The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: SNAAKE on December 26, 2016, 11:58:16 am
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some questions for home owners.
we bought a new house recently and the tiles looked great for a month and now the "gaps" are already getting dirty. aren't the house builders supposed to put something in the gap for easier cleaning/maintenance? is that standard or did I miss something? attached picture.
if I have to do it myself(or get someone to do it), what do you normally put in there so it blends in and the gaps aren't too visible? something like this?
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-Building-Products-Polyblend-382-Bone-10-5-oz-Sanded-Ceramic-Tile-Caulk-PC38210S/100678065?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D23-Tile%7c&gclid=Cj0KEQiAnIPDBRC7t5zJs4uQu5UBEiQA7u5Ne57_NfNcPuwh2tNWXFCdW2PGtjZEzp8nTePTQ-rGxyoaAs8K8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-Building-Products-Polyblend-382-Bone-10-5-oz-Sanded-Ceramic-Tile-Caulk-PC38210S/100678065?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D23-Tile%7c&gclid=Cj0KEQiAnIPDBRC7t5zJs4uQu5UBEiQA7u5Ne57_NfNcPuwh2tNWXFCdW2PGtjZEzp8nTePTQ-rGxyoaAs8K8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds)
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Tiles have grout between them.
Sadly you have white grout which is a absolute bastard to keep clean.
You can buy a grout cleaning pen or similar to clean it up.
Welcome to owning your own club :p
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but aren't there better solution like silicone filler or something? ain't nobody got time for all that cleaning lines/gaps with a pen lol..
the ladies in the house are incredibly lazy :angry:
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Silicone would be a bad option. You'll find that out after your bathroom ages a bit.
They make epoxy grout. It supposed to be the easiest to maintain, but I have no experience with it.
You'd have to remove all the grout currently there to install it.
The grout on my bathroom floor is about the color of dirty grout. This was by design. ;D
EDIT: after actually enlarging the picture, I have to say that actually looks pretty clean to me. :lol
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Same, we have grey grout because it stays grey and looks as should.
White grout is the worst thing ever lol
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its somewhat clean now but I don't know how long thats supposed to last. thats why I was hoping to seal it somehow. gonna have to call the builders I guess since they deal with this. I am just surprised they didn't put something in these gaps already :dunno
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When I put tile in my bathroom two houses ago I used brown grout. When I sold the house 10 years later it was still brown...No idea how clean it was. :dunno
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its somewhat clean now but I don't know how long thats supposed to last. thats why I was hoping to seal it somehow. gonna have to call the builders I guess since they deal with this. I am just surprised they didn't put something in these gaps already :dunno
They probably did. We sealed our grout and it may have helped, but at most, it delays it from getting dirty. Think of white grout like a white carpet. The only real way to keep it clean is to not use it.
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and don't even think of putting any kind of caulk between your floor tiles. No such product exists as far as I know. The stuff you linked to is the corner joint. It even says in the description:
Use where horizontal and vertical surfaces meet
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Its grout. That is what it will always look like. If you can't live with it, tear it up and lay down vinyl.
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Our bathroom grout was bad even after steam washing it. We ended up finding these Grout paint pens. Looks good and now cleans up with a quick wipe with a rag or mop.
https://www.amazon.com/Grout-Pen-Beige-Ideal-Restore/dp/B006MCTB3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482838564&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=grout+pen&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/Grout-Pen-Beige-Ideal-Restore/dp/B006MCTB3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482838564&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=grout+pen&psc=1)
Lowes and home depot should have them.
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Just hit up grout sealant on google--theres a million products--but you will have to get on your hands and knees at least once to apply it. And don't waste your time going after the builder--unless you specifically wrote it into a contract its not getting done--I have yet to meet a builder that seals their grout as a courtesy (or does much of anything as a courtesy) It is not a code requirement or something that sells more houses so it doesn't get done.
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I remembered something else this morning.
Powdered Oxi-Clean works fairly good for cleaning grout.
Make a paste and let it sit on the grout lines for like a half hour, then scrub and rinse.
Of course that only gets it clean. It doesn't keep it clean.
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I remembered something else this morning.
Powdered Oxi-Clean works fairly good for cleaning grout.
Make a paste and let it sit on the grout lines for like a half hour, then scrub and rinse.
Of course that only gets it clean. It doesn't keep it clean.
Good tip, I may try this... I hired someone to do the deep steam cleaning and it looked better, and it was only a couple bucks for them to reapply the sealer so I paid for them to do it. They used a Grout Wand Stick which made the job go real quick: https://www.amazon.com/Grout-Wand-Stick/dp/B003I2MK1Y (https://www.amazon.com/Grout-Wand-Stick/dp/B003I2MK1Y)
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thx everyone
here is another WILD idea..how about regular white glue in the gap lol? its pretty solid and easy to clean I guess. like masking tape the surrounding then put the regular white wood glue in there then scrape the excess and let it dry. I might give this is a try on a tiny area in the bathroom to see how it works out lol..
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thx everyone
here is another WILD idea..how about regular white glue in the gap lol? its pretty solid and easy to clean I guess. like masking tape the surrounding then put the regular white wood glue in there then scrape the excess and let it dry. I might give this is a try on a tiny area in the bathroom to see how it works out lol..
Sealer is basically acrylic paint and made for the purpose. Might as well use the correct product.
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can you post a link or two?
I tried googling and there is a SEA of related products :dizzy:
something like this?
https://glaze-n-seal.com/product/grout-sealer/
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can you post a link or two?
I tried googling and there is a SEA of related products :dizzy:
something like this?
https://glaze-n-seal.com/product/grout-sealer/
I don't have any experience with sealer. After your earlier posts I was watching youtube videos on cleaning grout and one showed a guy cleaning, then sealing. It was in a squeeze bottle. He laid down a line, then worked it in with a toothbrush and removed the excess with a shammy. The grout went from looking dirty to looking new. He was saying it was something acrylic and would last 15 years. I think he said it took a fair number of hours to cure.
I can imagine particles getting embedded in glue over the years and it looking horrible. I was just saying why use glue when there's already a product out there meant to stand up to being used on a floor.
As far as my own experience with tile, the house I live in was a rental to begin with and had light beige colored tiles on the bathroom floor. The grout was light, looked dirty, and was impossible to keep clean. I tried some As Seen On TV grout coloring stuff, but it only lasted a few weeks at best. I bought the house, remodeled the bathroom, and used greyish brown grout on the floor this time. Probably 9 months later and it still looks the same. It does have light colored grout in the shower, but that's not having dirt swept into it constantly. Still trying to decide whether or not to go with tile in the kitchen in a few years, mainly because of what the grout lines will look like. I'm interested in learning how well the sealer works.
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I hesitate to comment on this because it really depends upon the environment, the choice of materials, ect.... but with that being said....
In a bathroom at least dirt and/or mold are inevitable in any porous material. Sealing it isn't going to make much of a difference, especially with mold, because even when you clean the area prior to sealing, it'll still be there microscopically and grow underneath, only now you can't clean it because you sealed the top. So finding a less porous grout to replace what you currently have might be a good option, or finding a quick and easy cleaning solution, but sealing probably isn't a good idea.
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^ cool thx.
still not sure what we wanna do here. say I wanna seal for now, how much do I expect to pay for around grout cleaning/sealing for around 1000 sq/ft. found someone with good reviews on angies list for $900. not sure if thats too high..or low. input from experience anyone?
https://member.angieslist.com/member/offers/479037
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Well my mom picked me up a grout cleaner from qvc (I'm also having cleaning issues). I haven't tested it yet, but I can report back. Apparently it's one of those smear it on and leave it alone deals, which would be great if it works.
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to me $900 dont sound bad for the entire 1st floor/bathroom area. just wanna just make sure thats what this kind of services go for. there is a "fair price" seal on that site lol..
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to me $900 dont sound bad for the entire 1st floor/bathroom area. just wanna just make sure thats what this kind of services go for. there is a "fair price" seal on that site lol..
That sounds reasonable if they seal it up and guarantee the results.
No matter what anyone says about sealers, in high traffic areas they will be good for about a year. Lower traffic areas where there is only foot traffic without shoes, you can get a couple years out of good sealers. The only replacement for regular maintenance is to go with a pre-sealed grout, either epoxy based or latex based. The epoxy is the best, but costs the most and takes the most labor to put down. And of course in either case, the labor to cut out the old grout is going to be high unless you do it yourself.
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^Good Advice^
Epoxy is a good solution but you want to make sure the installers know what they are doing. If the floor settles and it cracks, it can be a pain in the butt to repair. Latex is a very poor option. The stuff attracts mold like a magnet and due to the flexible nature, if you scrub hard enough to get the mold off, you might end up taking a layer of grout with it... which of course would then be rough and even harder to clean when the mold grows back. Of course again, like I said a few months ago the results can vary widely depending upon their particular mixture and technique, ect.
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My last project I used Fusion Pro premixed grout, and I thought it contained latex as the sealer, but I looked up the details and it looks like it is not latex based. When I would open a new container, some of the liquid had settled to the top, and it was milky looking, which is why I assumed it was latex based. It is also water cleanup until it sets, after which you need chemicals to clean it off, which also led me to believe it was some kind of latex based binder. This grout performs similarly to epoxy with the ease of regular grout installation. It doesn't need to be sealed and is mold resistant. When I tile the rest of my upstairs (kitchen, living room, entryway, and hallway), I will use this product.
I think Latex works fine with moisture if there is an acrylic in it. After all, my exterior house paint is all latex based, and it has held up beautifully for 15 years now. Definitely not the same as a latex caulk though, and I would never seal anything against water with anything other than pure silicone.
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to me $900 dont sound bad for the entire 1st floor/bathroom area. just wanna just make sure thats what this kind of services go for. there is a "fair price" seal on that site lol..
That sounds reasonable if they seal it up and guarantee the results.
No matter what anyone says about sealers, in high traffic areas they will be good for about a year. Lower traffic areas where there is only foot traffic without shoes, you can get a couple years out of good sealers. The only replacement for regular maintenance is to go with a pre-sealed grout, either epoxy based or latex based. The epoxy is the best, but costs the most and takes the most labor to put down. And of course in either case, the labor to cut out the old grout is going to be high unless you do it yourself.
its foot traffic only for now. not much going on. 3ppl live in a 5bdrm house. we got it for the "future" and if my parents wants to live here in FL without transportation they are welcome. no they can't drive. I can barely drive lol..(I am playing ridge racer out there!)
I am gonna make some calls around here to see who else is doing grout sealing work.