Repair the Tile or Replace It

The Short Answer

Repair the Surface, Replace the Assembly

If the tile is bonded to a sound, dry wall and the damage is local, repair it. If the wall behind the tile is wet, loose, or moving, then the assembly gets rebuilt, and the tile comes off with it. Putting new tile over a problem you have not fixed is the most expensive option on the list, because you buy the tile twice.

Repair

When a Repair Is the Right Call

• One or two tiles are cracked or chipped, and the tile around them is fine.
• The tile is still bonded. It sounds solid when you tap it and it does not move.
• The wall behind it is dry, with no damp feel and no stain below.
• The grout is the main complaint, and the grout is failing in scattered spots rather than in a line.
• The silicone at a tub or a corner has failed, and the rest of the shower is sound.
• You like the tile, and you want to keep the layout you have.

A repair is also the right call when the cause has already been dealt with and you are putting the room back to where it was. In that case the work is straightforward: remove the old material, fix what is failing, and put the surface back.

Replace

When Replacement Is the Right Call

• A large area sounds hollow when you tap it, which means the bond has gone over a wide area rather than in one spot.
• Grout keeps cracking in the same straight line, which points at movement in the wall behind the tile.
• The wall behind the tile is damp, or there is a stain on the ceiling below.
• The shower is being rebuilt anyway, so the wall is open and the tile has to come off regardless.
• The waterproofing behind the shower was never built, or has failed, and the tile is hiding it.
• The tile is old and brittle, and it breaks every time somebody reaches into the shower.
• The floor is soft, which means the problem is under the tile rather than in it.

One more case sits on the line. If the damage is bad but the cause is understood and fixed, and the tile is still good enough to reuse, then the scope is a rebuild of the assembly with the old tile going back down. That happens more often than people expect, and it depends on how carefully the tile comes up.

Failure

What Makes a Repair Fail

Most failed repairs are not bad workmanship. They are a repair applied to a problem that needed a rebuild.

• Repairing the surface and leaving the cause. New grout over a wet wall goes dark again, and the same grout comes back out within a year.
• Grouting over the old grout instead of removing it. New grout does not bond to old grout, so the joint crumbles out sooner than the first one did.
• Matching a new tile to an old field. A replacement tile from a different batch rarely matches, and it reads as a patch no matter how good the work is.
• Grouting a joint that moves. Corners, tub edges, and the wall to floor transition take silicone. Grout there cracks on the same line every time.
• Packing grout into a joint that was not cleaned out. The dust and the old sealant in the joint stop the new grout from bonding to the tile edges.
• Sealing grout that is damp or dirty. That locks the stain in permanently.
• Repairing the floor and leaving the leak running. The floor gets soft again, and this time the subfloor is worse.
• Matching grout color by eye with no sample of the old grout next to the new. Cement grout fades, and a close match that is slightly off looks wrong from across the room.

The Decision

How to Weigh the Decision Without Guessing at Numbers

The number you want is the total cost of getting the right job, not the cost of the smallest job. Two things move that number, and both of them are things a contractor can find out by looking.

• How much of the area is actually affected. One hollow tile is a repair. A hollow patch across a wall is a retile, and the difference between those two is the whole decision.
• What the cause is. A missing silicone joint is a small job. Water coming through a pan or a wall cavity is a large one, and no amount of new tile changes that.
• How many times the room gets disrupted. A repair is one visit with the room back in service. A rebuild means the room is out of service for days, and if you have one bathroom, that is the part people underestimate.
• What happens if the repair does not hold. If the same problem comes back, you have paid for the repair and you still owe the rebuild. That is the version of this decision that costs the most.

Ask for the Answers in Writing

So ask for the estimate to answer two questions in writing. What did you find behind the tile, and what would change if it is worse than this. An estimate that answers both is worth more than a lower number with the same questions left open.

What to Do Next

What to Do Next

Tap the area with a screwdriver handle, not your knuckles. A sharp sound means the bond is good. A dull echo means it has let go, and it tells you where the affected area starts and stops. Then check the ceiling in the room below for a stain, and run your hand along the wall at the base of the shower.

What We Found and What It Changes

On the estimate we write down what we found, whether we are recommending a repair or a rebuild, and what changes the scope if the tile comes up and the wall is in a different condition than it looked. You get that in writing before anything is ordered.