Flooring Tile - Replacing cracked tiles

Kitchen has ceramic tile over cement slab. Several tiles have cracks caused by ground shift here in Texas. To replace cracked tiles, I assume I remove bad tiles, scrape up old thinset, clean, and use thinset to lay replacement tiles. Is it necessray to level small cracks in slab? If so, wiill thinset take care of that? As for grout, which is best. I have a bag of colored grout from original job. about 15 years ago. Can that be used? Will appreciate any advice. Thanks, Phil.

Sure would appreciate an answer from some of the experts on this. Concerned as to how I replace the tiles without them breaking again because of the thin cracks in the slab. Had the house leveled and stabilized about 16 years ago, so do not expect too much in terms of further cracking. Thanks.

Hi Phil -

I'm not an expert, but have now laid two tile floors, plus kitchen backsplash, so I've had my share of triumphs and disasters, as well as surprises. :-) but your plan sounds good. Make sure that you get off as much of the underlying thinset as possible, so your new tiles sit level with the old. ( Hope you have some leftovers - they tend to vary from lot to lot in color - you may want to check this before removing old tile)
As for your grout mix from 15 years ago - If it has not been tightly sealed, it may have picked up moisture, and discolored. Have you tried mixing some to see if the color is the same? (Also, with 15 years of wear and tear, the original grout may be discolored)
It sounds like your having the house stabilized will help with the small cracks, and I would think that the thinset will help - I, too hope tileguy sees these posts, for he can help best!
Good luck with your project!

Blessings -

Debbie

Slow down, for one, are these cracks even with each other or is one side higher than the other, let's start there, if they are even, you'll need a membrane over all the cracks, if uneven, forget about tiling this floor.:)

Second, thinset and grout have a 1 year shelf life, opened and sealed, maybe a few months, older than that, toss it.:)

Thanks Debbie and Tileman. Good information, and will follow advice. Cracks seem to be mostly even, having resulted from slight shifting of house over years. I do have enough tiles from original job to do the job, but I will throw away the old thinset and grout. What type membrane is used over cracks? Thanks again, Phil.

There are many types of crack isolation membrane out there, do a search, I use Flex Gaurd for isolated cracks like this.:)

http://www.tiletool.net/Crack_Tile.asp