Waterproof resin / acrylic to go on top of cracked tiles?

[JeremyG]

Hi,

The tiles in one of my showers have cracked in multiple places. This isn't a shower we use often, and the cracking is most likely as a result of the building settling after an extensive renovation. The tiles were laid, I believe, over a waterproof membrane so in theory the cracks don't matter but I don't want to use the shower until the cracks are sorted.

Getting hold of new tiles is difficult because they are no longer sold, and in any case removing them properly means taking the shower door and glass wall out which will be VERY messy and expensive. So, what I want instead is to find a covering that can be painted on to re-waterproof things.

There must exist somewhere a clear "plastic" paint that I can put all over the tiles to give 2-3mm of proper protection to the entire area. I just can't find it! I have applied some Fila Hydrorep onto the tiles but that doesn't really seal the cracks - rather it just makes the tiles hydrophobic so the water runs off them more easily. The cracks are the issue: too small to put grout in (and that would look horrid) and too big to ignore because water can get into them.

Any suggestions? My wife won't let me put a coloured epoxy down because she specifically likes the colour of the tiles, otherwise that would do the job nicely. Finding something clear is proving challenging.

Thanks,

Jeremy

PS products on this page might work, albeit they are coming from the US so will cost a fair bit to ship: http://www.hytechsales.com/clearcoatings.html

 

[tictic]

sorry mate but that aint going to work imo...

you will need to strip and find cause off movement and repair this before anything.

 

[Richard C]

Agree with tictic; apart from looking totally naff, no paint or liquid membrane is going to work over fill blown cracks. The longer you leave it, the more water will get in & the worse it will get underneath.

You need to sort it now before water ingress grows a full blown bacteria farm & destroys the substrate, membrane & all.

 

[big-all]

the only temporary solution i can think off is clean thorouglly and use clear sticky back plastic
not ideal but maybe give you time to think
any thing you do is a temporary short term solution that will show and look naff and possibly leak
cracking due to settlement means not done properly or your in trouble

 

[JeremyG]

Thanks all, the original builders were extremely expensive, extremely well respected, and extremely rubbish. So I have little doubt that the reason for the cracking is their incompetence.

Given I can't find a solution that won't involve a lot of money, the only thing left is to stop using that particular shower.

Oh well.

 

[1john]

You could temporarily silicone the cracks to prevent moisture until you have funding to remove tiles, investigate movement repair and retile.

Here is what water damage can do behind what would look like a normally tiled wall

Untitled

• 1john
• 2 Apr 2011
• 2

 

[joe-90]

If your house has moved enough to crack tiles all over the shop - you need a structural engineer - not a tiler.

 

[JeremyG]

Well, the house has certainly moved as the renovations settled - we dug out a new basement so that was bound to cause some movement. However, not ALL the tiles have cracked, just the ones in the shower. The rest of the bathroom tiles are fine.

It is likely that the membrane on which the tiles were stuck is marginally flexible and therefore moved more, or simply that the builders screwed up when they did the original tiling.

Either way, all I can do now is make the shower off-limits.