How to Repair Tile

Last Updated: August 10, 2021

Tile is a very tough and durable wall and floor covering, but it is not indestructible. Tile can be made of ceramic, porcelain, quarry stone or terracotta (clay) and is vulnerable to damage caused by virtually any item heavy or strong enough to crack those materials. A floor tile may even crack on its own if it's hiding a manufacturer defect or if it's installed on an uneven subfloor. Fortunately, cracked tile is repairable and you don't have to be a flooring contractor to be able to do it. If you have a broken tile that needs to be replaced, follow these steps for how to repair tile.

Steps

1
Find a replacement tile that matches. Flooring contractors often leave spare tiles in the garage or storage room for when the homeowner might need to repair tile mishaps.^{[1]
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2
Choose a matching grout. Borrow colored grout samples from a well-stocked flooring supply store and bring it home to find the closest match.^{[2]
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3
Remove the old tile completely. Be careful not to damage any of the surrounding tiles.^{[3]
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- Use an electric drill with a masonry bit to drill a diagonal series of small holes into the cracked tile, keeping drilled holes less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) apart.
- Split the tile through the horizontal hole-line by using a ball-peen hammer to tap a cold chisel into the tile. Tap very lightly so as not to crack neighboring grout joints.
- Remove the loosened pieces. Use a flat bar to pry up any shards that you cannot get up by hand.
- Scrape the remaining old mortar from the subfloor using a stiff-bladed scraper. It is not important that you get every last bit up. Just make sure the area is fairly clean of mortar.
- Vacuum up any loose dirt or debris.
4
Set the replacement tile. Use a notched trowel to spread mortar onto the subfloor and lay the new tile in. Use a level to ensure tile is laying perfectly flat and also to determine that the newly set tile is flush with surrounding tiles.^{[4]
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5
Grout the area according to the grout manufacturer's directions.^{[5]
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6
Finished.