A very, very skilled tile pro may be able to remove a tile from a closet floor or other hidden place to replace the shattered tile. There's very little chance of finding an exact match, but you could check with city hall to see if there was a permit for remodelling that would have included a new floor. Then you'd have the date.

How bad is the shatter? You might be able to creatively grout to make it look like it's supposed to look like that.

OK, so the NYC DOB had a permit disapproved in 2000. (There's no record of an approved permit in their website, and yet the work was actually done). I called the architect who filed, and he remembered "some unpleasantness" with the owner and nothing else. Given the 2000 era fascination with Italy and the terracotta look of the floor tile, perhaps this is likely the time period?

How does one find a super skilled tile person in NYC to come do this job?

OK, for those following along-- my 6 year old son remembered seeing the tile at a friend's church when we visited for a Lessons and Carols service. I called the church secretary and left a voice mail. The scrape marks/gouges are pretty distinctive. I remember noticing the similarity, too... Say a prayer that I get a call back with the answer? Maybe a few extra packets stuck under the church stairs that they are willing to open and sell one tile from? Meanwhile... I will pull the refrigerator out and look beneath.

That tile doesn’t exist anywhere except as installed in other places. You will want to plan for a replacement as happening at some soon point. In the mean time, you may see if you can glue it back together with epoxy to tide you over until you do over. I suspect that it needed some structural beefing up, or a proper uncoupling membrane below.

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/find-certified-tile-installers

May I ask how you know that? (I mean, how am I going to tell my husband we know that for sure?) Is there some antique tile depot where I could find it?

I think the movers dropped a corner of my husband's great grandfather's hellaheavy 6' tall cast iron surgeon's cabinet on the tile trying to get it through a narrow door. It's possible there are structural issues, but this looks more like a stone hitting a windshield than a crack across.

I would take LWO's word. I promise you, (s)he's correct. If you're worried about proving this to you husband, tell him to find a replacement. You won't see him for a while. Even if you could find an exact replacement, the lots (this looks like a porcelain to me) likely wouldn't match and it would still be an outlier.

I have very similar porcelain in my kitchen and I had to remove some tile to replace our dishwasher. I threw down some meshed pebbles as a replacement because I knew I'd never be able to match it and figured - f*&! it, the tile is ugly anyway (no offense), might as well throw down some ugly pebbles too.

*edited: I am not recommending replacing with ugly pebbles. This is not an elegant solution; it is a jankety one. But a solution that works for me and my husband until we gut remodel the entire ugly kitchen.

If you can't find a replacement tile in your place or the church, you may be able to get an artist to paint you a pretty good replica on a similar sized tile of similar thickness. Have all the tile professionally cleaned first so that the paints can be customized. There are also places that will make a custom size glazed tile for you- look online.

As recommended take one from under the range or dishwasher. Even if you were to find the tile, it will never match because of different material runs.

Show us a photo of the broken tile. From what you have described it would not suggest that the entire floor has an inadequate substrate/prep based on one cracked tile. That being said, you may have a difficult time finding a real pro who would do that small job, unless you know someone who knows someone... like a pro who works for a company but is nearby and willing to come over and do it for a fee on his/her own. Ask around, neighbors/friends. Not likely to find a replacement (unless your church comes through). Let's see the broken one.

Tile is fashion. Tens of thousands of new choices are discontinued every year and 10,000 new ones are introduced every year. You’re not finding a Alfred Dunner plaid skirt from 1999’s collection, even at TJ Max. You might find it at Goodwill, if you had a network that connected all of the Goodwill’s in the country, and they cataloged their donations to a database. That no more exists than does a database of old discontinued tile. You can’t find replacement tiles for tiles discontinued in 2018, much less 2000. Not unless it was widely used by a tract builder, in a tract neighborhood, and every house comes with a box in the attic. It’s the worse kind of needle in the haystack. Because the haystack is 20 years old.

Everything done in 2000 is now 20 years old. Time to assess what has stood that test of time, and what wasn’t a durable or attractive option, and needs to be redone with something else.

For that bowling ball drop, I’d use an epoxy grout colorant product to tint the exposed substrate. Then mix up some epoxy and inject it into the cracks, using additional grout colorant on top, as needed, to match. $30 worth of materials. A pro doing it would probably be at least $200, because if the small job premium aspect.

Ouch, that does look like something got dropped on it. It still might be fillable, there are products on the market to help fill/fix a cracked tile like that. The built in gouge markings are actually a help there. Still would be better if you happen to have a tile tucked under something already of if taht church has something.

(The blue tape is where plastic is taped up for removing the backsplash-- to keep the dust from the rest of the house.) So, realistically, it looks like I am going to be living with this for awhile. We are a block from the park and I can walk my son to school in 12 minutes... and we are running into the limit of what is reasonable to spend both in terms of money and energy for renovation. Unless the church comes through with an extra tile for me, I'm going to choose to believe this is the cost of getting what I wanted in other areas, put a throw rug over it, and be grateful for the things I do have.

Oh wow I got interrupted many times while posting that (kid has the flu)... looks like you guys have lots of good ideas for me! I will re-read slowly and carefully and see who I can find to help me out.

@esmithpa, I love your last line in the last post: "I'm going to choose to believe this is the cost of getting what I wanted in other areas, put a throw rug over it, and be grateful for the things I do have. "

This is the right way to think about it. Less stress. Enjoy what you have now. Good luck with the church prospect, but don't worry if it doesn't happen :)

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Did you look in the attic or basement (if you have one) for extra tile? You might get lucky. Whenever we have remodeled I always store the excess in the attic for breakages or for the future home owners. Some people will store extras in sheds.

Well, it's an apartment in NYC so we don't have either. I did send a message to ask the super if he has seen any tile in the basement. I think the former super was likely involved in the installation. Haven't heard back, but I hope he was a hoarder of tile and the new super remembers where he saw it...