Newish Grout Already in Bad Shape?

9 years ago

Hi all, I looked around for a similar thread, but didn't find anything that quite answered my questions, so hopefully I'm not being redundant.

We had our master bath remodeled last August by a contractor who seems to come very well recommended. We had white tiles with white grout put in on the shower walls and bathroom.The contractor put on two applications of sealant and instructed us to wait 48 hours before using the shower. Then he handed me a couple bottles of Tilelab grout sealer and told me to spray it on and wipe off every day for a week and then once weekly. That seemed like an awful lot of maintenance to me. We have a baby and I really just wanted to clean it regularly and then reseal maybe once per year. So, I probably only used the sealant three or four times, but have been careful to wipe the shower down thoroughly 3-5 times per week. I have cleaned with vinegar a few times and used the sealer as often.

The grout/caulk around the bottom of the shower cracked within four months, so the guy came back and recaulked it. I asked if there was something else I needed to do to keep that from happening, and he said that it was normal.

In spite of my regular maintenance though, the grout is already very dingy (red, yellow, gray in varying areas) in the shower. The bathroom floor stains immediately if I drop makeup or something on it, and a toothbrush with vinegar or peroxide does little. (I try very hard not to keep bleach/chemicals in my house as I quickly feel sick around them and am still nursing my son.)

Water does not appear to bead up on the grout, so I feel as though it's just really terrible sealant? Reviews on Home Depot for this product are very mixed. I'm just not sure what to think. We have another bathroom with 35 year old grout that looks great and hasn't been sealed in the time we have lived here (5 years). Is it me? The contractor? The sealant? Any recommendations as to what should be done next?

Comments (8)

divotdiva2
9 years ago
I'm not a tile expert but I understand the sealant is there to prevent staining, not to provide water repellency. Thus why water does not bead. Sounds like you have regular sanded grout which is porous. Try OxyClean (make a paste, scrub it in and then rinse). This is what our tile guys recommended for regular grout.

Hopefully some of the tile experts here will chime in.
Bunny
9 years ago
I just got a new tile tub/shower surround and bathroom floor. I sealed grout in both with 511 Impregnator, recommended by tilesetter. Twice, a few days apart. I checked with the experts at John Bridge, and they confirmed what divotdiva says: The sealant is to prevent staining, not make the grout repel water. I'll seal again in a year. I never used to squeegee my old tile and it actually fared pretty well, but since I have pretty new tile, I'm going to squeegee that as well. Whether I then wipe it down with a towel remains to be seen. I want it nice, but I don't want to be obsessive.
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Cabot & Rowe
9 years ago
What Linelle said is correct. Tile lab products are horrible IMHO. Miracle 511 is one of our favorites.

Any caulking in a wet area should be 100% silicone.
Bunny
9 years ago
Miracle 511 Impregnator ain't cheap. I think I paid $34 for a quart at HD. Good and smelly too. Sealing all the subway grout lines on a vertical surface was no fun. Doing the floor was a piece o' cake.
jerzeegirl
9 years ago
If you cannot get your grout clean, I recommend that you use Aquamix grout colorant on it. Since your grout was already sealed, you first need to have the sealer removed which is a bit of a chore. Then you use a little brush or paintbrush to coat the joints with the colorant. The nice thing about it is that it also a sealer. I believe it's made from tinted epoxy so it's very durable. You can get any color to match your current grout.
divotdiva2
9 years ago
when the original grout was put in by our contractor, which looked fine, they accidently used the wrong sealant and it changed the color of the grout, so that it looked dirty when we hadn't even use the shower yet! I dug it all out and regrouted with ProFusion, available at Home Depot. So far so good. They company also makes matching caulk for the edges.
kath85
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you for all of your suggestions! Sounds like it's just a bad sealant, so I'll have to give my grout a good clean and look into some of these products. Nice to know I haven't ruined my new bathroom!
callie25
9 years ago
I regrouted my shower approx 4 years ago and used Tile Lab SurfaceGard (20 Year) product. No mildew, except in a crack in the widest joint and the very few places I missed. There's also a small discolored area ?? Comment regarding vinegar....this is something I 'never' use on grout as over time it will eat away at the grout due to the acidity. I would not believe this had I not seen this happen.