An epoxy would be better in terms maintenance and color fastness. If you are a DIY and have the time and inclination, you can fill most of the spaces with thinset (white thinset if light color tiles) or any grout you are comfortable with ... and then add an epoxy grout as the surface layer only. This eases the burden of what you expect the epoxy to do for you. When you fill it into vertical gaps (which can be deep and also not uniform in their depth), the semi-hardened epoxy can slump during the following day or however long it takes to harden beyond all possible movement. This has been my experience. I love all the epoxy grout jobs I have done, and I'm not as proud of the portland cement grout jobs -- for the same reasons you mentioned, colors, color fastness, and ease of maintenance. In every case if I took a photo, people would think it had been redone with Photoshop to look so good. I mean it! If you are a pro you won't have as much time to spend on the job as to do what I've suggested above, unless you are able to pretty much fill the joints with thinset while tiling and then come back to scrape, shape and scrub them the morning after. hth -d

Go to the Laticrete web site to get the final word. But this is what I understand. SpectraLock is an epoxy grout, meaning that it has a part A and a part B that is mixed (like epoxy) and then the colored sand is added. It is durable and stainproof. There are 2 formulations of SpectraLock, the Pro (at Lowes) and the Pro Premium. I have heard that while they are both epoxy there is a slight difference in the color out come and they should not be used next to each other (in the same grout job) because the grouts will be slightly different in color. I have also heard that the Pro Premium is supposed to have better spreadability. Laticrete has a regular cementous grout product called LATICRETE PermaColor. I do not think that Lowes carries this any longer. I have heard from Bill V. on this site that this is a very fine product. I have just finished grouting my slate bathroom floor and used the SpectraLock Pro Premium that I ordered online with great success. The site I ordered from was linked on the Laticrete site as a distributor. This is their web site and I was very happy with the packing and shipping time frame. http://www.tilestoreonline.com/default.asp I got the "full unit" without the bucket for $43.70. I can't remember if shipping is free. Anyway, got the grout, and with my 1/4 grout margins, I got about 45-50 sf out of this "full unit" - about what I predicted using Laticrete's grout estimator. I have read that epoxy grout is hard to use for some people. I did not find it to be difficult, but I don't have much to compare it to. I followed the instructions to the "T". Except I learned on the JB forum from a poster, that you can freeze the epoxy and take it out later for patches. So, I took a zip lock bag and put about a 1/2 cup of the grout in to it, smashed it to about the thickness of a pancake, zipped it shut, and froze it. A few days later I found a few divots in the floor where my toes or fingers may have pushed in, as I was grouting. I broke of some pieces of the frozen grout and it thawed very quickly. I smeared it into the imperfections, then waited 20-30 minutes. I then went over it with a damp sponge rinsed and rung out in a few cups of H2O mixed with a few TBS of white vinegar. In other words I used the same cleanup procedure that I was instructed to do with the initial installation of SpectraLock. Except I didn't have the "rinse" product. I had read on the JB forum to use vinegar in the water and this will work as a rinse. After it fully dried I could not see any difference between the small patches and the original installation. I plan to use SpectraLock Pro Premium on my walls too when I get them tiled. Here is a link that might be useful: Laticrete web site

Here are some of the photos. I cant change the tile now, so the options really are: 1. Leave it alone 2. Change it to Silver Shadow grout (lighter gray) 3. Change it to Bright White Spectralock What do you guys think. The pictures show the gray lighter than it actually is. Also the spacing is a bit uneven in certain parts... Please let me know what you think! This is important to me :( http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/rrfb4.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/3h8qq.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/l4jve.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/s4q3z.jpg This is how it looks ungrouted (which was the look that I loved...) Unfortunately..it didn't come out that way http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/uj5n4.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/1lxry.jpg http://www.freeimagehosting.net/t/62yvt.jpg

We used the Laticrete grout like this in a previous kitchen and I thought it was great! Laticrete Grout Admix DH spilled tea on it overnight and it wasn't stained. I left a broken printer on the counter once and found magenta ink had leaked out. Scared the you know what out of me! But it did not stain the grout. We grouted another kitchen counter this weekend but Lowes did not have any of that. So we bought the Laticrete Spectralock. It was not hard to work with, but it didn't go as far as we thought. Had to go back and buy more. We ended up buying four containers to do the counters and the mosaic backsplash. Also, the color was "Almond", but the grout looked white after application. I am waiting to go back this weekend to see if it darkens.