Need some major help here!

[aeslabby]

Good evening!

We have recently completed (well...almost) a bathroom renovation. We tiled the shower in white subway tiles with a white grout, which looked great. That is until my husband applied the clear caulking on the joints and around the tub. He has applied grout numerous times in our home and others, and never had an issue. But apparently when we bought this a couple weeks ago, the use by date was 8 months ago! I have read that if it has expired, the caulking will not set. The caulking didn't even begin dry for days, so we did our best to remove it, but it has stained the white grout everywhere. I am so ticked I cannot even express it, as the work to get it off was horrible and our beautiful brand new shower looks like it is incredibly dirty in all the joints (same colour as the grout looked before it dried when first applied). My questions are:

(i) How the heck do I get the grout to look white again, I have tried a grout cleaner, vinegar, hot soapy water. I was thinking that the grout got stained somehow from the moisture/oiliness of the crappy caulking sitting on it for 3 or 4 days. I have read to use some sort of a grout scraper and regrout it in those seams. Can I have some opinions on what to do?

(ii) Should we use a clear caulking or a white caulking? Everyone has told us clear is best...but I am so scared it will stain the grout again.

Thanks so much, we really need some advice here.

Amy

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[Davestone]

Bummer.I use denatured alcohol to remove caulks.At this point i think i would scrape it out and regrout and use white caulk next.

[tilefinisher]

well i would say scrape it out and grout it, my boss always tells me when in doubt grout, i never use caulk i always grout it, and it always looks fine, so just regrout it and flush up the joints. and some reasons for stained grout are cause, the grout to loose or soopy to much water in the mix, to much water on the sponge, thin set not dryed enough, to many little mixes. The thing about grouting is you got to take your time, and look over it over and over you will always find mess ups, its a pain in the ass job, and especially with white tile and bright whit grout u always have to take a dry towel and wipe it down over and over and when your done do the hand test run your hand across the tile and see if u have white on your hand cause if u do u got to wipe it again.

[Stone Dude]

unfortunately the clear may have gone a bit too deep into the grout. at this point it may be easier and less hassle to just remove and re-grout.

take it easy on your husband though, I'm sure his intentions were good :D

[gsr]

I've run across some GE 100% silicon that refused to set up. It's really a PITA to get it off. Windex may keep it from spreading any further as you work on it. Silicon stripper is available at the big box stores but I've never had much luck with it. Mechanical (tedious, gentle scraping) removal is what I wind up doing.

If you can get most of it off perhaps a new bead of white would cover up the stains?