Should the grout be the same color? Not necessarily. Will it look weird to use a darker gray on the floor and a lighter gray in the shower? Not at all. Any recommended colors for the shower and floor tiles along these lines? I've been getting stuff at Lowe's and they carry MAPEI Warm gray for the subway tile, and silver for the hex, if you lke a darker grey for the hex. Silver is actually a medium grey, but it'll appear alot darker with the white tile. Our bathroom isn't perfectly square. I think a colored grout seam that is uneven will be really obvious(that's my understanding where you would do any flubbing). Can you grout just the seam white? Can you skip grout and caulk it? Any suggestions here? Grout everything on the floor the same color. it'll actually show up more if you try doing what you suggested. It'll literally draw attention to it. What you want to dpo is make sure that you're square to the most obvious walls from the door. Especially with the hex, it won't be quite as obvious as you think, unless it's WAY out, and then nothing you can do will hide it, even using a blending color grout. One other thing-- that joint where the floor hits the walls should be caulked, but still caulk it with a caulking that matches the grout, both color AND texture. Does anyone know what the measure is for hex tile and subway? For subway, use unsanded, and for the hex, use sanded.

bill_vincent wrote: "Spectralock's another good choice, but more expense than really necessary." Bill we acknowledge and honor your experience and expertise. In contrast, we have tiled only one large shower and one sink backsplash, both for ourselves, and certainly do not consider ourselves tile experts. But I have seen you make similar responses when epoxy grout has come up in the past, and I find the response very curious. In the total cost of any project where tiling is involved, the cost of the grout materials is usually a very small fraction. Moreover, the DIFFERENTIAL between the cost of cementious grout and epoxy grout to cover a given area is but a fraction of the total materials cost of the grout, so the "epoxy premium" is a small fraction of a small fraction. In our (9 foot by 33 inch small) powder room renovation, the total cost of the Laticrete SpectraLock epoxy grout for the entire backsplash tiling job was $21, while the cost of the tiles themselves exceeded the cost of the grout by a substantial multiple. For the room project in which the materials alone (new sink, faucet, and toilet, plus tile and wallpaper, with new lighting fixtures not certain but under consideration) are running $2,000 to $3,000, the cost of the grout was a drop in the bucket. Because cementious grout is sold only in large bags, the minimum quantity of high quality cementious grout would probably have cost us more than the small Laticrete SpectraLock epoxy grout kit which provided us about 30 to 40 percent more grout than we actually needed. We probably SAVED materials cost by using epoxy grout, in other words. Admittedly, the biggest reason that the epoxy grouting was a DIY project for us was that not one professional tile installer in the Portland, Oregon, area would agree to apply epoxy grout; they all wanted to slapdash cementious grout in there in the shortest time period possible, take their money, and run. By using epoxy grout in the wet environment of a sink, we got grout that we do not need to seal, will never need to re-seal, and which is a very inhospitable host to mold and mildew and just short of impervious to those problems. In the eight years since we retiled our shower using epoxy grout, we have never had a mold problem; the same shower had serious mold issues when the grout lines had been cementious grout. Shouldn't maintenance costs be taken into account when comparing costs between cementious and epoxy grout?

My opinions regarding this topic are reflective of both my tile setting experience as well as being a savvy homeowner that prefers not to be owned by the materials I select. Earlier on in my career I have installed quite a few tumbled stone backsplashes and showers for family, friends and customers, ranging from 12x12 to smaller ½”x ½” mosaics. Regardless of the size of the tiles most applications wear similarly, yes, grout being the most susceptible to staining you can argue that; more grout more problems, right? Truth is from the mid 90’s on most of our work included some sort of mosaic tumbled or textured natural stone mixed with different colored glass tiles. With regards to staining or difficulties in maintaining I have not experience any issues that I can recall. Once properly sealed, tumbled stone will provide years of durable service-providing you follow some simple care and maintenance steps. For starters I suggest using a brand name water based sealer and wiping up spills and splatter from behind the stove within a reasonable amount of time. (Define a reasonable amount of time…. Sometime after you’re done eating and before you go to bed!) I prefer water based sealers over solvents for a few reasons, most importantly the toxic fumes and VOCs and the other is I find the larger molecule formulation fill the larger pores in the grout better compared to the thinner solvent based structure. As mentioned prior, all natural stones and grouts will patina over time (unless you decide to use epoxy grouts). Sealing natural stone backsplashes in any pattern will not stop the natural patina; it will only help keep foods and beverage stains out between cleaning or before it permeates the surface. Keeping stains out is not that difficult but keeping it the same color as it was when it was installed will be close to impossible. Slight discoloration is considered normal and should not be looked at as a failure of the cleaning techniques or a breakdown of the sealer. So if the look of mosaics is what you are looking for than go for it. If you are concerned with care and use and like the looks of the cream and beige tones I would recommend selecting a tumbled marble vs. tumble Limestone; the look is similar but the performance could be drastically different. However, differentiating between the two can sometimes be difficult, make sure you ask the sales person and if he/she is not sure ask them to investigate. As a rule of thumb, tumbled limestone is naturally more porous than tumbled marble. Given the natural state of porosity, it is recommended to have the installer seal the tiles prior to grouting. Pre-sealing will only help the grout installer wipe the tiles clean resulting in easier cleaner installation. It is important to seal the entire application including grout a few days after installation, while the grout may look dry after a few hours it takes a few days for the grout to cure, grouting prior to this point will not yield the same protection. I hope this helps.

You have install problems but..... How is he or she finishing that niche? I see all these grout issues and wonder what people are doing to have them? First off subway tiles are butt against each other on lugged tiles giving about a 1/16 grout line. The larger format tile the larger the ground line so I am lost at the reverse thinking. How dirty i that 1/16 grout line getting?? A lot of grout issues are related to your water and bath products. Some bath products have heavy dyes in them. Water can leave white or even a pinkish hue on your grout. Showers require maintenance END OF STORY!. There is NO tile or bath install that is maintenance free. The smaller the grout line the easier it is to keep clean. As mentioned above Flexcolor is a great grout but with small 1//16 grout lines it can look odd because it mimics a sanded vs unsanded grout. Do not use marble in an everyday bathroom there are too many options today. What you should have used is ran a marble liner horizontally and the shelves integrated into that line in both corners. I would have run 2 bands like that and maybe switched the pattern between the two bands of marble liners. The liners won't be an issue as a floor will. The gray is fine look at the whole room not just that zoomed in pic. Pic a tile and stop looking as that is where you get confused. There will always be something better. Buy them, install them and stop looking at tile.