Ceramic on Concrete Floor

[clmallet]

Hi, I have a house with a walk-out Basement, I want to install ceramic tiles in front of the basement patio doors. But there's a crack where the slab meets the foundation in front of the patio doors. can I lay ceramic over that crack??

Thks
Chris

[HayZee518]

you need to find out if the slab is moving in reference to the house slab.

[pushkins]

If the crack is small and has been there for some time and NOT grown any then you should be fine to install ceramic tile over it. Make sure you use a GOOD quality adhesive (should cost about $30 a bag) as the better the quality the better the additives like polymers to keep it flexible.

[jnaas2]

Lay the tile so one of the grout joints break on the crack and caulk it with a good silicone caulk. Go to a tile store they have a lot of different colored silicone caulks that match there grout colors or pick a grout color to match the silicone caulk. Then if the crack widens or shrinks the silicone will expand and contract instead of breaking any tile

[Jaz]

I doubt very much that he'd be able to line up a crack in the slab with a grout line. Floors don't crack in a straight line.

If it was a larger area I would suggest a crack isolation membrane of some type, either liquid or sheet such as Ditra or Noble CIS. Being a small areas, a premium modified thin set mortar that claims crack isolation should be good enough.

Jaz

[jnaas2]

clmallet
If the crack you are talking about is where they poured the concrete floor of the basement and then poured the concrete patio I would put a expansion joint on this crack or a grout line, if its as jaz said and just a random crack then you should use the thin set mortar. If its where the inside floor and the exterior concrete meet and the area you live in is subject to freezing temperatures the concrete outside will move more then the floor inside

[ceramictilepro]

crack at concrete

crack or expansions joints can be tiled over if you use a isolation membrane like noble seal and versabond flex modified thinset or megaflex

ceramictilepro

[johnmwentz]

Re: Ceramic on Concrete Floor

The cracks should be filled before placing the ceramic tiles. I would recommend Roklin’s Concrete Welder in cartridge format to fill the cracks.