Uneven Wall Keeps Cracking Tile

An uneven floor or wall surface can lead to several problems in a tile job.

Uneven wall keeps cracking tile.

There are various types of tile underlayment but all serve to smooth out uneven spots in a subfloor and create an unbending layer that prevents the floor from flexing underfoot. When tile setters apply an uneven or insufficient layer of mortar to the tiles and subfloor tiles sometimes shift peel from the floor or crack under stress. Lippage is the technical term for uneven tile edges though is more common. This membrane bonds to the concrete floor and then bonds to the tile.

This fix is only practical for interior tile floors and when the gaps between the tiles are 1 4 in. If you put a 48 straight edge up against the most sunken areas there s a gap of almost a 1 2. Lippage is hard to avoid with large tile and easy to see with narrow grout lines or tile that has square rather than rounded edges. In kitchens especially where heavy objects such as cans pots and pans get dropped ceramic tiles frequently break.

This is known as lippage and it can diminish the most professional of. Tiles laid over existing cracks usually crack due to uneven floor movement along the tile. Tiles may crack pop loose or lip a condition that occurs when the corners or edges of some tiles stick up higher. In any of those circumstances leveling clips and wedges help you lay tile flat.

Match the caulk at most tile specialty shops you can get or order sanded caulk most floor grouts are sanded that will closely match your existing grout color. If the crack is located in one area and it extends across only a single tile the crack was likely caused by a sharp blow to the tile. Heaving and uneven surfaces raised tiles or uneven floor surfaces on opposite sides of a crack might indicate slab foundation damage. Sometimes you will see a chip taken out of the tile where the object hit.

The problem is that the wall is uneven.