An epoxy would be better in terms maintenance and color fastness. If you are a DIY and have the time and inclination, you can fill most of the spaces with thinset (white thinset if light color tiles) or any grout you are comfortable with ... and then add an epoxy grout as the surface layer only. This eases the burden of what you expect the epoxy to do for you. When you fill it into vertical gaps (which can be deep and also not uniform in their depth), the semi-hardened epoxy can slump during the following day or however long it takes to harden beyond all possible movement. This has been my experience. I love all the epoxy grout jobs I have done, and I'm not as proud of the portland cement grout jobs -- for the same reasons you mentioned, colors, color fastness, and ease of maintenance. In every case if I took a photo, people would think it had been redone with Photoshop to look so good. I mean it! If you are a pro you won't have as much time to spend on the job as to do what I've suggested above, unless you are able to pretty much fill the joints with thinset while tiling and then come back to scrape, shape and scrub them the morning after. hth -d

My understanding is that you use caulk where there are 2 different surfaces coming together & those surfaces could move. For instance, where the wall meets the floor of a shower or the edge of a tub. Caulk can flex a little bit so if the house settles or you bump a heavy object (or yourself) into the other side of the wall, that little movement would crack a rigid joint (like grout) but won't crack caulk. Grout is more durable & if the wall moves it will move as a single unit, so grout is great there. But where you have 2 planes or 2 independent surfaces coming together, you want to use caulk.

The removal and disposal charge may be excessive...IF it is a floating floor. If it's adhered to the slab with adhesive, then it may not be excessive. Installation charges are regional. Those quotes may be fair in some markets. Are the charges for labor only? I would charge more to install Spectrlock epoxy grout, as it is more difficult to work with and takes more time and effort to place and cleanup.

Thank you Jerry, I really appreciate you replying. I have decided to pay the 10% restocking fee for the TEC XT grout (after the 25% off and before the 7% sales tax it came to $36.71 for their stain resistant enhanced grout that is not an Epoxy. I will then drive a few miles farther down the highway and go to Lowe's and buy the SpectraLOCK Mushroom grout that I wanted but the former installer just wanted to use what was at the local tile store where I bought the Akoya Bone Tiles. I heard I need lots of sponges. What sponges are best so there will be clean ones here for him to use since I want the color to be true? The new installer says he can pick up glue and I do not need to buy more of the Adhese-SuperflexW Tile & Stone Mortars, 50 Lb Super Flext White (says this on the package so has abbreviations.. is in my cold garage right now....$42.74 after the 25% off I paid and before the sales tax). I was told the glue I had bought was a special Latex Glue. How can the installer mix glues since I have so much of this bag left over? What glue should we use since I have a cement floor due to the fact that I live in a townhouse with no basement. All this stress due to the first lot of the Rialto Beige tiles being sold out so I found a tile that looked just like that lighter color I wanted. I would have just asked Lowe's and bought what glue they told me but I can't return opened dry glue so now I have this bag here. I have to put an Estate on extension today and get these holiday cards out as well as close a few corporations. I am so behind in my work since I want my two foyer areas to look nice. I wish you lived near me Jerry so you could do this tile job for me and it would have been done months ago and I would not be behind in my work.