The tile is one week old. I have had the company pull tiles, regrout and patch. I have new cracks every day. Can I reasonable ask them to start over?
Are you keeping the grout moist? When you get new tile, you should mop the floor every day with warm water. That should keep the grout from cracking on you. You can sure ask the company to start over. No one wants a cracked tile floor.
It is possible bad mortar was the problem, but my money is on human error. Too little mortar or too few screws in the cement board are common culprits. I would have someone who knows about laying tile(other than the installers) take a look at it and offer up some probable causes. Good luck.
Could be that the base is improperlyy installed to. The cement board may not be screwed down right. Or... what is under that may not be a good base. If you have a floor that is settling or unlevel ..... that subfloor may not be good for ceramic tile.
I don't know if you watch HGTV, but there is a Holmes on Homes episode that covers this very situation. In that episode they ended up ripping up the entire floor sub-floor, started again. The tile guys laid down a concrete board that is designed for that purpose, but they laid it over the old linoleum floor when that floor needed to be ripped up 1st a new sub-floor laid down. The cracking is probably caused by the tiles shifting in some way. Either the subfloor is inadequate, or the adhesion of the tiles to the subfloor is inadequate. As you walk over the floor the tiles move, the grout cracks. You may have a fight on your hands. Most contractors don't like to do their work all over again, but I suspect that is what needs to be done here. Cracking in a ceramic floor that is only one week old suggests to me that you had the great misfortune to hire somebody who really doesn't know about laying ceramic floors. It would probably be more than reasonable to ask them to do the job over, but I don't know if that would be advisable if you want to end up with a ceramic floor free of cracks. If they didn't know how to install your floor in the 1st place, then I wouldn't expect then to have studied up on the right way to do it after only one week. If it were me, I'd ask them to come in and remove the tiles and give me a full refund so that I can go find someone who knows what he is doing. Good Luck!
I will not wast time describing how it should be done. I will however as a Licensed contractor tell you, you have the right to have ask (demand) that they do it, if they have to do it 10 times to get it right its their problem not yours...end of story... that is the law. And... I wasn't going to say anything but it just pisses me off when people give advice on a subject they clearly know nothing about. I have been doing masonry for over 20 years myself and my family has been in the building business for 2 generations and I have NEVER heard of moping a new tile floor with warm water so the grout will not crack. Or sealing a floor under tile. Because it doesn't exist...Look people I answer question that I know the answer to or offer advice based on my experience with the matter. The people on this site are looking for an answer to something that is important to them and you should respect that. would you like someone answering your question that doesn't really know the answer but is just kinda guessing backed by a little knowledge? NO and I wouldn't either. Especially regarding someones home come on. Everybody has an area of specialty so answer those questions you KNOW the answer to or at least indicate that it is a guess when you dont...theres plenty of questions to go around for all of us.
