Covering Installation Guide / Defects and malfunctions in wall and floor tilings / Cracking in wall and floor tilings / Longitudinal and isolated
Longitudinal and Isolated
Visualisation of the malfunction
This section includes cracks of varying origin, which appear in two ways: those that jeopardise a single tile or a few consecutive ones, and those that have a longitudinal development across multiple tiles, normally along the symmetry axis of the flooring and at right angles to the deck joists. In other cases they develop in openings, between or around columns. The crack may only affect the ceramic tile or extend to the bonding material and the fixing surface.
The first group includes those illustrated in the following schemes and images.
This section includes cracks of varying origin, which appear in two ways: those that jeopardise a single tile or a few consecutive ones, and those that have a longitudinal development across multiple tiles, normally along the symmetry axis of the flooring and at right angles to the deck joists. In other cases they develop in openings, between or around columns. The crack may only affect the ceramic tile or extend to the bonding material and the fixing surface.
The first group includes those illustrated in the following schemes and images.
Cracking in isolated tiles as a result of impacts
Longitudinal cracks in isolated tiles as a result of live and dead loads that exceed the strength of the ceramic flooring system. 
The magnitude of the load and the deformability of the bonding material will determine whether the crack is propagated below the tile 
Vehicular actions that cause impacts on tiles, which go beyond the plane of the flooring (lipping, warping, and side curvature)
In cracks of longitudinal development in multiple tiles, further information is needed in order to be able to diagnose the cause. An important number of these types of cracks originate in movements of the structural substrate, customarily a concrete deck or slab. The following schemes illustrate the most frequent morphologies with their corresponding assignment. The radial cracking around a column, owing to structural piercing, will tend to lead to debonding, rather than cracking of the tiles.
Longitudinal rupture because the active deflection or concave deformation in decks.
The active deflections and extraordinary concave deformations in decks, in addition to subjecting the ceramic flooring to compression, may generate longitudinal ruptures, with the morphology illustrated
The opposite case to the former, which is very rare, of convex deformation of a deck subjected to strong compression
Owing to strong shrinkage and convex deformation of a concrete deck
Central-heating pipes are a special source of stress and rupture in the levelling layer if they are not decoupled from this layer
Cracks with a circular trend owing to a column piercing the deck
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