Tiling the garage

[orangetrader]

The tiles in my garage just popped and now I need to retile it. It was tiled over by the previous owner and we don't park cars there but use it as a large utility room. The previous owner poured about 6" of cocncrete leveled the floor and then put ceramic tiles on.

About a quarter of the tiles popped.

I am faced with retiling just the broken ones or replace all tiles. I cannot retile just the affected area because I cannot find matching tiles anymore.

So I need to retile the place. But I have a lot of heavy racks (Gorilla racks) in the garage, and washer dryer ladder etc....tons of stuff.

If I retile the whole place, I will need to move all my stuff to one side? Then retile one side. Want one day or two, then grout, wait a week? How long do I need to wait before I can move the heavy racks onto the new tiles so I can work on the other side?

O

[PrecisionMachinisT]

Should be able to move the stuff to the other side almost right away, if you arent planning on sealing the tiles.

WE are talking 12 x 12 tiles here, and not the 8x8 self stick, are we not ???--though it shouldnt make a big differn IMO......

[Joseph Meehan]

I would add that another question is related to the floor temperature. Is there some sort of insulation around the footer?

[Rick]

One other question you might ask before any of this - why are the existing tiles popping off or getting cracked? Otherwise it might just happen again. Not that I have any experience with this but I'd wonder if the leveler really was level. Or maybe you need an exterior grade tile wasn't used. Or even an adhesive failure?

[dadiOH]

If you are setting the tiles with thinset (I would) you could grout after 24 hours. Before moving the heavy stuff on it, I would wait another 2 days at least as all cementatious material takes quite a while (30 days +-) to totally cure. True, it should support your stuff sooner than two days but why take a chance? Main thing is to get a layer of thinset under *all* the tile so that it is completely supported.

-- dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Joe Bobst]

This is a junque room, right? So why in the world would it matter whether or not the tiles match? Just stuff something into the bad places that doesn't clash too badly and don't obssess over it. All you really need to do is keep the floor level enough to be safe. Convince your friends that it is really an art project and challenge them to describe what the pattern portrays. Before you know it, you may be respected as a true cutting edge hipster. Good luck.

Joe

[JerryMouse]

Assuming you can get some of the existing tiles out without damage, use them to replace the cracked ones. But here's the trick: Remove good tiles in a pattern. Use new/different tiles for the pattern (squares, your initials, whatever).

This reduces the tile problem from a complete re-do to an artistic project.

[Jon]

Another possibility is ground moisture wicking through the concrete subfloor, being trapped by the nonporous tiles, and forcing the tiles off by hydrostatic pressure. If there was no vapor barrier placed before the concrete was poured, you may never be able to fully resolve the problem.

--webmoth

[orangetrader]

It has 12"x12" tiles, 16 of them in a row and 10 rows. about right of them popped, and many around them also sound hollow when I knocked on them. So I would say half of them need replacement. That would be about 40 tiles, probably forming a rectangular pattern.

O

[orangetrader]

It's probably moisture. I have had this house for three years and this just happened. I popped up the tiles and saw thinset underneath, but seems to be very little thinset. The concrete underneath seems very solid with no crack where I can see.

O

temperature.