The snow birds are back in South Florida only to discover that their tiles have lifted. This is called tenting or buckling.

This buckling is mainly caused when the tile expands from temperature or moisture and has no where to expand to except up. Florida is notorious for humid weather and when residents take off for the winter and leave their air conditioners off or not cool enough, you get lifting of tiles. Not a pretty picture. If it is on a wood structure it could be from creep. This is when the floor sags from weight or other reasons. The tile can’t bend with the curvature created and breaks loose.

Luckily there is a process where the lifted tile is cut out and reset as good as new. There is a special bonding agent that is used so your old tile and color match your grout so well you could never tell its been cut out and reset. This process could save home owners thousands. Also, they discontinue tiles every four years, which makes it almost impossible to find tiles to match. So the idea of using that special bonding is smart.

There is also a process of injecting hollow tiles without lifting them, but the tiles have to be flat to the ground and the grout has to be intact. In this bad economy it's in your best interest to restore your existing floor tiles.

I hope you find this small tip useful. Stop by often for more useful tips! Or, give Mace a call woth any questions or problems you might have. And remember, no job is too big or too small.