Nevermind mixing the grout and caulking. Ay place where the tile meets another surface, ESPECIALLY at inside corners, it should be caulked. PERIOD. No grout whatsoever!! Tell your contractor to go back to wherever he got the grout, and get a tube of siliconized latex caulking made by the same company as the grout, in the same color as the grout. It's water washable while wet, and when finished should look just like another grout joint, but it'll be completely pliable.

Bill nailed it, in 90 degree angles it should be caulk only!

Thank you!! What he used comes in premixed it feels like caulking but I will have him do that maybe it will once and for all fix it!

We just noticed that our grout is cracking too. Our kitchen was finished about a month and a half ago now. It is cracking were our backsplash (tumbled marble) and granite meet. What is funny is that it is only happening on one side of the kitchen, but is the longer stretch of counter, not my shorter side. My husband did say to me he thought they should have used caulk. Any other opinions?

Bill - why is it that this seems to be common knowledge here yet so many contractors don't seem to know this? Or they know and just don't do it? Why is that? I even had a situation where I specified to the GC to be sure this was done - I bought the matching caulk and put all the stuff there together. Tile guy grouts everything. Then when I point this out to the GC, the tile guy "fixes" it by caulking over the grout leaving an excessive, unsightly mess. GC finally came and undid the mess himself and fixed it - nicely I might add. I suggested this might not be the greatest tile guy and he said it was one of his better ones....yikes....

why is it that this seems to be common knowledge here yet so many contractors don't seem to know this? Or they know and just don't do it?

Maybe all of the above? Gibby, you don't know how long I've HOPED for this kind of economy. It seems like just about anyone who can afford to go out and by a wet saw, a mixing drill, and a trowel seems to call themselves a tile installer these days. My greatest hope is this economy will clear out the "dead wood" and allow the real installers to thrive.

There are many who just don't know. If there's a space between a tile and anything else, it gets grouted. Period. There are others, though who DO know and either don't want to spend the time, the money, or both, to do it right, when just packing it with grout will get them the check.

Contractor was just here and I pointed out the cracked grout. He said that normally happens as it dries with the change of weather (being winter & very dry out). He said they normally come back the next season and regrout & after the first yr it settles. Well he regrouted, but said he will problably need to come back in the spring. Well my husband my handle it then, we will see.

I'm sorry, but TCNA (Tile Counsel of North America) specs state very clearly that all changes in plane, as well as where tiles abutt dissimilar materials NEED to be caulked. This is NOT a recommendation. It's a requirement.

And ESPECIALLY in the case of where a countertop meets a backsplash, a grout joint will almost never last, because of the extreme movement that the bottom cabinets (and therefore the countertop) experience, from bumping up against it, and dropping things on it, etc..

Well, I'm going to do something that I've been told over and over not to do ... make an example out of someone...

Gibby I share your frustration with installer standards, but the reason it happens is the same reason that you see it happening in this thread. Recap: Poster-1 says that they see a problem with a certain execution in situation A. Expert gives the technical advice he has regularly given and that he has made popular here re: the what-to-dos vs. the what-not-to-dos re: exec of situation-A. At which time, poster-2 says that they are having the exact same problem with the exact same execution in situation-A also and what could be going on? (Er ...). More discourse about why idiot-installers persist with the behaviour that causes problem with situations-A. Poster-2 pops back up saying that they will repeat the behaviour that caused their and other's problem execution in situation-A.

Well, if the person(s) most impacted by a poor execution or common executor problem - viz. the homeowner - won't learn, what would motivate the executor to learn???? THEY don't have to live with the problem and if the HO (poster-2) can't be bothered, why should they trouble themselves to be so?

Bill, you were remarkably patient in that last response. When I read the previous post, *my* verbal response had a whole load of *F*s in it - from sheer incredulity.

I saw our tile installer caulk the joint where the granite meets the tile so I know it was done correctly, and its still cracking. What could be the problem? It really bugs be because we sent so much on the install (handmade tile, really needed someone who knew what they were doing). BTW - color match of caulk to grout is perfect. He left me the remainder of the tube...
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