4 Problems With Unsanded Grout And How To Avoid Them

November 13th, 2009 by Grout Guy

Regrouting a shower usually means using unsanded wall grout, which generally ‘behaves itself’. But there are times when it drives you bonkers. These 4 problems are worth knowing in advance.

First, make sure to read this link to an earlier post:

HOW TO GROUT WALL TILE

which is all about the basics of using unsanded grout. But even if you do everything right, you can still have these problems:

When you open the grout package, take a look at the grout and run your fingers through it. It should feel very dry and powdery, with no clumps or hard nuggets. Sometimes older packages of grout end up absorbing moisture through the paper bag and start to harden up a bit or form clumps where some of the moisture actually hardened the grout in chunks. Especially if you stored an old bag of grout in a basement, sitting on the floor. It can absorb the dampness and be useless within a few months. Even if you just bought the bag from a store, it still may be old because it sat too long on the shelf. If you use this grout, those hardened clumps will show in the final job and you’ll need to regrout your regrouting job – no fun!
Excess grout haze: after you have washed the grout 2 or 3 times, there will always be a thin film of grout haze that has to dry before you can buff it off with a dry cloth. But sometimes you let too much haze remain and it doesn’t all come off with the cloth. Smeary hazy grout all over tile is not pretty. But this one is pretty manageable. If the tile is not marble, all you need to do is add some acid to water and scrub the haze off with the solution and fast dry it with cloth towels. You can buy special grout haze removers which use phosphoric acid, or you can just use a 50-50 mix of vinegar and water. Both work fine. Do NOT use this approach if the tile is marble, onyx, travertine or granite. The acid can and will etch the stone. Instead, use either marble polishing powder or alkaline liquids only. On second thought, if you have this problem, call us so you don’t ruin the expensive stone. If you’re in the Boston area, we’ll do it for you and if you’re outside of Boston, we’ll talk you through it.
Pinholes. When the grout dries, you may notice tiny air bubbles that dried in place, leaving what looks like pinholes. This is an easy one, too. Scrape out the section that has pinholes and put some more on. It’s that simple. Problem solved.
Streaks of color. This one is not a problem with white grout, but complex colors like browns and oranges seem to get it more. We regrouted a shower in Wilmington, Mass with light brown grout and then noticed streaks of red on several grout lines. What causes it is red pigment that didn’t get totally blended at the factory or even when mixing the grout in the bucket. Solution again is to scrape out a section and just re-grout wherever you see the streaks. They will probably be small so the fix won’t take long.

Next post, we’ll talk about some of the less common but more serious problems with unsanded grout.

Of course, if you don’t want to deal with any of the above tasks and you just want us to do it for you, just give Boston Grout a call at 617-500-9271 and we’ll do the regrouting for you. Then instead of scraping grout lines, you could be sipping a crisp glass of Chardonnay and realize that you were meant for more important things in life, as you watch us cheerfully grouting away!

For instant quotes, just fill in our handy dandy contact form below.

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But, you cry, ‘what are the zipcodes that go along with those town names?? Don’t leave us in suspense!’

OK, OK, here they are!

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