zxcvbob wrote:
I'm tiling the bathroom-from-hell this week while Wife and DD are out of
town. The walls are 4" cheap ceramic wall tiles. No problem. The
floors are fancy porcelain things from Italy that look like stone. They
have a lot of texture to them. I laid them several months ago and just
didn't get around to grouting until now.

The grout is a latex-modified sanded grout, with portland cement in it.
I'm applying it with a rubber-soled trowel, just like a did the wall
tiles (unsanded grout). Here's the problem; it dries and sticks tight
to the texture on top of the tiles before the grout lines are hardened
enough to work. How do I clean the tops of the tiles? The damp sponged
was almost worthless. I've been scrubbing them one at a time with a
damp sacrificial dish towel, but it's taking forever.

I only mixed enough grout for a little over a quarter of the bathroom,
and I started under the commode. I've got it all scrubbed now, and in a
little while I'll need to clean the tops again.

When I grout the next section (then wait ~45 minutes so the grout lines
are ready to work) is there a better way to get stubborn grout off the
top of textured glazed tiles? How about that little stainless steel
toothbrush I bought from Harbor Freight? Or am I already doing it the
"easy" way. (I would mix a little phosphoric acid with the rinse water,
but I don't trust myself to keep every drop off of the grout lines.

I've got enough done that I can reset the toilet. I don't think I'm
gonna do another section of floor tonight. I still have other things I
can work on.

Thanks,
Bob

Your tile sounds exactly like ours, done in 2001. Contractor put it in,
so all was done but final cleaning and sealing. Contractor used a flat
sponge...that is necessary to keep the sponge out of the grout line.
Our tile has a slight round off of the edge, and grout doesn't go higher
than the flat side of the tile edge - I watched the entire installation
but can't recall the details of what they did. You might want to shape
the grout line with a finger, after troweling. The next step is keeping
a bucket of clean water on hand and wringing out the sponge and changing
the water however often you need to keep it real clean. When it looks
clean, wipe once more. We did a vinegar/water wipe-off, per
contractor's instructions, after ? 24 hrs? Don't even think about
muriatic acid of you have a touch of haze - we used grout same color as
the tile, so if there is any haze, we can't see it. Our contractor was
wonderful, solved some tricky issues and am glad we did not do
DIY...told us not to walk bare-footed so's our little toes didn't mar
the grout before it set )

I regrouted a shower stall a while back, no problem but those are small
grout lines.

Good luck.