Grout: What You Need To Know
Grout: perhaps the most difficult, problem prone, and misunderstood element of any tile install is the grout. It’s where I spend the most time researching, and it’s also one of the areas where technology has changed significantly in the past several decades. For a basic primer, there are a couple things anybody considering a new tile installation should know.
There is no maintenance free grout
Dirty grout joints, grout cleaning and stains in your grout are problems that for the foreseeable future will remain with us, and for many customers are the one of the biggest drawbacks when considering a tile installation. Grout has gotten better at reducing maintenance, with high performance grouts that resist staining better, much smaller grout joints to reduce the amount of cleaning and visible grime, and capable sealers that will make cleaning easier. If your mind is made up on choosing tile for your installation, you can reduce the amount of dirty grout with larger format tiles, especially on shower floors, planning for periodic grout resealing (all grout, with the exception of non porous epoxy grout, can still be sealed), and potentially even upgrading to an epoxy grout install.
Grout color charts are more approximate than an exact standard
We live in an era of choice in everything, and with the near limitless choice of tile selections, grout manufacturers have adapted to offer tons of color choices to complement your new project. However, the grout charts I often use to help customers select their grout can mislead people and create high expectations for color accuracy. When a chart, looking for all the world like a paint chart, has ten different shades of grey, doesn’t that imply a high degree of confidence that the grout will end up exactly like the swatch? Grout, however, has a more complicated chemical makeup than a paint, and the conditions it is installed in can effect many characteristics, including color. For example, the amount of water, whether too much or too little, or even the humidity in the workspace, can subtly change the color. Too much thinset in one improperly cleaned grout joint can cause the grout to lighten, or maybe a pocket of minerals used to color the grout can substantially darken one area of a grout joint. Or your batch of grout could just be contain different ratios than other batches, changing the color or the tone subtly. There are techniques a good tile installer can use to ensure the most consistent grout install, but especially if you are doing a DIY project, don’t be surprised if your grout doesn’t turn out exactly as you expected.
Ask an expert which grout is suitable for your project
There are dozens of different grouts on the market, and trying to choose which one will be best for your tile can feel daunting. Is the ten dollar bag at home depot sufficient? What is a fine aggregate grout and why should I consider that? Sanded or unsanded? What’s the difference between an epoxy and a single component polyurethane grout? For most of these questions, there are two general rules I would recommend to the grout novice. First, a high performance grout, (Laticrete Permacolor, Mapei Ultracolor Plus FA, Tec Powergrout, Ardex FL, or Custom Prism, to name a few of the most available) will cover 90% of applications; showers, floors, backsplashes, with few exceptions you can’t go wrong with them. However, never use a grout without contacting either an experienced tile contractor or a technical customer support rep first. Natural stone? A sanded grout might cause scratches on a high gloss carrera marble. Just planning on a small bar area? A pail of premixed may be a better value and allow you to do touch ups more easily, with less mess. High traffic mudroom? A less absorbent polyurethane grout may be better suited. An outdoor application? An epoxy grout might yellow from UV exposure.
If you have more questions about your grout, or are interested in other aspects of a tile project you’re considering, then it may be time to reach out! Contact either through my email, joseph@celadontile.com, or call at (517)-302-1678. Thanks for reading!
