Roger's Shower Project

[rocat1997]

Help! I pulled the carpet and found a crack in the slab. Can you give me some guidance in how to proceed? The crack is probably 5-6 feet total length. What products would you put over this? Thanks.

[Houston Remodeler]

Is there vertical difference between the two sides of the crack?

[rocat1997]

Yes a slight bit. I can feel a bump up from one side to the other.

[Houston Remodeler]

Where is this crack in relation to the rest of the house? the exterior?

[rocat1997]

The crack runs about 5 feet from the back exterior wall along the inside wall of the bedroom. It's about a foot from the inside wall. The bedroom is a corner bedroom.

[rocat1997]

Also, their are several cracks coming off of the big one. They are long also but level and tight. My question. Is this gonna be risky over this big uneven crack to lay tile or should I use a floating floor? I already had the tile purchased, but, probably can return it. This was a total surprise to see a crack, as the rest of the foundation has looked so good. We had an extremely hot summer a couple of years ago and feel that it formed then as we had several ceilings crack.

[Houston Remodeler]

I'm a little confused as to the shape and location of the cracks. Perhaps the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Can you make a diagram?

[rocat1997]

Here is a drawing roughly scaled out.

[rocat1997]

Did that drawing help?

[bbcamp]

It helps me. That crack will telegraph up through a tile installation, even if you used a antifracture membrane. You have to honor that crack by placing an expansion joint directly above and in line with it.

You could float a reinforced mud bed over it, but that adds about 1.5 inches to the floor height.

Neither options seems good to me. Perhaps a nice carpet...

[Houston Remodeler]

What Bob said plus,

It looks like you have some slab issues with heaving.

Sent from my new crappy phone

[rocat1997]

I would love to just get out with carpet. But my wife has copd and needs a hard floor. We may have to go with wood floating laminate. I had already purchased the tile for this. Really a disappointment to find this crack. I understand the need for an expansion joint. How would you construct that? Problem I see is the crack is not the crack is not in a straight line. Thanks for everyone's help. It has been appreciated.

[rocat1997]

We had an incredibly hot summer 2 years ago. The soil lost a ton of moisture and caused alot of foundation issues in our area.

[bbcamp]

Sorry, no easy and attractive way to make an expansion joint to follow a random crack like that.

[rocat1997]

Well this is a great a disappointment. We won't have the cash to repair this at this time. We had bought our tile cheaply and it matched our tile in the bathroom. Wood and carpet are simply out of our budget for the next 4 years. We will just have to place this project on hold. Thanks everyone for the advice and help.