Huge wrote:

I'm presently grouting the tiles in our bathroom, and I'm having trouble
cleaning the grout off the tile surface.

The tiles are 33cmx33cm 'Peronda' with a glazed surface, made to look
like mosaic, with the tessarae about 1.5 cm square. I'm using a made-up
powdered grout recommended by the tile supplier, with a flexibility
additive (which looks and smells like PVA). The grout is great stuff,
sticks well and so on.

I'm applying it with a rubber faced grouting float, then scraping the
excess off with the edge of the float, then cleaning the surface of the
tiles with a sponge after the grout has gone off slightly.

The only problem is that this leaves a film of grout on the tile surface
which seems to be very hard to remove. It sets long before the grout
in the tile grooves, so sponging it off doesn't work, and when it dries,
the tiles (which are the colour of vanilla ice cream) have a thin film
of dried grout over the surface.

I can clean it off with a nylon pan scourer, but it's bloody hard work and
there's square metres and metres of this stuff.

What am I doing wrong?

I would guess it is the additive that is bonding the film to the
tiles... perhaps you should use less.

Last lot I did, I found that if I did what you describe (i.e. squeegy
most of with the rubber faced float, then sponge), leave it for a day or
so and the remaining residue wiped clean off with a bit of kitchen roll.

What happens if you try a bit without the additive?

--
Cheers,

John.

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