Funky Grout-Can Anything be Done? PLEASE HELP

[Deb R.]

So last night we grouted the floor in our bathroom. The floor tile is a mosaic of 3" octagonal tile with 1" square made by D*** Tile. My husband feels the grout went bad from the start. We used Polyblend Sanded in Antique White & he mixed it as per the directions, adding 2 qts water to the 25 lb bag. The consistency was very thick so he added an extra pint of water as the directions stated it was ok to do, but no more than that. Even after the extra water the grout was overly sandy & not easily spreadable & dried extremely quickly. Now before when we'd set the tile the thinset had also dried quickly so we attributed this to the fact that the heat in our house makes it extremely dry in here which is obvious to anyone. So we spread it into the 1/8"-1/4" joints, which took about 1 hour or so, the grout spread nothing like the peanut butter consistency it's supposed to be but we were afraid to add more water so we didn't. By the time we had to sponge the joints, the grout was almost immovable. The only way I could smooth the joints in some spots was to scrape it with my fingernail. We attempted to smooth all the joins as best as possible but my hub says it isn't right. SO now today, my hub is very disapointed at how it came out. I don't honetly think it looks that bad. The joints are small-ish & it sort of blends in. But my question is is there anything we can do t fix it now, since it hasn't even been 12 hours yet? I can't understand what went wrong, maybe he mixed it too fast or it was a bad bag? It was just SOO sandy & thick. Any help greatly appreciated. Help!
Deb R.

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[Rd Tile]

You shouldn't have waited an hr. to start cleaning, when the grout STARTS to haze it's time, could be 10 to 15 minutes.:)

Maybe some vinegar and water 50/50 and and a good stiff nylon brush, they make one with a handle just for cleaning grout and scrub it good, maybe it will take it down some, DON'T WAIT, the longer you do, the harder it will be.:)

Does it look anything like this?:)

[Deb R.]

Yezz that's her. Looky at mine..See pic). Yeah, well NOW we know that! It just dried so #^$&* fast! Some areas I tried smoothing not even 5 minutes after grouting & they were already semi-hard. I left the really hard spots to my husband cuz it hadda be rubbed pretty hard. I was using the rough side of a srubber sponge. Actually, I am really not that disapointed w/it, myself, it's my hub who is. I keep trying to reassure the poor guy..Plus, more than half the floor is gonna be covered by a huge vanity & some is in a closet. Only half the floor we tiles is even gonna show. It's been 48 hours now, but I'll try the vinegar trick for kicks.
Deb K

[Mike2]

Deb, if the vinegar trick does not work come right back here and let us know. There are other avenues one can take but the vinegar is a good first step. And like RD said, time is not on your side....git on it. :nod:

[Deb R.]

Mike!
Ok I'm not having a lot of success w/the vinegar. What are these "other avenues" you mentioned?
Deb R.

[Deb R.]

So I've been going at the sloppier-looking grout joints with a commercial grout cleaning pad wetted with straight Heinz white vinegar, then going over again w/a fingertip wrapped in a towel, dipped in hot tap water. This seems to be doing something because I can see the white grout coming off on the blue towel, though it's not going very fast. I was reading some past posts & saw someone mention using a fine wire/abrasive Dremel wheel-anyone suggest this method in my case? I don't want to regrout though because it's not *that* bad just remove a bit of the excess grout in some areas.
Deb R.

[Davestone]

I like to use a small piece of stone,like a cement block piece,or a knife sharpening stone, to rub the joint down abrasively where it needs it,but you've got a lot of joints.A grout saw, from H.D. works well too, at an angle.I wouldn't use a power tool to do this, cause you'll chip the edges of that soft tile, myself. :)

[Rd Tile]

Like you said, it doesn't look all that bad, DO NOT use any wire brushs or metal to do this, you will scratch and stain everything with an acid based solution, one slip with that grout saw and a nice scratch also, try Vinegar at 100% and let it sit for a few minutes, rinse well after scrubbing, you can also try Sulfamic acid crystals, sold at HD, it takes time, these solutions will remove a thin layer at a time, I would stay with what you are doing.:)

On any areas that are really bad, high spots between the tile only, you can take a nail or small tipped screwdriver and scatch it down, do this while it's dry or wet with water only, no vinegar or acid and carefully with the tip scratch it down, do not try this on the tile surface itself.:)

[Deb R.]

So I scraped away at those grout joints til about 5am then finally just threw in the towel. It became SOOO tedious & I feel I've really done all I can. The real problem is, the grout itself looks so sandy & over textured & there's nothing to be done about that. We definitely mixed the grout correctly, pouring the exact amount into a measuring cup as directed. I just don't understand what went wrong here. Maybe the grout powder was defective? Do you the grout job will last? We left all the right expansion joints & the actual setting went alright.
Deb R.

[Mike2]

Deb, I'm moving your Thread over to our Restoration Forum. There are stronger solutions that can be used, RD mentioned sulfamic acid which is one but usually it's best to wait a week or so in order to use that. Don't want to risk "burning" the grout. There are other procucts as well such as StoneTech Restore but get your guidance as to what and when to use it from our experts over there. One thing is for sure, they know their bidness and will set you on the right path.

I'll leave a copy of the Thread here so you can get to it from either place.

[doitright]

Hi Deb :)

The first thing I would do is call the Custom's customer service line.

What you have going for you is you followed the mixing directions to a t.

What's not in your favor is the amount of time before washing. If I read your post correctly, it took an hour to spread the grout. This was clearly trying to do too much with a single batch.

Problem is, none of the manufacturers give a ratio of water and powder for less than a full bag.

Prosoco has a couple of more aggressive products. One that may do the trick is their Detergent 600. If you have a local masonry store, it can probably be found there. You'll need to start with a dilution of about 10:1. I highly recommend using the appropriate safety gear to include rubber gloves, long sleeves, and eye protection.

[mrjetskey]

I only mix what I can use in 15 minutes,the amount of water you use doesnt have to be perfect ,just the same amount in each batch you mix!!!Also the most important thing you can do is let the grout slake for 5 to 10 min. then mix it again quickly.If you neglect this step and start to grout right after mixing grout will set in 20 min.max.Also if you don't dampen the tile with damp not dripping wet sponge it will be hard to handle.Just make sure you measure the exact amount of grout dry,then the exact amount of water you used to get it mixed properly,of the first batch,then mix each following batch exactly the same,I do it by eye and no one can see any difference in grout color after its dry.I don't know anyone except a professional who can use a whole bag of grout at once without it setting up 3/4 of the way through don't blame yourself but the instructions are not exacting science as written on bag!!!