Hair line crack in kitchen tile. Is this something to worry about?

[Stephen N.]

I was walking through a house I am trying to sell on a lease purchase and I noticed some trash on the floor. when i reached down to pick it up I noticed what looked at first to be a long piece of hair on the tile floor in the kitchen. When i reached down to pick it up i realize it wasn't hair. It was a crack in the title that started at the wall and went out from the wall about a foot to a foot and a half. The back patio just happens to be on the other side of the wall where I noticed the crack. so I walked outside to see if the patio was cracked. Sure enough there was a crack from the wall extending straight out about 3.5 to 4 feet. It's a very tiny crack.

My question is what I should do about this? I don't think it's a serious foundation problem, but if there is something I can do to prevent it from getting worse I would like to do it.

thanks in advance for your help.

[Brian S]

I know this post is old but would like to still answer to help someone with this same situation......

As J Scott said, all concrete home slabs settle and will crack. Proper control joints in the slab with a soft expansion joint in the tile would be needed during the initial install of the tile. Also a crack membrane should and could be used over the slab as insurance against small slab cracks.

Concrete is always curing from the day it was installed and thermal expansion from hot to cold seasons will play a part with ground and slab movement.

you could remove tile tile in the affected area, add a thin liquid crack membrane or sheet membrane and re tile. If you just patch the tile without one of them the crack will probably transfer back up and crack the tile or shear the tile from the slab and they will become hollow and not bonded.

good luck.