My bathroom tile was cracking at the corner and I fixed it with a $4 tube of caulk

The grout in my shower kept cracking at the floor corner, letting water in. I was about to re-grout the whole section, which seemed like a huge job. Then I watched a video from a guy in Phoenix who said to clean it out and fill the gap with a flexible silicone caulk instead. I bought some GE Silicone 2, cleaned the crack really good, and squeezed it in. It's been six months with no new cracks. Has anyone else used caulk for this, or is there a better fix I should know about?

4 comments

4 Comments

jana_black2mo ago

Did you use the same color caulk as your grout? That's the trick I learned. My old house had the same problem in every bathroom corner, and silicone caulk was the only thing that held up. I tried re-grouting first and it just cracked again in a few weeks because the house shifts. The caulk has some give to it, so it lasts way longer.

drewr152mo agoProlific Poster

That "house shifts" thing is so real. My old apartment had a crack in the drywall that would open and close with the seasons like clockwork.

max22314d ago

2 years in a house built on a slab and I had a crack in the corner of my shower that would open up every spring like clockwork. @drewr15 your drywall crack was probably from the same thing - wood framing and drywall don't flex the same way. I tried grout, then epoxy grout, and both cracked again. Finally just used a good quality silicone caulk that matched the grout color and left a small gap for movement. It's been 4 years and that corner still looks perfect. The trick is making sure you clean out all the old stuff first and let the caulk cure for 24 hours before getting it wet.

emmam892mo ago

My uncle's a tile guy in Florida and he says caulk is a band-aid fix. He told me the real problem is usually a bad subfloor or movement in the framing. He'd rip out the bottom row of tile and fix the cause, not just cover it up. That caulk will eventually fail and you could get water damage inside the wall.