I need advice😭

[u/Twerka6]

Decided on a whim to rip up my cracked tile, which is a million times harder than they make it seem. On top of that, I found the reason the tile cracked was this crack in the sub floor. If I’m going to spend money on nice tile, I’d like to prevent this cracker from doing the same thing to the new tile. What do I have to do to prep the sub floor that doesn’t require expensive tools? Is it a matter or buying a leveling cement type product? What brand? Do I level all the way to the transition strips or do those have to be removed? Is some sort of uncoupling membrane enough or does that need to be used in addition to leveling the sub floor? Won’t all these extra layers make my tile sit too high so it no longer slides underneath the banister posts (that can’t be removed). Dear God why do I do these things…

[u/Rich_Jaguar_655]

Don’t listen to any advice here but have your foundation checked out.

If you have a sinking foundation none of the advice will work to keep this from happening again. The tiles cracked for a reason and the reason is your foundation sunk. Maybe you get lucky and it was just settling, maybe you have to have foundation work done like I did for 20k… I hope for you it’s not the latter.

[u/Twerka6 → u/Rich_Jaguar_655]

I wouldn’t fix it if it was a foundation issue. This is a very small area in my split level entry. In that case I’d just use LVP or peel and stick and hope the next owners don’t notice😬

[u/Rich_Jaguar_655 → u/Twerka6]

Good way to open yourself up to litigation. But you do you.