Beat a dead horse

[eascarlos]

Hi all,
I'm new to your site and want to say how awesome it is to have this resource available. I'm what you consider a weekend warrior when it comes to floor tiling. I've either assisted or tiled about a dozen homes now and finally decided to do my own.

Up til now, the grout that I have workedwith has been light colored variations(white, grey, etc...)My tile though, made the best use of chamoise. After spreading it all out and let dry, I noticed what I guess is referred to as effervesence. When the grout is wet it looks great, but when it dries it is somewhat uneven looking. I bought some cleaner or effervescence remover from HD, but haven't used it yet. After reading through some of the posts I'm wondering if I should order the Stonetech cleaner and sealer. The grout was never sealed to begin with. Any advice or points to previous posts would greatly be appreciated. Thank you again for contributing to this site.

c

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[davem]

Hi c, welcome to the forum :)

Use the search tool and key in the word 'vinegar'. It could be a scrub with a vinegar/water solution could even things up a bit. :)

[doitright]

Hi Carlos (hope that's your name), Welcome! :)

First give us some details of what type of material you're trying to clean the grout around. (Ceramic, porcelain, glazed, unglazed, natural stone, etc.)

Can you post a picture?

As long as the tile isn't natural stone, you can do a TEST with 50/50 vinegar and water.

[eascarlos]

The tile is ceramic with an unglazed finish.

But, just out of curiosity how different can two different batches of grout be? I think my second batch may have been a little drier than the first, but the difference is nearly unbelievable?

One more question, if I may, when cleaning with the vinegar does it matter if I spray the whole floor down first and then scrub the whole thing with a normal size brush or should I stick to just grout lines and use a small brush?

Sorry, if alot of this is remedial, but I always seem to have a different experience with each job!

Thanks again for the replys on the previous post.
carlos

[Steven Hauser]

Hi Carlos,

Since you think you may have used different ratios of water, it may be that the light areas are somewhat washed out rather than having a haze to remediate.

If you wet the light areas, do they get as dark as the darker areas, and if you wet the darker areas do they get any darker?

Do you feel anything on the surface of the tile?

Answer this before you wash the grout with vinegar.

:)

[eascarlos]

Yes, the light gets darker, but I haven't noticed the darker get much dartker. There is nothin on the surface, it was wiped down pretty well.

[Steven Hauser]

OK Carlos,

I would use a color enhancer like the one Stone tech sells, just use a light coat each time and plan to do it 2 or 3 times.

[eascarlos]

Thanks for the input!
Couple more questions if you don't mind:

Do I need to seal the grout after I enhance?

Will attempting to clean with vinegar do me any harm, if I try it?

Thanks,
c