I used epoxy without much fuss and I never used it before and only tiled once before in my life when I did my small kitchen backsplash area last year. So laticrete epoxy isn't that hard, honest. Once its done, your done, and you will have a durable grout. Have you considered urethane grout? It needs a 7 day cure time, without use, but other than that I've heard good reports. It is pre-mixed and the container can be recovered for use later; how long, I don't know. A high end tile shop in my locale uses it for their display floors because of the ease in use and the ability to cover and save. It is a Hydroment brand that they use. I have used the Hydroment thinset and have been very pleased with the product. They make the Ditra-Set that I used for my Ditra installation. Regarding Laticrete SpectraLock: What I did for my floor grout was mix a custom color with laticrete spectralock colors Platinum and Silver Shadow and some other grays. I did some small mixing with the small cartons of color you can get at Lowes, but I only purchased one tub of the epoxy. I prepped all my dry color combos and kept records. Then I mixed the epoxy and divided into small disposable containers mixing the dry into each. Ultimately, I came up with a 3part platinum and a 1part silver shadow that I used on my floor. I am very happy with it. I bought a large sized Laticrete kit of the Platinum online, that was linked through the Laticrete web site. I then bought a small carton of just the dry Silver Shadow color at Lowes and measured this SS amount, removed that same amount from the Platinum then added the SS. The large kit is equal to 4 small kits. So that was my 3:1 ratio. Of note the Laticrete Spectralock in the small cartons at Lowes is the "Spectralock Premium" and the large kit I got on line was the "Spectralock Premium Pro". The colorants are all the same, the epoxy, parts A&B are what differs. The Pro I think is a newer product and maybe has better application properties. As I said I ordered mine online, but you may be able to get the Pro version through special order at Lowes. Here is my finished grout, Silver Shadow on the left and Platinum on the right, My custom is the grout in the tile:

I laid new porcelain tiles in March 2010, the grout color I selected was Tumbleweed but the color turned gray & white. It looked terrible & I was in a panic as to what to do. Of course the installer was not any help & said that it was the color I selected or the grout must have been old. Some of the grout got in the crevices of the tile & is the correct color so I do not know what went wrong. I researched on the computer & found C-Cure grout stain. I went to a local tile store & purchased C-Cure in Tumbleweed. You can not purchase this stain at Lowes or Home Depot only tile stores. This stain is assume!!! I stained the bathroom, hallway and kitchen floors & it matches the tile perfectly. I had not sealed the grouts lines so I did not have to worry about removing sealer. I stained the grout lines using a artist brush on my belly off & on for a few hours. It is very easy to apply & if you get some on your tile it just wipes off. If you miss some & it dries then all you have to do is scrap it off. I can not remember but I think this stain is not recommended for shower areas but I could be wrong. Oh, if you spill anything on the grout it just beads up & does not penetrate the grout. I would recommend this stain for any floor grout woes. After a year my floors still look like they were installed yesterday. Hope this helps anyone who is hesitant in applying stain because I can not give it enough praise.

Grout IMO makes or breaks the best tile install. Do test boards. It's much easier to visualize and get it right than to to grout and then want to dig it out. FWIW, and this depends on how good your eyes are, but COLOR is key. Depending on budget, try 1-3 possible colors on your test boards. It may not be a cheap solution, depending on how much you are grouting.... I went through 6 tests, till I got the perfect one for my backsplash. Tried Brand A. Was not right. Tried Brand B. Was not right Brand C on the 6th try was the *perfect* match. COLOR will always differ between the big dogs. Laticrete, Mapei and my 3rd one - Starquartz

@J M We did not use Spectralock 1 grout in our kitchen because we found out that it is not intended for use around food preparation areas. So, its use is rather limited. Instead, our installers used Mapei Ultracolor Plus FA (which I will hereafter refer to for brevity just as "Mapei," although this is only one of the family of Mapei grout types) which has some of the features of longevity of epoxy but isn't an epoxy grout. The Mapei was water-based, so shouldn't yellow. It is also rapid-setting, so the installers must be very skilled with it and only do small portions at a time, or else you can end up with a mess as the Mapei can harden over the tile and be very difficult to remove. My one complaint with my installation was that the installers used too much water and removed too much of the grout as it was setting, so the grout level is a little low. It's not bad, but there's nothing that can be done to fix this aside from taking the grout completely out and re-doing it, at least according to Mapei customer service. Doing that could damage the tile, so I'm going to live with it. The grout needs to have at least 1/2 depth of the tile to which it can adhere, and after it is cured, it won't stick to the previous layer of grout unless it has those sides of the tile to help with adhesion, or so says Mapei's customer service. I would have preferred the grout to be nearly level with the tile, which is the standard set forth for this grout in the instructions, but I ended up with some noticeable edges of the tile showing, even beyond the beveled top edge of the tile by a small amount. Since it has been installed, I've barely noticed the problem, so it will probably only come back to haunt me when I am cleaning the grout and need to get the extra dirt out that falls into the deeper-than-desired depressions. This Mapei grout doesn't require a sealer, but it can be sealed which I plan to do, probably with some Laticrete product. I have a lot of respect for Laticrete's technological advancements, but in my instance, the Mapei was recommended by the people who laid the tile, and I am thus far happy with it. One more note on the application, I provided the tile people with several dozen, new sponges to use on our job so they could feel free to wipe away on the grout since it was a rapid-set product, but they ended up using their own very water-heavy sponging system that was overkill for this grout.