You probably don’t clean your shower tile daily or even weekly. Chances are good that mop your tile floors pretty often though. That means you notice when the grout cracks or breaks. You could patch it quickly and move on to other things or you could take the time to have a professional look at the problem to examine for larger issues.

Cracked and Broken Grout Causes

Cracks and breaks in the grout can occur during the life of the tile. Unaddressed, they can lead to broken tile. Better and cheaper to fix broken grout than to replace broken floor tile.

If you have a single crack in grout or one or two spaced very far apart, you probably just need to patch it. If you mop or sweep and notice many cracks, it signals a larger problem.

Correctly installed grout and floor tile should allow for a small amount of expansion and contraction. More than that, a minor earthquake, for example, can cause cracking.

If this occurred and then you noticed the cracks, have it patched before tile damage occurs.
If your home is older and grout and tile simply began to show age, have it patched before tile damage occurs.

Large cracks indicate bigger problems, as do many cracks. A number of cracks or having to patch cracks more than once on a floor means you need to phone a professional.

If you see numerous cracks in the grout, it can indicate an uneven installation of your subfloor or a weakening subfloor. Not only may you need to replace the grout and tile, but you may need subfloor repairs.

Here’s Why You Should Call the Pros

The same issue can occur large-scale due to three possible causes:

The grout mix contained too much polymer additive or water.
Too little thinset, the glue that overlays the mortar, results in it pulling away from the tile. Under the tile, gaps of air develop.
When water gets added to the cement hydration after it begins curing, the grout weakens and crumbles soon after.

These poor installation issues also require immediate address. They must be fixed as soon as they are noticed because otherwise the problem spreads.

So What’s Next?

There are two ways to look at the issue if it occurred due to faulty installation. Certainly, your contractor is liable and the installation may be covered by a warranty. However, do you want the same person who caused and created the problem to be the one to fix it? Do you think it would actually get fixed?

When you see problems with your grout, call the grout experts at Grout Experts. A couple of cracks through the years in your floor’s grout should not bother you, but numerous cracks indicate a need for a professional to address the situation. Call us and we will determine the problem’s cause and rectify it.