Can I Tile over cracked concrete outside?
Question:Thinking of putting tile on front porch. It has a couple minor cracks. Is there anything that I can put down so that the Tile
doesn't crack in the future.
Answers:
You can tile over the concrete as long as the cracks have to shifted meaning on side of the crack is higher than the other. If that is the case you would need to stabilize the ground underneath first. The most cost effective way would be to have it slab jacked. That being said if there are just cracks first fill with fine silica sand then use and elastomeric caulking. DO NOT USE EPOXY!! This will just cause the concrete to crack in another place. Then you want to install a tile membrane on the concrete and then the tile on top of that. This will allow for some cracking and movement of the concrete below without the tile or grout cracking. Durarock or Tileguard make a tile membrane and can be found a any tile supply house. Hope this helps.
You definately need to fix the cracks or fill them. If you put tile over them then the tile will just crack in time. Using concrete quik set to fill the cracks, then a fine layer of thinset to level should do the job.
First deal with the cracks. They are normal if they were caused over time by the concrete just settling. If you go to the hardware store you will want to find some crack repairing compounds. They are like concrete and mortar and should be in that section. They contain a rubber based martix which will bend and flex instead of breaking and fill cracks easily. Make sure you put down a even layer of mortar before you begin tiling and it should be okay to tile.
Cover the whole porch over w/ cement as to cover cracks & keep porch even then lay tile. Best bet wold be to remove all old cement w/ cracks and start over. It seems everything wants to crack. We just laid a textured patio and it already has 2 huge cracks. We live in washington state and I think it is from small earthquakes. Good luck.
NO! If you have a problem with the base, you'll have a problem with whatever you put on top as the base problem gets worse.
You have to start with taking care of the "bas"ic problem. Filling in the cracks will not be enough as the base can still shift and move. You need to stop the movement.
I wish I could tell you more but with the little info I have about your problem, that is about all I can say.
Put in another question with more details about your front porch: what is it made of? How is it connected to the house? on the ground or in the air? etc, etc
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