How to fix gap between tiles and front door?

[Jarrod1]

Hey all, I'm after some advice regarding filling this crack near my front door.

It's been there for 5+ years, I'm pretty sure it's not still moving. What's the best way to fill it?

I was thinking filling it with sikaflex, but not sure the finish will look good. I think it used to be grey grout previously.

I've got 4KG of dunlop render left from a previous project, which is basically like cement, wondering if I could just fill with that and smooth it off on top? One side is wood, the other is tile.

[JacobZ]

Hi @Jarrod1,

Thank you for your question about filling this gap near your front door.

You can see that there was grout there before, but it has clearly cracked away. This happens because door frames flex and move slightly with the swinging of the door, and timber and tiles expand and contract at different rates. What this means is, that any inflexible filler, like grout or cement, will eventually crack.

So, the solution is to use a flexible filler, which will expand, contract and move with the door frame. 

Start by scraping out any of the remaining grout so that you have a nice, clean surface to work with. A cold chisel or scraping tool like this Craftright 5-in-1 Scraper should work.

Once it is clean, you'll want to push some foam filler rod into the gap. This is a compressible material that will take up much of the gap to greatly reduce the amount of silicone needed for the gap.

You can then use a silicone in a colour of your choice. Just make sure to double-check that it says it can be used externally. 

Check out How To Silicone a Gap for some guidance on the application and smoothing of your silicone.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob