This guy doing the tile is wonderful. He's very good at what he does and he's meticulous. He's actually the contractor's assistant. To his credit, he's doing the job the actual contractor hasn't done, even though he's been paid nearly double for an incomplete job that has taken 4x longer than expected. The contractor has been avoiding me and knows I'm upset. Several people, including Home Depot and Home Hardware, are urging me to contact police because this contractor has been fraudulent. The assistant is maintaining integrity by keeping his word, even when his boss isn't. (And the assistant is the real reason I haven't called police. He doesn't deserve to be roped into this.) So I don't want to annoy this assistant. I'm heading out to Home Depot this morning to get the grout he wants and two more edgers. I've done grout myself before. I'm no professional, but I may just try to use the Fushion Pro myself to finish off this area and allow him to use the regular grout in the other areas of the bathroom.

"The GC is telling me the cracking will soon stop (in other words, within the first year) -- is that more BS or is it true?" Maybe yes, maybe no. In lightweight frame construction, the framing lumber can take several months to a year to come to an equilibrium of sorts. During that time, the wood can move. Moreso if the framing lumber was green (not pressure treated green, but non kiln-dried green) instead of kiln dried. Still...houses move. There is still seasonal movement due to humidity, subtle movement from wind loading, etc, etc. So while grout in changes of plane is more likely to crack within months of the initial installation, it could crack year after year. Or after every other year. Or never again. There's just not a one answer fits all solution. Cracked grout in decorative tile is cosmetic cracking. But cracked grout in a wet area like a shower represents another avenue for liquid water and water vapor to get behind the tile. Normally not a problem with a topical membrane like Kerdi or RedGuard. But still, industry standard, and best building practices, dictate that with inside corners in wet areas, it's best to use color and texture matched caulk instead of grout. Caulk flexes. Grout doesn't. If their caulk is failing, then they need educate themselves on how to properly caulk, prep, application and tooling, and on using the proper caulk. Mongo

Is the Platinum the Laticrete Platinum? If so what about Silver Shadow? It is a very soft gray that is almost white, but looks great with Platinum. Are you using cementitious grout or epoxy? I know many have used SS for their light or white tiles. Here is Silver Shadow epoxy on the bottom vertical grout spaces. The top area was grouted with a 50/50 ratio of Platinum and SS. The middle row was with Raven and SS. Note that there is a halo around the marble, like it is still wet. Epoxy can do that with marble, I just looked at my tile boards after over a month of drying and the halo is still slightly there with the darker grouts. But not as marked as in this picture. So that is something to consider. Here is the Silver Shadow epoxy with my bright white tiles. With these tiles the SS looks light gray, but with the tiles above it looks almost too white for my taste: I took Laticrete epoxy Platinum and mixed it with a little bit of Silver Shadow for an in between gray for my black slate floors. It is in a 3:1 ratio. The colors mixed very nicely. The grout sample on the left is the SS and the one on the right is the Platinum. It didn't take much SS to lighten it up significantly. If I did this over I would just have used Platinum. My DH really likes the combo. He thinks it ties in with the tub. It is relative isn't it, because it is not white at all but appears white. I will be having a marble listello, as seen above in the sample board, with my white tile wainscot. I might mask the marble off when I grout the white field tile with Silver Shadow. Then I would plan to come back and grout the marble with a reverse blend of Silver Shadow 3parts to Platinum 1 part. Nothing like trying to complicate things. That's one of the benefits with DIY. But if I was paying someone to grout, I would not consider these mixes.

Oh Bill, Bill.....trying to distract you again here. The grout colorant you mentioned says it can be used inside or outside...I think? Does that mean it would work for a problem with a "mortar" color on an exterior entryway? A portion of our flagstone topped landing coming in the front door of our house had to be torn out as it was not square. The mortar color of the part that was redone does not match the other part. We had a brown colorant mixed into the mortar for the entire project, but the redo came from a different bag and is darker. I don't know if there is a difference between "inside grout" and "outside mortar" as far as this colorant goes. Do you know? Thank you, Mr. Bill, for any help.