About 2.5 years ago we had the whole house drypacked and tiles with 24 x 24 rectified porcelain tiles. NOT laid by us but by professionals who did a beautiful job Around a pillar in the kitchen 2 tiles cracked. May have had a weak spot on the tiles as the cracks also appeared to have originated from where they were cut to go around the pillar/opening to basement stairs. Outside of these no other tiles have cracked. It may have been that the pillar settled? House was completely gutted and renovated 3 years ago.

I have carefully hammered both tiles out over the last few days but I see the cracks went through the drypack. I am not at all sure what to do at this point.

I am going to have the new tiles cut with a water jet, not only so that hopefully there is no weak spot from where the 2 cuts meet, but also I have no other way of cutting them!

There are heating cables buried under the drypack.

Do I remove the drypack that has cracked?

Is there a barrier that I should use that will flex so it does not happen again?

Do I use some sort of epoxy or cement type material that will soak into the crack and secure it? Or can I just use morter back overtop of the cracked drypack and it should be good?

Also … Do I need to remove ALL the morter? - I have most of it removed as you can see in the photos but in some areas there is still a thin amount - it really just pulls up the top layer of the drypack. Does morter stick to morter?

Is one type of morter better than another?

I guess I just need to know what do I do now? I am not a construction person - just a girl trying to fix her cracked floor!

I appreciate any help you can offer.

Babyduck Photos · More Info

Babyduck Photos · More Info

Babyduck Photos · More Info