Ceramic Tiles popping off

sobro said:

Can I remove the problem tiles, try and secure the subfloor, and then put new tiles back in their place?

Click to expand...

Very unlikely. What I would do is remove the tiles and investigate them and also the subfloor. Try to find out what the issue is. What is the tile coverage? What is the condition of the subfloor under it? It might even be wet, indicating a leak somewhere else that has migrated under the tile. Go to a heating vent and take out the grate. Look at the side view of the layers of subfloor. How much is there?

The primary reasons are subfloor fail or bad adhesive. Tile itself rarely fails, even cheap tile. (Unless of course they did something like put wall tiles in a heavy foot traffic floor.)

Post some pics. See if the tile is fully covered on the bottom with thinset. Maybe the thinset was too dry when the tiles were put down. Or not enough thinset. Or tiles not pressed down into the thinset.

Or subfloor damp, or too flexible.

None of those problems can be fixed by just removing a few tiles. However if the only problem is bad thinset application, then you can replace the bad tiles 1 by 1 as they fail.

That sure doesn't sound good, as pointed out, bad thinset/adhesive or bad subfloor is the usual cause. About 7 years ago I tiled all the rooms in my house but the front parlor, I tore up the old softwood flooring,and put down 2 layers of 3/4 CDX screwed to one another and screwed to the joists. The a layer of 1/2" cement board screwed to the plywood, and then I laid down 12" square white porcellain tile. I've not had any tile fail in any way, the floors are all rock solid and Ive even rolled a dollie across with a 350# sculpture on it.
Sounds to me like you'll need to start over with a new floor from the joists on up, here's some memorable picks frommy project...
Hang in there, we feel your pain!