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Grout Haze and I Think It's Called 'Slumpage?'

17 years ago

Well,our tile floors are done, but our gray grout is white in many places. It is also below the top of the tiles in many places. I've done some research, and realize that they used too much water to clean it. We now have grout haze and not enough grout.

The installer said he will come back and regrout the entire floor along with replacing a few tiles he put down in the wrong direction. I'm not looking forward to another big job. Will be be able to do it without ruining our floor?

I also feel the 1/16 cracks alot when I walk. There are many places where the tile is slightly higher, but it certainly bothers bare feet. Will it help when he regrouts? I so wanted this to be perfect. I bought great tile and was told that the installer is their best. He was very nice, but certainly not perfect.

We have Imola Micron unglazed porcelein. It's going to look great after he fixes the grout. I hope it also helps the feeling on my feet.

I find myself doing the "don't step on a crack" thing because the tile itself is so smooth.

Any advice on this matter would be appreciated!

Kristen

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Comments (2)

floorman67
17 years ago
There should not be lippage (height difference from tile to tile). This is pure installer error or a lack of education in how to set tile. A good tile man with have a 2' masons level to lay on the tiles as he is installing them to ensure there is no lippage, and if their is you remove or add thinset as needed for a flush transition from tile to tile. This may be repairable but in the worse cases it can end up being a large job pulling up and resetting enough tiles to get everything flush, and if enough tiles are lipped to a low or high spot in the floor, a considerable amount of tile may be needed to be removed and reset to rectify the problem. I am not saying the latter is the case with your installation, but i have seen it that bad before.

The "haze" is called efforvescense and occurrs in portland cement grouts that are mixed with too much water added when the grout was mixed. It should be regrouted.
kristenfl
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for your reply. There was no level other than "eye" level. Considering that, they did a pretty good job. He came back today and did the grout over. It is soooooo much better this time. The color is good because he took his time washing the tiles afterwards and rung out the sponge each time. He also filled all the grout lines to the top. I looked everything over before he left, and put little pieces of painters tape were he needed to add more grout. He fixed those in a flash. I am one happy person, and my bare Florida feet are feeling much better, thank you!

I now have a beautiful, contemporary floor.

Kristen
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I, too, was once the victim of a bad tile job in our new basement bathroom several years ago - so I do understand the anxiety of deciding what is "good enough". On this forum after I posted pics, Bill and others said something that resonated - as long as they can do poor tile jobs like that and still get paid 100% of their money and move on, they will continue to do so. Then I realized that if I bought a $50K car and the doors didn't line up, I wouldn't accept it - and they would have to fix it or give me a new car - period. What is the difference? In the end, the tile was done and redone THREE times at the installer's expense. Natural stone ain't cheap. And guess what? I love my bathroom and am happy I stood my ground every time I walk in there. My GC for the basement remodel no longer uses that tile installer so maybe I saved someone else some heartache down the line. Thank you, again, to Bill for being such an amazing resource! And I still donate money to help ensure that bulletproof and stabproof vests are available to police dogs :), which is the only thank you I've seen him request.
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Thank you. I will contact the owner and let him know. I will also request that they send someone else out to do the cleaning and not the guy that somehow seems to keep making things worse. This isn't the first time during this job that I had to call and have someone come out behind him to clean things up. Thank you for telling me that I should be left with a clean installation. Sometimes I feel like I am being that persnickety homeowner.
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Just browsing this forum and I remembered there are a few threads about this. I searched and here is one that shows promise. ( I posted in it because my daughter was having the same issue. hers is on white flooring and I don't think she did anything since so can't speak to effectiveness but it's worth a try!). Previous thread about grout haze removal
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