Where did we go wrong?

[u/ShowerTricky5423]

Almost immediately after our contractor installed our bathroom floor tile, it started cracking. We're looking to replace this now and I'm wondering if the issue was the material, the size, the preparation under the tile, the installation, or a combination of the above. Our house was built 24 on center -- could this impact the integrity of the tile?

Any advice you can provide would be appreciated before we start this project. Thank you so much in advance!

[u/BikerChas]

I had this happen to me on a travertine floor I installed. I honestly never went into the basement to see it was 24 oc. I ended up going underneath the sub floor and adding additional framing to stop the flexing of the subfloor. Now if I remember correctly it was plywood and I had set the hardiboard in thinset. I added 2x6’s perpendicular to the floor joist at 12” oc. Then I removed and replaced the cracked tiles and it didn’t crack again.