How to Replace Cracked Tile

Video Transcript

"I'm Ryan Parker, with Parker Home Renovations in New Braunfels Texas. And today I'm going to teach you how to replace a cracked tile. Many people have cracked tiles in their houses, and usually the main cause is you get hairline cracks as the house settles, and you get hairline cracks in the slab, which tends to crack the tile. It's usually nothing to be alarmed about, but today I'm going to teach you how to fix that cracked tile if you need to. You are going to need quite a few tools. The first thing you're actually going to need is, you're going to need a grout scraper, this is to scratch out the grout joints around the tile so you can actually take it out. Then you're going to need a pry bar, you're going to need a hammer, you're going to need safety glasses. Make sure you wear safety glasses, because when you're pulling out a tile, or breaking a tile loose, it's just like shavings of glass, it can get stuck in an eye and really cause a lot of damage. And you're also going to need a trowel, to trowel the new thinset on. You're going to need a product called thinset, you can get it at home improvement stores that sell tile stuff, and you're going to need a type of grout also; you pick the color. The first thing you're going to want to do is, you're going to want to scratch all the grout joints around that tile, you want to scratch them back down towards the grout, it's basically not in the joint anymore, all the way around the tile. Then you're going to want to take a hammer, and you're going to want to hit the tile pretty hard in the center, try to break it up a little bit. And then take your pry bar, and you want to pry in between two tiles if you can, but be careful not to chip the tile next to it. But try to get some of those pieces out that you just broke. Take them out, put them in a bucket; make sure you use gloves. Once you get all that out, you're going to want to scrape the thinset back down to the concrete, so scrape all that out of there. Then take your trowel, mix up some thinset with water, and its got to be a paste type texture, and you want to trowel the thinset back down, take your new tile, stick it on the thinset, press down, and kind of move it around a little bit, hit it on each corner, make sure it adheres very good. Then you're going to want to take your grout, mix it up like a paste, take your grout float, and just smear the grout into the joints until the joints are nice and full. Then you can take your sponge with a clean bucket of water, and you want to wring out your sponge in the water, wipe the grout joints. Usually you'll want to do one pass per side, and then wring it out again; one pass per side, wring it out again, until you get it nice and clean. And that's how you change a cracked tile. If you have any other questions you can contact me at, parkerhomesrenovations.com"