got more than a 5mm gap in some places....