Hi all, I hoped someone could recommend a glue to repair a floor tile.
It is a natural Saltillo type clay tile, quite thick. It is on the edge of a stair tile (with a nose on the end) and has cracked right at the end. No one ever stands there so in theory there should be no stress - however, it has cracked and the crack is expanding. I’ve included a photo below.
What I’m imagining is some kind of epoxy that I could inject into the crack to stabilize it but wondered if you all had any recommendations.
Hey Walter, you’re on the right track with the epoxy. there are a few brands of 5 minute epoxy at big box stores. The brand is less important than the process. MASK EVERYTHING!!! Save some time cleaning up and doing a neater job. Consider doing two steps.
Put some blue tape under the crack to create a dam.
Mix a small amount of epoxy about the size of your quarter.
Drizzle the epoxy into the crackwhere it is widest. The epoxy will flow slowly like honey.
Once that sets up it will act like a container for the balance for the next step
mix up another batch of epoxy. Fill from the widest part of the crack and let the epoxy flow to the thinnest part of the crack. The key here is to avoid trpping air in the crack. It will get gooey hard in the five minutes and you can use a razor or utility knife blade to trim it flush.
At the end you can remove the blue tape if the epoxy is flush, … or go one more filling.
Thanks David
My experience of mixing those glues is that they come out pretty thick. The crack is tiny, I don’t think the glue will just fall in - that’s why I was thinking of injection. Do you know what I could thin the mixed epoxy with?
Walter
You can thin epoxy with acetone, but have to watch your ratios. Not too much acetone.
There’s a fair chance that the crack goes through the piece. At lease against the wood trim, so epoxy will flow right back out, then down to the next step, creating a mess and secondary chore. Caulk underneath first, making sure to surround the mortor joint adjacent to the trim.
Matching color and sheet is always a problem. Probably one of the reasons the Japanese came up with kintsugi. If you can’t hide it, make it a feature. Some turquoise dust in your epoxy would work.
Walter you make a good point and Charley too: acetone. but just a little.
There is a product I use all the time: West Epoxy System. I love this stuff for wood repair. It is available with a variety of hardeners slow to fast. The slow allows it to soak into rotted wood to thereby consolidate what might otherwise be “sawdust”. I used it last year to repair old Anderson wood windows that would have been near impossible to replace cost effectively. And a storefront door as well. There are different fillers that can adjust the consistency from peanut butter to mayonaise.
It is available locally at West Marine at the intersection of 183 and N Lamar. I do NOT think it is available in “repair quantities”.
If you feel stuck, I have a gallon of the resin and a two hardeners and different fillers. Reach out if you want some or we could meet up at ASMBLY
Thank you all
I think I’m going to try the acetone route - hopefully on a scrap of the tile if I can find one. But I have two new bookmarks now, thistothat.com is superb and the West epoxy system looks just like what I needed for repairing some windows a couple years ago. I would never have thought of West Marine but now it makes sense.
Thanks for all your expertise.
Walter
