Wasted a whole weekend on a 'quick' tile job because I didn't check the subfloor

I was redoing a small bathroom floor, maybe 40 square feet, and figured I could just tile right over the old vinyl. The tiles went down fine, but after a week they started cracking and popping up. Had to rip everything out, replace a section of the subfloor that was flexing, and start over. All in, I lost about $350 in materials and two full days of work. It was such a dumb mistake that a simple floor check would have caught. Anyone have a good method for checking subfloor stiffness before you commit?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny_lane121mo ago

A glass of water on the floor can show you flex spots when you walk around. It's a cheap trick that saved me once.

paige_robinson241mo ago

Sounds like a great way to break a glass and cut your foot.

quinn6061mo ago

Jenny's water glass trick is clever, but is a little flex really that bad? I've seen plenty of old tile floors that have a bit of give and hold up for years. Sometimes we get too caught up in perfect standards. If the old vinyl was stuck down solid and not bubbling, the subfloor was probably fine for another layer. Maybe those tiles cracked from a bad batch of thin-set or not letting them set right.