Bizarre! Marble with white grout... grout is turning pink/red!?
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4 years ago
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4 years agoUser
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Laticrete grout and also sealer-for-marble questions
Comments (11)tell you what, inspect the 511 liquid in a clear glass. If its yellow or gold colored throw it out. sometimes the factory foil seal on the new jugs can fail and allow air in and it may discolor. 511 should be clear and if its yellow it can ruin your grout.I had a bright white grout job yellow with brand new 511 turned out to be defective sealer ( foil seal failed ) cost me A LOT of money in repair and NO thanks to Miracle sealants....See MoreLaticrete white grout?
Comments (22)@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....See MoreCalacatta marble subway tile grout color?!
Comments (24)Hi Theresse, so glad to hear your kitchen is coming along. (Did I miss it, what color combo did you end up choosing for your cabinets/wall?) RE: grout color, I think you need to wait until you see your actual marble. We're also doing marble and there is so. much. variation. and all that matters is the actual lot you end up with. (As a major control freak, this is freaking me out!) I have to make these exact same decisions, but it's easy to look at someone else's choices and tell THEM what to do ;) Personally, I'd either choose a white/off white that coordinated best with the overall background color of your lot of tile so that the pretty veins of the natural material can shine and the shape would recede a bit. Or, I'd try to pull a tone from the veins in your lot of marble (a very very light shade of that basic tone, if that makes sense) if you want to also emphasize the shape of the subway tile. I really think any way you choose, you honestly can't go wrong because you have beautifully simple counters so to me there's less of a worry that you'd choose something that didn't "go" as well. Anything you choose, your beautiful marble subways (and your awesome faucet!) are going to pop and be your stars. Can't wait to see. :)...See MoreKtichen backsplash - grout color help
Comments (6)Thanks for the comments. The Spectralock is actually not a commercial product. Used to be available at Lowes before they switched to Mapei - they switch every couple years, it seems. It is designed for regular tile installations, not specifically for pools or fountains. Yes, I let the sample board dry over night. It's been 3-4 days now. Still pink. Ugh. Online reviews for Mapei have not been great as far as grout color matching the samples, so I fear another issue there with having it not look like it should on the sample board. Some of the reviews have also indicated it's difficult to clean the haze off the tiles. Switching brands also doesn't help my having $39 invested in one of the Spectralock minis that's already opened. If I have to switch brands, I will, but I really would like some feedback on the Spectralock colors first to see if that can work. FWIW, I'm not concerned about mold and mildew on the backsplash. This is not like a tub or shower after all. What I am concerned with is food stains - spaghetti sauce, red cabbage, etc. This will be a relatively light grout color, and there are plenty of foods that can splatter and stain....See MoreUser
4 years agoT
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUser
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4 years agolast modified: 4 years agomorz8 - Washington Coast
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