Repairing Grout

I love the idea of brick floors, but I am torn on whether I would do them again. I certainly would NOT put them in a bathroom again. They are in our powder bath and mom’s bathroom as well as at each entrance/exit that has a door to the exterior. My first mistake was that I did not by the sealed version of brick. You could get them pre-sealed. I bought the unsealed because I thought the sealed were too shiny. I tried to seal the brick after installation and did many many many many coats, but it was worthless. They are so porous and it did no good.

The installation of the brick floors is when our tile guy got up and left us. He quit. It was too hard. I ended up grouting some of the brick and it was a pain! Especially since I bought the unsealed brick. After grouting, I had to use muriatic acid to clean the grout off the brick. Another pain!

Immediately after moving in, pieces of our grout were falling out! This was only where we had the brick flooring. The cause could be anything… joint too wide, using the muriatic acid, poor installation job… who knows. I was learning to live with it and thought it made the house look old to have it falling apart (haha). But I wanted to try and fix it.

When I first started noticing the grout damage, I looked up how to repair grout. I read that you could not simply just patch the hole in the new grout as it wouldn’t adhere properly. If I wanted to replace grout, I had to remove the old grout. I took this as possibly meaning that I could remove just enough that touched the length of a tile and put new grout down the length of the tile. Surely I didn’t have to remove ALL the grout in the entire floor?I ended up just vacuuming the "holes" and didn't remove any more grout.

Dirty in Hole

Clean

I had left over grout so I mixed some and patched the holes. If this method didn’t work then I would chisel out the old grout around the one tile and see how that works.

So far, so good and no more holes in the grout. I still expect more holes to top up, as they always do, but I had over 20 holes in the grout, so this is a good improvement.

When it started to dry, I noticed that the grout color was not matching! I guess I didn’t mix it properly? No clue. The swatch color matched the color of my floor.

I have no holes, but there is white grout now! I then bought the Mapei Grout Refresh in my correct color and painted the new grout. I may have mixed the grout wrong, but I thought I could fix it by painting over it. The color on the bottle matched my grout when I held it up to the floor. But it did not change the color of the grout! I even pulled away my buffet in the foyer to see if the untouched grout was lighter. It wasn't.

My guess is that our grout has gotten that dirty over the years, or the sealant did something?? Still not sure. I bought a new sealant that I was going to try and use, but now I don’t want to seal in the color imperfection!

I’m going to see how the grout refresh holds up on these thick grout lines and go from there. I may even rub some dirt in it! I'm happy I have no more holes, so if I had to choose one imperfection over the other, I choose no holes. 

Time to get the grout dirty!

Painting Grout

I used Mapei’s Grout Refresh at the old house and have already used it in the new house.

During the construction of the new house, I did not cover ANY of my floors after they were installed.

Lesson #1 learned: cover the floors once they are installed. It will save a lot of cleaning work and avoid damage.

We used real marble hexagon tile in the master shower and I loved it. I remember picking out just the right color of grout (Mapei – Warm Gray). We used epoxy grout that is suppose to be awesome and color change resistant and mold resistant. However, we did not cover up the floor after it was installed. Once tile is installed in a shower, the hardware (glass door, showerhead, etc) can be installed. When our contractors came to install those items, their shoes were muddy. And we have clay as our soil and clay stains so bad! My grout was now orange!

It was hard to get pictures. From a distance you couldn’t tell, but every time I used the shower, I saw gross orange. It looked like we had a mold problem. Our shower was clean!

I looked into getting Grout Refresh to help, but couldn’t find it in the color I needed. I then thought about choosing a different color to change it to, but I loved the warm gray I had picked out. While we were at Lowes getting the tile cut for the Laundry Backsplash, I just glanced at the Mapei display for Grout Refresh and saw the color I needed!!! It hadn’t been there before. I got excited and bought it. 

Painting grout does not sound like a fun project, and I can’t say that I think it is. It’s not. You can’t get the area wet for 24 hours, so I waited until Mr. JCrew left for a work trip and stayed up one night and painted grout. It’s what I do for fun while he’s away! Haha.

I posted my first Instagram Story showing the process. However, I got it wrong. I’ve used the product twice now and never once read the directions. Or maybe I did and forgot. But I did not do it like the directions said. My IG Story said to paint it on, let it dry (but not completely) and then scrape off the paint from the tile. If you wait too long, the paint is on there for good. However, I found I could wet it a little and get it off. But if it’s been longer than 12 hours, it is not coming off. I tackled a small section at a time, so by the time I stopped painting, I could go to where I started and start cleaning the tile.

This is where I was wrong. The directions say to let the paint sit 30-60 minutes. Then spray it with water and let it sit another30 minutes and then clean the paint of the tile.

Before

I only tackled the orange grout in my shower. Thankfully the whole shower was not dirty, it was just where the shower door was. Now that it is painted, it feels brand new. Looks like it should have from Day 1 of living in our new house. I never got that fresh start with this shower.

I find myself looking at it over and over. So glad.

I highly recommend this product. Whether you’re trying to restore your original grout color, or want to change the previous owner’s bad color choice. This paint is also a sealer so it will protect from future stains.

You don’t have to be precise, but it still takes a while using a toothbrush or a small paint brush. Pour yourself a glass of wine and have lovely music playing in the background. It will be a long project!

UPDATE: I painted the grout of the shower floor in January of this year. The shower is used daily and over time, the paint has washed away! When I used this product before, I used it in the foyer, where it never gets wet. I would not recommend this product for routinely wet areas.

Brick Tile

To go with the old feel of the house, I used brick pavers as tile in certain areas. 

I used it at all the entrances, in the Powder Bath and in Mom’s bath and closet.

I wanted to space it wide, so I bought 3/8” spacers; as wide as I could get them. 

I chose a brick pattern with 1/3 offset.

I bought the pavers unsealed because I wanted them to be rustic. But I still had to seal them so that grouting would be easier and not soaked up into the brick.

The color of grout was difficult to choose. I went with my gut and chose Mapei Ivory. 

And it couldn’t have been better. It ties in the wall color and the wood floor.

Because the brick tile was done first, and in heavy foot traffic areas, we had a lot of cracked tile. 

Two areas had thin-set applied to the entire subfloor surface, then grooved. There were less cracked tiles on those areas. Then the other areas just had the tile back-buttered. These had more cracks. But I was told the cracks would stop when the grout was put in. I just made sure I was at the house less and avoided stepping on the tile.

Our tile guy started grouting and left quickly after because it was frustrating. So, I took a stab at it and did an okay job. It was hard to get the grout up high enough like I wanted, and still trying to keep the brick surface clean.

I am so excited for the brick floors. Some people refer to it as “Split Brick.” It definitely gives the house that old vibe that I am going for.

Our tile guy laid the brick and grouted it, but he quit our job before he could clean the brick. I had a 10-day window to work with before the grout was really set into the paver. I tried multiple chemicals and non-chemicals trying to get the grout off. Only one thing worked! I have decided to write a separate post about it here.

After the brick was cleaned, I felt so much relief. I moved on to other projects while my mom took the duty of sealing the brick. She tackled one section at a time. I covered all the brick with paper dropcloth to prevent red clay marks on the freshly cleaned brick. The mud hall had nice orange tracks on it before I cleaned it.

I tried many different sealers. Even after cleaning the brick, it still dried a lighter color. I like how when it was wet, the colors were darker. 

Yet, I didn’t want the glossy wet look some sealers provide. I found a product at Lowes that was a sealer and enhancer.

At $45 a bottle for a small bottle, this stuff was liquid gold. But it achieved the look and protection.

Mom used a small roller to apply three rows at a time. It goes on milky and you wope if off after 3-5 minutes.

I really like the end result. These floors took a lot of work, but they are worth it!

Tile Repair and Grout Renew

Our foyer had some cracked tile. We had this problem before and had it fixed.

We have a crack in the foundation and the builder never put a barrier to prevent it from cracking the tile, so the tiles cracked after the repair and I left it like that for 4 years.

I never repaired it, because it makes such a mess! It was covered under warranty the last time and the guy that repaired it, didn’t do anything to prevent the dust cloud from going anywhere. It took forever to clean and I didn’t want to have to go through with that again. 

Plus, I envisioned pulling up all the tile and laying down a protective barrier, before laying brick down as my new flooring. I have always loved the look of brick on a floor.

But, I needed to repair the crack now. There are two new products I wanted to share that I used for the tile. One, is a caulk that looks like grout.

I had a crack in the grout line in the upstairs bathroom, so I bought the caulk and applied it to the base of the tub. Worked great!

I then decided I wanted to see if I could use it on the cracked tile. I then worked to fill the crack in the tile. It worked great!

Only when you are standing at just the right angle and know what you’re looking for, can you see the crack! Definitely better than ripping up the old tile!

While I was down at the ground-level, I noticed my grout. Some places were darker than others. You could tell which areas got more foot traffic.

I remember when I bought the house, the contractor told me to seal the grout before I did anything else. And I did, but I only did it to the newly laid tile that I asked them to put in. I thought they would have already sealed the tile that had been there for a year. In hind-sight, I should have sealed every room that had tile. They had not done it at all. Sealer prevents the discoloration of the grout. It protects it from stains and water damage.

So, here is the second product I used on the tile. Grout Refresh. It is a paint for grout. It comes in limited colors, so I never found an exact match to my grout, but I picked a new color I was happy with.

I went in every bathroom and painted the grout. I used a toothbrush and went to town. This was a very relaxing time. I was on the phone with AT&T while painting the foyer. And I got faster as I learned a method.

It made such a difference; even Mr. JCrew noticed!!

 I just took a toothbrush and painted the grout a section at a time.

You don't have to be precise. You just wipe up the excess.

After painting the grout, I waited 4 days and then went around and sealed them all.

Now, they will stay this light color for a lot longer than 5 years.

The caulk that looks like grout runs about $6 a tube. The grout paint runs about $11 a bottle. I still have half a bottle left over after doing two bathrooms and the foyer. I’m very happy with how it turned out.