Epoxy grout in corners?

[bhoye]

Hi Everyone,
I'm a remodeling contractor who does a lot of bathrooms. I almost always do my own showers and floor tiling. I've been doing a lot more epoxy grout lately, specifically Laticrete spectralock. Standard practice has always been to silicone all changes in plane and latasil works well for me, but it's never a perfect match.

I was grouting a new tub surround today with spectralock and the thought occurred to me that maybe the strength and durability of spectralock would make it a viable corner sealant (again, not for shower pan corners, but for the vertical corners)

I'm not willing to just try it and cross my fingers on a customer's job, so I thought I'd get some opinions from you guys.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

[cx]

Welcome, Brandon.

A lot depends upon how you construct your showers, but I wouldn't do it with epoxy grout.

Those of us who have violated the rule about flexible sealant at changes of plane in our showers for years do find that sometimes the cementitious grout cracks. If it were an epoxy, chances are it might crack the edge of the tile instead. 'Specially with glass or other weak tiles. And not sure why you'd wanna do it on the vertical corners but not the horizontal corners.

All you can do is try it if you really think it's a good idea. Might be years before you find out how much of a problem it might be, though.

As for matching the grout with a flexible sealant, you might wanna talk with the folks at ColorRite. They can generally make you a 100 percent silicone sealant to match any grout color on the market. And you can get it in a sanded or satin finish, too. Might solve your whole problem.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

I, too, would avoid the use of epoxy grout in the corner due to its high strength that has the potential to crack the tile. If you are that picky that the Latisil doesn’t match well enough, I applaud you! The satin or sanded caulk from ColorRight are two really good options. But realize that the introduction of the “sanded” material to the caulk reduces the shelf life of the product to about 6 months, so it’s not something you want to buy and “stock” a bunch of colors in your inventory to have on hand unless you consume a lot of it. It’s mostly something to buy individually for each job.

[bhoye]

Thanks guys, those are good points. And thanks for not laughing at me or the idea.

I haven’t tried Colorite, but now that I see how well recommended it is, I’m going to try it on my next job.

Looking forward to contributing to (and learning from) this forum.

[Tiger Mountain Tile Inc]

I used to silicone everything but over the last few years I've started epoxy grouting all of my shower pans. Somewhere along the line I started epoxying the perimeter shower joint rather than silicone. I've found it to be the most durable and reliable way of handling that joint.

I don't typically epoxy walls but, if I were, I wouldn't hesitate to epoxy all of the change-of-planes. It's not by the book but sometimes the rules need to be broken.

[BSimpson]

I built my own shower 14 years ago and used Spectralock epoxy on the shower pan and wall change of plane and it’s been 100% solid to this day. I have a natural pebble stone pan and 3/8” Travertine walls. On the verticals I used a matching caulk for changes of plane and again, still 100% sealed, no deterioration at all and the shower is used 3x per day. It’s a Kerri shower with mud pan. Also used Spectralock epoxy on the walls, great grout and would not go back to cement grout in a shower again.

I see Laticrete has Spectralock 1 out now, epoxy-like premixed grout. I’m thinking of trying that on my current shower building in my basement this winter. Looks easier to use than the full epoxy brother.

Here’s the link to the bathroom remodel.

https://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin...ad.php?t=47081

[Dave Gobis]

Have to see if I can dig up the pictures of epoxy in corners shredding the glaze in corners and pool coping. Many think it is the cure of all ills. My experience is it is helpful but when it goes it goes real bad.