View Single Post
  #22   Report Post  
Posted to uk.d-i-y
Jón Fairbairn Jón Fairbairn is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 33
Default How to do professional grout

On 2010-11-02, djc wrote:
On 02/11/10 16:56, Tim Watts wrote:
On 02/11/10 15:15, Tabby wrote:
On Nov 2, 2:28 pm, Edex@directory wrote:
Use a rubber edged grout spreader. [...]

That's how I did it - do a m2 at a time or so and keep an eye that it is
going well (ie no missing bits).

Then after 1-2m2 depending on your speed and the grout type (I'm basing
this off mix it yourself Mapei Keracolor) it will be firm enough, but
not too hard to sponge off.

Now take a bucket of fresh water and a nice big cuboid tiler's sponge,
wipe gently with a slightly wet but not dripping sponge *on the flat*
(ie not at an angle) and using several passes and rinses leave the tile
face clean ish (no lumps, but haze is fine). Depending how long you do
this or how wide your joints are, you can control how much you recess
the grout line.

Leave the haze - it dry polishes off later.

Note - this is for regular grout - epoxy would be a different kettle of
fish (I expect).


Epoxy is much the same: use a stiff heavy-duty grout-spreader, epoxy is
harder to spread and you probably want to work a smaller area at a time. To
clean off use a scotch-brite type scouring-pad and water in addition to the
sponge.


But be sure to clean it off before the epoxy cures
completely. Once it's properly cured it's really hard work
to clean off. It might be easier if grout resist is applied
before grouting, but I've never tried that.

--
Jón Fairbairn
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2010-09-14)