Tile repair and regrouting in Southeast Michigan

Cracked grout joints and a loose tile or two are the cheapest warning a bathroom ever gives you. Tile repair and regrouting from our bathroom repair crew takes the old grout out, replaces what has failed and seals the result, which stops water getting behind the wall and staying there. The work is worth doing early, because the same defect left for two more winters becomes a rebuild.

Grout cracks for a reason, and the reason matters

Grout is rigid. It cracks when the surface underneath it moves, which means a crack is telling you something about the substrate rather than about the grout. A hairline crack in one joint is usually shrinkage and nothing more. A crack running straight through several tiles in a line is movement, and filling it without addressing the cause is a repair with a season on it.

The common causes here are a floor that flexes because the subfloor is undersized, a wall panel that was never shimmed tight to the studs, and a joint that should have been caulk in the first place because two different materials meet there.

Hollow tiles and what tapping tells you

Tapping across a tiled surface with a knuckle is the fastest diagnostic there is. Tile bonded properly to its substrate sounds solid. Tile that has lost its bond sounds hollow, and a hollow tile is on its way off the wall whether or not it looks fine today.

A few hollow tiles in one area is a repair: lift them, clean the back and the bed, reset them in fresh thinset. A whole wall sounding hollow is a different conversation, and it usually means the shower needs rebuilding rather than patching.

Matching tile that has not been made for years

This is the hardest part of the job and it is worth being upfront about. Tile runs change, colors shift between production batches, and a discontinued tile from 1987 is not going to be matched from a shelf. The first question we ask is whether there is a box of spares in the basement, because in a surprising number of Southeast Michigan houses there is.

Where there is not, the usual answer is to steal tiles from somewhere hidden. Behind a toilet, inside a vanity kick space, under where the cabinet sits. Those come out, go into the visible repair, and the hidden spot gets the closest available match nobody will ever see.

Regrouting properly, which means taking the old grout out

Smearing new grout over old grout is the version of this job that fails within a year. New material needs depth to hold, and a thin skim over an existing joint has none. It cracks out in sheets and takes the appearance of the wall with it.

Doing it properly means removing the old grout to a consistent depth with an oscillating tool or a grout saw, vacuuming the joints, then floating new material in and cleaning the surface before it sets. It is slow, dusty work and it is the whole job. Anything faster is cosmetic.

Sanded, unsanded and the epoxy option

Sanded grout goes in joints wider than about an eighth of an inch and resists shrinking. Unsanded goes in narrow joints and on polished stone, which sanded grout will scratch. Using the wrong one is a visible mistake on a wall of marble.

Epoxy grout costs more, goes in harder and does not absorb water or stain, which makes it the best material available for a shower floor. It also sets fast and is unforgiving of a slow installer, so it is worth having somebody who has used it before doing the work.

What the work covers

  • Failed grout removed to depth, joints cleaned out and vacuumed
  • Loose or cracked tiles lifted, beds cleaned back and tiles reset in fresh thinset
  • New grout floated, tooled and cleaned off the tile face before it cures
  • Movement joints and material changes run in silicone rather than grout
  • Cement grout sealed once cured, with the surfaces that need it identified

Sealing, and the product that will not fix a leak

Cement grout is porous and a penetrating sealer slows down staining and absorption considerably. That is all it does. A sealer does not waterproof a shower, it does not stop a leak, and it does not compensate for a failed membrane behind the tile.

Products sold as a way to seal a leaking shower from the surface are a way to postpone the diagnosis. We will not sell you one, and where the problem is behind the tile we say so even though the answer costs more.

Color, and why a patch always shows

Grout dries lighter than it looks wet, and it dries differently depending on how much water was in the mix and how fast the room lost humidity. Two batches of the same product, mixed on different days, will not match. Regrouting one wall of a shower and leaving the other two is a visible repair from the doorway.

Our practice is to do a whole plane at a time, floor or wall, so any variation lands at a corner where the eye expects a change. Where somebody wants a small patch and accepts the mismatch, that is a reasonable choice and we will do it. It should be a decision rather than a surprise.

How long the room is out of service

Grout needs to cure before it gets wet, and sealer needs the grout to be cured before it goes on. That means a shower stays unused for longer than the work itself takes, and rushing it is how a fresh joint washes out in the first week.

In a house with one bathroom, that is worth scheduling around. We give you the sequence before we start so you know which days the shower is off limits, and we will happily work around a weekend where it helps.

Kitchens, floors and entryways too

The same work applies wherever tile exists. Kitchen backsplashes crack at the joint above the counter, which is a caulk joint pretending to be grout. Entry floors in Michigan take salt, grit and standing meltwater all winter, and grout in a mudroom ages faster than anywhere else in the house.

Floor tile that has cracked across the face rather than at the joint is usually telling you about deflection in the floor underneath, and that is a framing question rather than a tile one.

Where this sits beside the other work

Where we work across Southeast Michigan

Tile calls run from Platt Road in Ypsilanti across Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe counties, with Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Plymouth on the schedule most weeks.

Get the joints done

Tap the tiles around the crack and tell us how many sound hollow. That one detail decides repair or rebuild before anybody comes out. View our Portfolio to see the tile work our crews do, or contact us now for a free quote.