Flooring is by no means beneath me, but I haven’t really done anything below a shoe molding. So question for the tile high club: What would you do in the pictured situation? These are floor sections that have always felt a bit “squishy”. Today they finally popped up into the tent formation you see here.
Wait for it to settle and then add glue to keep it down? Cut it to fit?
Additional context:
I did not do this install myself, so the history is a bit of a mystery. This is installed in a full bathroom and is made of what feels like a smoothed slate material. I believe it is a composite tile.
More photos for context:
Yikes! Don't bother trying to patch it. That floor is a disaster and needs to be completely removed and reinstalled. As at least one other commenter mentioned, the tiles should be staggered and have room around the edges for expansion. The reason those popped up is because there are no gaps for expansion around the edge of the room. Also, they did a really sloppy mortar job. I'm not even sure they used the right mortar but it's hard to tell from just the photos.
Thanks for the comments! I’ve always hated the flooring in this room, but didn’t have the hands on experience to say why. My biggest concern at this point is referenced in another poster’s comment regarding floor leveling.
If it’s a matter of replacing tile, I can probably do a decent enough job, but I might be over my head if there’s significant problems with the sub floor.
The main concern about an unlevel floor is why is it unlevel? If you can figure out the "why", that will tell you if it's easily fixable or if it will potentially get worse.
How hard it is to investigate depends on how accessible the underside of the floor is. It's going to be pretty hard to tell from the top side without ripping off the tile first.
If the room has a crawlspace or basement underneath and you feel like playing detective, get a bubble level and go check the joists and beams in the vicinity. Work downhill until the slope stops. That will give you a general area of the source of the problem.
There could be a variety of causes, some of which are obvious, some not as much.
The tiles don't expand, though. Wood does. So perhaps the wood needs to be trimmed back a quarter centimeter.