Fixing cracked floor tile

[rkennedy1966]

Has anyone had any experience replacing a cracked floor tile in your Winnebago coach? Started the removal, but these thing are toughs to remove. I fear with all the pounding and chiseling I may crack a tile next to the one I am removing. Removing the grout could be even tougher. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Rick
'08 Itasca Ellipse WD40

[blang]

I haven't removed tile in a rig but used to do a LOT of this kind of work in homes. Something to think about... unless you can point to a specific instance that cracked a tile (like dropping something on that specific tile), the odds are good that you have an issue with the substrate like water intrusion between the tile and subfloor. In that case, find the source of water and bet on all of the tile between the cracked one and the source are soon to crack, also.

Now... to your actual question. Use a dremel (or similar) to remove grout from around damaged tile and cut into pieces, if it won't let go. You're right, pounding will do more damage than good to the surrounding... especially if there is a substrate issue. And... sure, a dremel will be slow. If you have them, an angle grinder with a diamond disk will be much faster. The point is: no pounding.

[rkennedy1966]

Thanks Blang for your comments. I do have a dremel and will start using it Immediately. NO MORE pounding! The tile I am working on sticks under the sink cabinet. I read in another irv2 blog that they jacked up the slide slightly to have better access to removing the entire tile. Do you see any problem with doing that.
thanks again.
RK

[BVThunder]

I've removed grout and replaced tile in the sticks and bricks house. MH is no different. A Dremel will work with the proper cutting disk. However, there is a specialized tool that vibrates to cut rather than turns. I borrowed one from a friend to do my second tile. Take the grout out. then hit the broken tile is several places with a hammer and remove the tile. Have fun. Wear a mask and enjoy the dust. You'll be cleaning for a long time. You can mitigate the dust a bit by having someone hold a vacuum close to where you are removing the grout. You Tube is your friend for this project.

[ralphie]

An oscillating tool similar to the Chicago Electric 67537 is what you need. For a single job the cheapest you can get from some place like Harbor Freight should be okay. Get several cutting blades made for tile and grout as they wear out fast. When you get to the edge of the cabinet I suggest you try to cut the tile off vertically rather than trying to go under the cabinet. When you install the new tile just do a good cutting job on that edge and you'll probably never notice it.

[JoeSR]

Take what I am saying with a grain of salt. I have installed several ceramic / porcelain tile floors, but I have not removed any broken tiles. So, I am not a total novice.

For the portion of the tile going under the cabinet, try scoring the tile first with a carbide tile scoring tool. See the tool in the first portion of this video >>> How to Cut Tile | Video | This Old House

The fellow in the video is scoring a wall tile. This tile is much easier to break then a floor tile. Hopefully, in your case, the tile will break along the score line and you can just leave that portion of the tile under the cabinet.

[JaminSamin]

I had a broken tile replaced in our SB, the tech used a heat gun to soften up the epoxy grout. It was very trick. The grout went from hard as stone, impervious to everything to the consistency of packed brown sugar.