First time poster and definite amateur.
We ‘ve just moved into a new office building and are noting troubles with the grout.
The grout is patchy in colour and almost white in areas. It is much darker when wet. There is a lot of grout haze and in areas there is an actual red grout left in the textured surfaces of the tile.
This grout inconsistency has been shown to the contractor and tiler. There reactions are that there is nothing wrong with the grout.
He also cut expansion joints in the tile and in one area forgot the silicone. It was repaired by just grouting in the small joint.
The grout is Flextile. An Olympia product
Also, as this is a physician’s office, we want to seal the grout and have been told that is impossible.
Any suggestions of how to fix the grout? We have been told that if we gently wet the grout and tile down and use a professional grout cleaner (phosphoric acid in a branded cleaner) that should remove most of the haze and help a bit with the efflorescence(sp?) The floor has already been washed three times and the haze and paint won’t disappear.
I’ve put two pictures in the gallery.
Thanks
Replies
You could have put the pictures in with your post, but they are on the large size for dial ups. (70- 150K for DU)
Not quite sure what's ailing your tile (other than the contractor) but I would say go ahead and cleanit. Of course you know that after doing so that the contractor will refuse any remedy at all.
Not sure what the expansion joint thing is that you were referring too, but yes, it should be filled with some type of flexible material. I would not consider grout to be flexible.
You can post your question here too..........http://johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php
Eric
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Recently, there was a post by someone who wanted to dye his own grout.....wonder if that's who did this?
Seriously, it could be that the grout pulled some pigment out of the tile below the glazed surface (might be cheap tile) or a colored thinset or mastic was used and the grout pulled some of that.
I've only seen this kind of problem with natural stone tile, like travertine with a lot of pigmented filler in it that bleeds into the grout.
The only solution I see is to remove the grout (a wonderful task!) and regrout it.
BTW, when you post a question like this, you can attach your pics to the post....the gallery is more of a showcase.
And, since some of us are out in the boonies and on dial-up, sizing your attachments to around 100k or less is a good thing.
And welcome to Breaktime!
BAJ,
After looking at your photos, two things come to mind:
First, if there are slight variations in color from one area to another, the tiler probably applied two different batches of grout. A little more or a little less water can make a slight difference in color.
Second, it appears that the grout isn't sealed. If it were, it wouldn't change color when wet.
There's no easy way to change the slight color variations but you can clean the grout, dry it out thoroughly, and apply sealer to prevent that temporary discoloration from water absorption.
Drew
If the grout darkens when wet, then it isn't sealed. There are lots of grout sealers on the market, so after cleaning the grout well, apply a good sealer per label instructions.
If you have a glazed ceramic tile, or a porcelain tile, then it cannot be sealed. Actually the glazing is the sealer. If you have an unglazed tile, or natural stone, then a sealer will be needed. Ask the gc to show you the spec sheet that came with the tile. or a box it came in. Or at least the mfgr name and tile part number so you can contacxt the mfgr yourself.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Wow, you may get some "bashing" for the file size on the photos (most of which will recommend using Irfanview--which can be found by using the Search function).
"We" are likely to ask about your location and your background, which you could answer in advance by filling in at least some of your Profile info (just click on your own name in blue).
That being said, welcome to BT.
Are the tiles in the "wet" photo uniformly wet?
"Nothing wrong with the grout," and "can't seal the grout" are not reassuring things to hear, if secondhand, from the tile man.