ᐅ Damaged tiles (holes and cracks): can they be repaired with a "repair kit"?

Hello everyone,

In our current rental apartment, after many years of use, there are some signs of wear on the tiles. There are small chips and holes here and there caused by fallen objects. Additionally, there are some old drill holes in the walls, and in two spots on the bathroom wall tiles, there are even small cracks of unclear origin.

Clearly, if we want a proper solution, the tiles would need to be replaced. However, I have also seen so-called "tile repair kits" (for example, just search for "tile repair" on Amazon), which have received fairly positive reviews. These usually contain wax that you melt with a type of soldering iron and fill into the holes. The idea is that I could reasonably fix the issues without having to replace the tiles.

Has anyone had experience with these kits? Are there other options besides tile replacement? There must be something a bit more professional than those €20 (around $22) budget kits...

Best regards,
-Malte-

That won’t hold. At friends’ place, a professional company did it through insurance. After 1 year, the tiles were replaced.

Hello Malte,
A brief response to your question(s):
You live in a rental apartment. The wall or floor tiles you mentioned are firmly attached to the substrate, meaning they are glued.
This means you are not allowed to make any changes to these fixtures, as any such actions would likely be considered a form of property damage under the law.
While I am not a lawyer myself, my professional experience often brings me into contact with these matters.
Wear and tear as well as damage unavoidably caused by proper use are covered by the monthly rent you pay. Cracks in tiles usually result from stresses in the substrate or improper installation. Neither of these concerns are your responsibility as a tenant.
Repair kits for ceramic or mineral surfaces that are marketed are generally fine. However, as a layperson, it is practically impossible to use them as successfully as advertised. Colored wax sticks only remain on tile surfaces permanently if the substrate has been properly prepared. Simply "rubbing them in" might work initially, but this approach will not produce lasting results.
I have personally had to learn this technique, especially how to mix matching colors correctly when applying heat.
Therefore, my advice is: tenants should not carry out any alterations on fixed building elements of a rental property!
Best regards, KlaRa

Hello KlaRa and tomtom,

thank you for your feedback. I’m actually concerned that the landlord might try to shift the responsibility onto us when we move out, which could lead to a dispute. A Google search didn’t provide a clear answer either, since what counts as “proper use according to the contract” seems to be quite ambiguous. That’s why the idea was to see if we could resolve the issues ourselves.

As I suspected, it seems the offered sets don’t provide a permanent solution. We’ll have to decide whether to “just take our chances” or take further action.

Best regards,
-Malte-

I have already "repaired" tiles using a set like this – however, these tiles were located under a spiral staircase and are not walked on. Visually, the cracks have completely disappeared.
In a rental apartment, though, I would avoid this – you might only make things worse in the end. (I once had to scrape out acrylic that the previous tenant spread on the parquet skirting boards out of fear of cockroaches... yeah...)

Another thought, maybe just for the future: If something falls and you end up damaging the landlord’s tiles, your personal liability insurance would cover the damage, right? So from now on, report such incidents directly to your insurance.