Hello,
I am writing about our bathroom floor. I have seen hairline cracks on our ceramic tile floor. Can you tell me if the problem is due to water rot wood under the tiles or is it something else? We bought this house about 15 years ago and never had it inspected prior to purchasing it. Now we wished we had their have been several problems with our home and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Our home was built about 45 years ago but the previous owner had the home lifted with the original upstairs and a new addition about 20 years after downstairs. Upstairs is a 3 bedroom & 2 baths. Downstairs is the same length as upstairs but with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. Another problem we notice is downstairs the cement brick interior wall is cracking or splitting apart. It seems to be separting as years have gone by. Is it due to the ground shifting underneath and how can we solve this problem too? We live on a rise and we are not leveled with our neighbors yard. We have a 5ft. cement wall separting our yard from the neighbor below us. So that means our home is sitting 5ft above the neighbor below. The house above us, their yard is about the same level as ours. If it should rain the rain seems to run down against our home. Is that part of the reason why our home is shifting? Please respond and advise us as to what we should do to fix these problems. Hopefully we will not have anymore problems. I appreciate your help very much. Smitty

Cracks in ceramic are usually caused by movement in the subfloor system under the tile and settling like what you describe could be the cause. I would suggest contacting a structural engineer to investigate what is going on with your foundation, if the water has caused the shift, or what. Dont bother fixing anything other than a cosmetic makeover until it is determined what is the cause for the cracks will keep returning if movement occurs again.