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Stained Glass & Mosaics

grouting over existing sealed grout

14 years ago

I have a friend who finished a patio table top as her first mosaic project. She has sealed the grout and after seeing it she has wiped a little too much grout away. Can she regrout it after sealing it or maybe apply a coat of resin to it. Please give us some of your expert advise to what to do now. Thanks for any help! Sally

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Comments (4)

wackyweeder
14 years ago
I dont know if new grout would stick to sealed grout. it might, but it might not. usually whene something is grouted over again you take a sharp tool and dig some grout out from the spaces to give it room and something to latch onto. The resin would probly work fine, but I would do a little test board-slap some tiles and grout on it, seal it and then resin it just to make sure the sealant didnt cause some reaction with the resin and cloud it or something.
texaswild
14 years ago
If I'm not mistaken, I think Home Depot carries a sealer remover. Check w/them and Lowes, as well as doing what WACKY suggests. There's also a tool for digging out grout.
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If they're talking about coming in ans steam cleaning the grout, it's worth the money. Otherwise, you'd do just as well to DIY it, using Oxyclean, a scrub brush, and a shopvac. Mix the Oxyclean at twice the concentration they recommend on the side of the tub. Use the scrub brush to agitate the grout joints. DO NOT mop up the dirty solution, because all you do is embed the dirt right back into the grout. Use the shop vac, set up for wet pick-up, and vacumn it up. Do the same thing all over again, but this time with clear water (and the brush). Again, vacumn it up. You'll see a big difference. The ONLY way you'll get them cleaner is by someone coming in with professional steam cleaning equipment.
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Grout does not SEAL anything it fills a gap and allows for water and vapor transmission but it is so ridgid and does not support flex or movement. If youre corners opened up it indicates movement and the bigger concern is if the inside corners framing got wet and expanded and is there now a mold/mildew issue underneath it . There is a lot of key points to a successful inside corner that starts at framing with proper spf2 KDHT lumber, proper backer slip joints, fastener type and count, plus proper corner detailing and finally waterproofing. If all that is done correctly its rare for a corner to pop even if its been grouted when it should have been siliconed and usually then indicates a bigger structural movement unrelated to the shower.. You can now patch it in a myriad of ways but really you need to know why it popped open or you are just band-aiding it. The proper fix after cause is evaluated is to remove all Grout, clean, let dry, and replace with color matched silicone.You need to either repair it properly or accept a temp fix to a longer term problem. -best
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Call a professional tile contractor now and ask for a consult. Is the ceiling below it finished? If so, open it up about 2 ft. radius around the leak area as the damage there will need to be inspected as well. You likely have a failed shower pan which requires that the shower be torn out and completely rebuilt. As cpartist mentioned, grout has nothing to do with it. DO NOT use the shower now as it will only contribute to further potential of damage underneath. Sorry you are dealing with this. It is a major issue and really requires an onsite consult by a real professional.
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gaijingirl
14 years ago
Technically, you are not supposed to grout over existing grout. I did a lot of research on this at one time....(you can probably learn a lot about it if you visit some tiling sites/forums).
However, they say that if the grout is new enough, you can possibly have some success with grouting over top. But, I believe from what I've read, this is if it is not sealed. I think, from what I understand, the sealer may prevent the new grout from bonding to the old.
You are supposed to remove at least 3/4 of it first.
It's a pain, I know. I had to re-grout someone elses mistake on a backslash last year and it was not a fun time!
kraftkrazy
14 years ago
make sure if she uses resin she uses one that is okay for exterior use...i learned the hard way that the envirotex lite they sell at michaels is not for sunlight...my fault for not reading first

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