My daughter recently hired someone to regrout her shower ceramic tile. Everything looked fine until she put her finger on the grout a few days later and it just started falling off.
I don’t think the guy really knew what he was doing, so I had to take it out, and I just put on grout that I had to mix. We’ll wait a few days for it to dry and then seal it.
So I am just curious is mixing grout with sealer a common thing to do now a days.
Thanks in advance for all your replies.
Yes it is, but the various systems are not necessarily compatible. I had to call a company once because a client wanted to use a specific sealer additive and the grout I had selected was not listed as compatible. They disavowed all knowledge, and I told her, “No way…”.
The other thing I thought of was perhaps they used the ready mixed stuff. Real grout is a cement based product mixed with water before using. It comes in paper bags and cures just like mortar or concrete.
They sell ready mixed grout in small buckets. I have never used one, but they have to dry by evaporation like paint does. If they mixed sealer in with that, I think it would make a mess unless they were specifically designed for each other.
Acrylic grouts are becoming more popular for areas where sealing is more important. They are a little easier to work with than epoxy grout but not hugely so from my experience. I suspect some brands are easier than others and there still seems to be a lot of product development going on so I don think it has reached its full potential yet. We had major hazing issues with one installation a few years ago.
Standard surface applied acrylic sealer is fast and easy to apply, and as long as done to directions and reapplied every couple of years it should prevent most staining. Moisture sealing is the job of the tile substrate in modern tiling systems, and water proof grout is not really going to make up for improper or unsealed substrate. The only place where it is really important is steam showers and there I believe epoxy grout is still the preferred product over acrylic.
I would just apply some standard sealer over the shower base grout and call it done.
This makes sense. I can’t see that household tiling needs anything but common grout and surface sealer. A good subsurface and mastic seems most important because a little loose grout is easily fixed, but once tiles start coming up things go downhill fast.
But only use mastic for dry areas with tiles 6" or smaller. Mastic cures by evaporation and can be softened or weakened by moisture. Large tiles against modern waterproof substrates can result in the mastic never curing properly. Thinset mortar is the proper product for shower tile. I have seen plenty of contractors tile a shower with mastic, because it is faster, but it is bad practice.