How to Replace a Single Tile

Hi, I’m David Lupberger with ServiceMagic.com. In almost every bathroom and every kitchen inevitably a tile breaks. Today we’re going talk about how to fix that tile and how to do it the right way. Let’s take a look at the materials you need before we start.

You’ll need a hammer, chisel scraper, grout removal tool, tile adhesive, tile spreader, the actual tile, and grout.

First thing you want to do is clean the grout from around the tile you’re replacing. Now, that I’ve removed the grout, I’m going to go ahead and break out the defective tile but I want to give you a safety warning first. Make sure you use some kind of eye protection. So once the tile is removed, I’m going to come back and with this scraper, make sure that all the old glue is removed because I’ll need a flat surface with that new tile in.

So I just finished scraping and there are other couple of spots right, dug in a little bit deep, don’t worry when we put the new tile back in, the glue will fill it, it will sit quite and nicely. So I put some tile adhesive in the opening making sure that’s spread, you see it’s a little bit messy but really I just want to make sure it’s covering all the key points.

The glue is in place, I can take my replacement tile, and I can set it right in place. All right, that’s a good fit but I need to give that adhesive several hours to dry in fact way to day before you come back and re-grout. After the adhesive is dried, get your grout, make sure the grout color also matches, mix it up and then with a sponge begin to work it in. All right, so as we work the grout into the gap, the sponge works the grout in between the tiles.

Now I’m going to take a dry cloth and I like doing this within 30 to 40 minutes after installing the grout and I’m going to clean the surface because some of that grout residue has gotten on the tile. So that’s how you replace broken tile. If you’d like some help with this, go to ServiceMagic.com to find a prescreen professional to help you with this or any other home improvement project.