Tile Repair and Replacement on Maui
Maui Prestige Flooring repairs ceramic, porcelain and natural stone tile floors in Maui homes, condos, rentals and commercial spaces. Across 16+ years and 1,700+ flooring jobs, we have cut out and reset a lot of cracked tiles, and found the slab crack or mortar gap behind most of them.
A cracked or hollow-sounding tile is rarely just a bad tile. We find out why it failed, replace it without chipping the tiles around it, and match the grout so the repair blends in.
Single-tile repairs are often finished in one visit, with the grout following a day later. Each repair is quoted in writing and covered by our 1-year labor warranty.
Cracked and Loose Tile Repair Services
Tile repair means removing cracked, chipped, loose or hollow tiles, fixing what made them fail, and setting new tiles that match their neighbors. We repair ceramic, porcelain, travertine, marble and slate floors, plus the grout between them.
Homeowners call us when a dropped pan cracks a kitchen tile or a hairline crack keeps growing across a hallway. Condo owners, rental managers and shop owners call about loose tiles at entries and hollow spots that click underfoot.
A cracked tile repair includes:
- Tap testing the surrounding area to find any other hollow tiles
- Tracing the crack to see if it follows a slab crack
- Careful grout removal and controlled tile break-out
- Cleaning the mortar bed and setting a new tile with fresh thinset
- Grout color matching and sealing
Why Floor Tiles Crack or Come Loose
Floor tiles crack or come loose because of movement underneath, weak mortar bonding or a lack of room to expand. A dropped object only explains a single broken tile; cracks that run through several tiles nearly always start below.
Slab cracks
Concrete slabs shrink and settle, and a crack in the slab transfers straight up through rigid tile. An uncoupling or crack isolation membrane such as Schluter DITRA under the new tiles absorbs that movement.
Poor mortar coverage
Industry standard ANSI A108 calls for at least 80 percent mortar contact in dry areas and 95 percent in wet areas. Tiles set on a few dabs of thinset leave hollow voids that crack under a heel or a chair leg.
No movement joints
The TCNA Handbook calls for soft movement joints at the perimeter and through large fields, closer together in rooms exposed to direct sun. Tile grouted tight to every wall has nothing to absorb expansion.
Tenting from heat
Tile by big lanai sliders heats up in the afternoon sun and expands. Without movement joints, neighboring tiles push against each other until they lift into a ridge.
When cracks follow a long slab crack or a floor that dips, the base needs work before the tile. Our subfloor repair and floor leveling service covers grinding, patching and leveling the slab.
Replacing One Tile Without Damaging Its Neighbors
The secret to a clean tile replacement is removing the grout first so the tile can be broken out without passing force to the tiles around it. Rushing this step is how one cracked tile becomes three.
Cut out the grout
30 to 60 minutes
We remove grout around the tile with a carbide grout saw or an oscillating tool, and tape the edges of the neighboring tiles to protect them.
Controlled break-out
30 to 60 minutes
The tile is scored or drilled and chipped out from the center toward the edges, never pried from a joint.
Clean the bed
About 1 hour
Old thinset is scraped down to a flat base. If we find a slab crack, a crack isolation patch goes on before the new tile.
Reset and grout
Two short visits
The new tile is back-buttered, set level with its neighbors and left to cure overnight before we grout and clean it.
Large format porcelain, 24 x 24 inches or bigger, takes more care because the tiles are heavy and must sit perfectly flush. Our porcelain tile installation page explains the setting methods we use for those sizes.
Finding a Matching Tile
The best match is always a spare tile from the original job, so check the garage, the carport shelves and the back of closets before anything else. If none turn up, we work through other options.
Attic stock and spares
Leftover tiles from the original install match on color, size and shade lot. Even a single chipped spare can be cut down for a smaller piece by a threshold or wall.
Discontinued tile
We look for the manufacturer and series name on the back of a removed tile, then check distributors and other installers for remaining cartons of that line.
Borrowing a tile
A tile can be taken from inside a closet, under a vanity kick or beneath a built-in and used for the visible repair, with a near match placed in the hidden spot.
Accent swaps
When no match exists, a few deliberate decorative inserts or a contrasting border across the room can look planned rather than patched.
Natural stone like travertine and marble varies from tile to tile, which makes a near match easier to hide. Our natural stone flooring installation team sources and hones replacement stone for those floors.
Have a few spare tiles in the garage?
Send us a photo of the box label and the damaged tile so we can check the match before we come out.
Hollow and Tented Tile
Hollow tile has lost part of its bond to the mortar, and tented tile has pushed up into a ridge because the floor had no room to expand. Hollow tile can sometimes wait; tented tile needs attention right away because it can crack or pop loose without warning.
We map hollow areas with a tap test, using a coin or the handle of a tool on each tile, and drag a chain across larger floors to hear the change in tone. A few isolated hollow tiles that are not cracked or moving can usually stay put.
Tented floors are common in sunny rooms with tile running to the lanai doors, and in older Maui slabs that flex as they dry and settle. If water damage started the debonding, our water and flood damaged floor repair service checks the slab and documents the damage first.
Regrouting and Grout Sealing
Cracked, crumbling or stained grout can be cut out and replaced without touching the tile. We remove at least two-thirds of the joint depth, vacuum the joints clean, and pack in fresh grout that bonds properly to the old.
Grout dries lighter than it looks wet, so we test a sample on a spare tile or a hidden joint before grouting the repair. Brands we work with include Custom Building Products, Laticrete and Mapei, and a grout colorant can even out an old floor whose grout has faded unevenly.
Cement grout is porous, and in humid parts of the island such as Paia and Haiku it soaks up moisture and grows mold. We seal it with a penetrating sealer, which most homes should reapply every 1 to 2 years, or regrout busy kitchens and baths with a stain-resistant urethane or epoxy grout that needs no sealing.
For a full floor of new tile instead of a repair, see our tile installation service.
FAQ
Tile Repair FAQ
Can a single cracked tile be replaced?
Yes. We cut the grout out by hand or with an oscillating tool, break the tile out from the center so the neighbors are not stressed, clean the bed and set a new tile at the same height. Grout goes in the next day.
The repair takes a few hours of work spread over two short visits. If the crack follows a slab crack, we add a crack isolation patch under the new tile so it does not crack again.
Is hollow-sounding tile a problem?
Not always. A few hollow tiles that are not cracked, moving or spreading can stay in place for years.
Act when the hollow area grows, grout starts cracking around it, a tile rocks underfoot, or tiles begin lifting into a ridge. Those signs mean the bond is failing and a small repair now avoids a larger reset later.
How much does tile repair cost?
Single-tile repairs are priced per job rather than per square foot, because most of the time goes into careful removal and setting. The main cost drivers are how many tiles are involved, whether you have spare tiles, the tile size and material, and whether a slab crack needs a membrane underneath.
Resetting a large tented area costs closer to new installation, which for ceramic tile typically runs $14 to $25 per sq ft on Maui. Your written quote gives the exact figure.
Get a quote
Fix Your Cracked Tile
Send a photo of the cracked or loose tile, a wider shot of the floor and any spare tiles you have. We will tell you what likely caused it and send a written tile repair quote.
- Mon to Sat 7am to 9pm, Sun 9am to 9pm
- 1710 W Kaahumanu Ave, Wailuku, HI 96793
- Licensed, insured and backed by a 1-year labor warranty