Cracked Tiles and Missing Grout at Denver Airport's New Great Hall

A New Problem in Denver International Airport’s Great Hall

Travelers arriving at or departing from Denver International Airport may have noticed an unexpected issue with the newly installed tiling in the Great Hall. Cracks are visible across many tiles, and some are held together only by tape. This has raised concerns among both passengers and experts about the quality of the recent renovations.

Airport officials attribute some of the damage to construction equipment rolling over the new flooring. Others suggest that vibrations from trains and the Zamboni cleaning machine might also be contributing factors. However, Patricia Watson, a construction management attorney with nearly 30 years of experience in commercial real estate, believes the problem is more serious than just temporary wear and tear.

Watson, who has managed the construction of over a million square feet of commercial office projects in Colorado, says the tile installation was poorly executed. “It clearly didn’t get adhered to the floor properly,” she explains. “There are definitely places where there's air under the tile. When someone stands on that section, it doesn’t have support underneath it, so it cracks the tile.”

She points out that grout is missing in many areas, which could lead to further cracking. “I think there was poor construction supervision, or it would not look like this right now.” Watson claims she counted 100 places on the fifth floor alone where the tiles were cracked.

Airport officials say they conducted their own count after being contacted by CBS Colorado and found 266 cracked tiles out of just over 21,000 installed on the fifth and sixth levels. That’s approximately 1%, which they claim is within industry standards. They released a statement explaining that the cracking could be caused by various factors, including structural vibrations from construction, train movement, passenger activity, and cleaning equipment.

They also mentioned that some damage was due to heavy equipment and material deliveries, and that replacing these tiles was planned and budgeted as part of the project. Officials said they did not install the tiles at the end of the project because it is more efficient to replace individual tiles rather than remove temporary flooring and install new flooring.

The tiles, imported from Italy, cost $242 each. Airport officials explained that they used "travel paths" to minimize replacement costs and that their "contingency budget" will cover most of the expenses. Repairs, they added, will not delay the project.

Until these repairs are completed, Watson says the current state of the flooring is a poor first impression for visitors. “It should be the pride and joy of our city, not something that's embarrassing when you walk through the airport and see 150 cracked tiles.”

Watson believes the installers may have used the wrong type of grout, which could be the fault of the architect or the contractor. Airport officials say they recently changed to a different type of grout. They also mentioned that after an inspection by a third-party expert, they began videotaping the installation of every tile and have seen very few cracked tiles since then.

With 83 million travelers a year, the airport continues to make repairs. They note that even the old granite floor had issues with cracking, and they are currently working on repairing concourse floors.

The Great Hall project, which involves renovating the fifth and sixth levels of the terminal, started in 2018 and was originally scheduled to be completed in 2021. The original $770 million price tag has nearly doubled to $1.3 billion. In 2019, CBS Colorado was the first to report on problems with concrete, which increased costs by millions of dollars and put the project years behind schedule. The airport switched contractors and now expects the project to be completed in 2027.