Flooring Tile - One Misplaced Tile In Room

Well.........................I have ONE tile in my room that is set in thinset and I didn't notice until it had cured that the tile is higher on one side than the other. I know I placed this tile late at night, sometime in the mid AM. I have to assume I leaned over on it to stabilize myself while placing another tile. I have not grouted yet so my question is..............................DO I TEAR OUT THIS TILE AND RESET IT? It is about l/8 of an inch low on one corner. Also I left some grout too deep under the spacers and think I may have to grind it down a bit to allow proper room for the grout. Can you experts help me out a bit on this?

If I need to remove that tile, please offer some advise as to how to do this without harming my other tiles around it.

Thanks in advance.

I think you will have to take the tile out. If it were me,and it has been, I would drill a number of holes in the middle of the tile and gently chisel it out from the middle to the edges. If you have some kind of grinder to cut it up that would be a good idea.I am assuming you are referring to leaving too much thinset in the grout joints. If you have just few spots you can grind it out or do what you have to do to get it out. If it is thoughout the whole floor[not knowing what size it is or the size of the grout joint] I would look for the grout removal tool that works in a sawzall. You add more cutters to equal the width of the grout joint. I have used the carbide tipped tool that you cut Durock with to get thinset out but you can Very easily come out of the joint and score a tile. It might no be as hard as you think if it is still pretty fresh.Look around for thinset on the sides of the tiles near the top of the tile. This will ruin the whole look. P.S. it would have helped to know the color of the thinset and the grout. I am assuming they are different. Good luck

My tile is light/neutral/off-white/ For some reason, the HD folks sent me home with gray Thinset. I didn't even know it came in other colors until I went back to get more. My grout is going to be bone. I was going with a darker grout because the moderators said the lighter ones show stains and dirt more. I just thought the blended look close to the tile color was more what I have in mind.

I did remove the excess grout from the edges of the tile as I placed it. Any I left, I went back in the next day and removed with a wet cloth. I used a carbide disc with my dad's grinder to cut all my Wonderboard because I liked the smoother cut and I am a somewhat weak-armed female and found the scoring tool hard to use on the Wonderboard. If I drill holes in the middle (I assume with a carbide drill tip), do I need to go down into the thinset as much as I can? How about getting into the Wonderboard?

When I look down into my l/4 spaces between my tile, I see that the thinset that is down in there is pretty irregular. I mean that it is thicker in some areas than others. Some spaces don't have a great deal of thinset in between them, probably depending on how many times I backbuttered, leveled and squeezed thinset from under these tiles. On occasion I got carried away with my backbuttering and would have to press and remove thinset from around the edges, press more and remove more, etc. until I got the tile level.

I thought I had read on here that there should be l/3 thinset and 2/3 grout between the tiles to prevent cracking. If that is so, I need to even it out between. None of the spaces are "full" of thinset so the cleanout should not be that bad, I just dread all this grinding mess. Using that grinder inside to cut creates quite a cloud of dust that just gets everywhere.

Well well another weak armed girl trying to do a mans job,geeez. Just drill through the tile and that's it.You could also just try to crack it from the outside edge towards the middle. You could also score an X in the tile with the grinder and chisel it out that way Then remove as much of the thinset as possible with a chisel or srcaper or whatever and lay a new tile. As far as the 1/3-2/3 ratio I wouldn't get too exited if it wasn't exactly right. A lot depends on how thick the tiles are. I would imagine that if you have a thin tile and a 1/4 inch joint it need to be pretty deep I would shoot for half and half and wouldn't add any to the areas that are low. I would add liquid latex to the grout if it is not already in the grout itself[some grouts are latex modified in the powder] When and if you grind it out if someone is available to hold a wet dry vac where the dust comes from the grinder that is one option. Keep the vac outside if possible or at least make sure it has hepa filter on it. If you don't want to grind it they sell grout saws [you add saw blades to reach the width of your joint] in the depot. just for this. Make sure you have as many individual saws as you need to make up 1/4 inch. I might be tempted to call the grout manufacturer and ask their opinion

Hey, easy with that "man's job" stuff. Not every gal has a handyman hanging around. I'll drill it out and go from there. Thanks for the grout advice, too. I assume the latex makes the grout stronger and less likely to stain before it is sealed. Thanks again!!

less likely to crack to. Good luck.