Flooring Tile - bad grout

Is there a way to replace the grout ?

Thank you

Yes there is. Tell us a little bit about what you have.

What kind of tile
How large of an area
What size grout line
Why are you replacing the grout
Is this a floor, walls
What area of the house is it in Kitchen, Bathroom etc.

Dorina ...you can buy a tool to grind out any old remaining grout from in-between the tiles. You have to grind out the old stuff not completely but enough so that there is a channel for the new grout to adhere to. This tool is like $7 at Home Depot and has a carbide pointed tip. You'll need some elbow grease to work the tool back and forth to grind the old grout down. If you're doing a large area, you might want to rent a power tool to do this.

Answering heresjohnny's questions would help to understand your situation. For example, if you have Saltillo tile with that big ole 1 inch grout line, you may want to use something other than what I have suggested.

Steve

Thank you for your answer.

Here is my (sad) story: I had regular ceramic tiles (12x12) installed in the laundry room (aprox. 40 sq.ft.), and the guy did a really bad job. Half of it is with biger grout line distances than the firts half and a bit of darker color (white grout on yellow-ish tiles). Besides, the basebord is bad looking on the corners and he put silicone(!!!) on top of the basebord. So I was looking to different options to fix the problems, but I'm scared that only replacing the whole thing will do it.

Well since your grout lines are not even throughout the entire room, to make it right you would need to completely remove all of the tiles and install new ones and ensure the tiles are evenly spaced. Maybe the installer didn't use tile spacers which he should have. Since it's only 40 sq. ft., it wouldn't be expensive to hire someone to completely redo it or it could be a weekend job for you and/or your husband/friend.

As far as the baseboards, actually you can use silicone caulk along the top of the baseboards. I just installed new baseboards throughtout my entire house and I applied a bead of white caulk along the top of the trim. This covers any gaps between the drywall and trim and when finished with a caulk rite or pro seal tool, it looks real nice. And then you can paint right over the caulk to match either the wall color or the trim color. The only time I might not caulk is if I was using a wood grain trim like an oak. The stuff I used was pine with white primer. After I installed them, I painted them semi-gloss white. Good luck with getting your laundry room corrected. If you live in the San Diego area, I could fix it for you.

Steve

Steve

The problem with the silicone is that it was bad finished, I don't know with what but it looks ugly. I live in Toronto. Anyway, thanks again for your answer.

Dorina

You could use a grout colorant to change the color of the grout. The grout colorant will change the color of the grout and seal it at the same time. If you color the grout a color closes to the color of the tile the different size grout joints may be less noticeable. Has the grout been sealed yet? If so, you'll have to remove the sealer before you can use the grout colorant.

If your installer did this bad of a job perhaps he should be financially responsible for paying to have it done over by a real professional.

that's too bad about the caulk. Maybe he didn't use a finishing tool or maybe he used his finger. I agree, if caulking is not finished off, it looks real bad. If the trim itself looks OK, you could always use a knife (i.e. box cutter) to cut out the old caulk and apply a new bead of caulk and finish it off so it looks nice. But it sounds like you might redo that floor so in that case, you might as well just do an entire make over on that room. Rip out the trim and flooring and install all new. I would think for 40 sq. ft, you should be able to find someone to redo it for $400 or so in labor only (doesn't include the tile and trim) if you do the demo work on the old tile and trim. It will be a hassel moving the washer and dryer though and especially if it's a gas dryer, it will be a little trickier with ensuring you don't create a gas leak. But this totally sounds like a DIY job. I would tackle this in a heartbeat.

The grout wasn't sealed, but it looks like I have a future project. The more I look at it I can see that only removing will fix it. For me, the big hasell will be to remove the tiles and that concrete he put under it. Do I have to remove that also ? (The dryer is electrical, no problem there).


Thanks

yes, you need to remove the mortar that sticks the tiles to the floor. Hopefully, the mortar will be stuck to the pieces of tile you rip up rather than the subfloor. Actually, removing the old tiles is not quite as bad as you'd think. Best way is to use a sledge hammer and chisel and pound at the grout lines. Once you bust up an edge of a tile, it gets loose and if you can get underneath it with a shovel or some flat bladed tool, you can work up several pieces in big chunks rather than tiny little pieces. You will definitely want to wear safety goggles as you will get tiny pieces of sharp ceramic flying everywhere. You want to get all of the previous mortar and crap off the subfloor so that the subfloor is as smooth and flat as possible. Is the subfloor concrete or wood? If it is wood and the surface becomes heavily pitted or damaged from the process of removing the old tiles, you may want to consider installing a new piece of 1/4" hardy backer (cement board) over the subfloor but if this raises the floor too much that the adjacent flooring in the next room is not flush with the room you're working in, then that wouldn't be a good idea. If it's concrete, then you would not need to do this.