I have just finished laying 20x20 Porcelain tiles on my bath room up-stair.
Should I use grout or caulk between the Bath Tub and the new
Porcelain tiles? TIA

On Mar 30, 2:45*am, "pkmicro" wrote:
I have just finished laying 20x20 Porcelain tiles on my bath room up-stair..
Should I use grout or caulk between the Bath Tub and the new
Porcelain tiles? *TIA

Caulk. There will be some unavoidable movement between the two, due
to temp differences, tub weight changing with water, etc. Caulk
flexes, grout cracks.

pkmicro wrote:

I have just finished laying 20x20 Porcelain tiles on my bath room up-stair.
Should I use grout or caulk between the Bath Tub and the new
Porcelain tiles? TIA



Caulk designed for wet locations. Fill the tub with water, then
caulk.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

On 2008-03-30, pkmicro wrote:

Should I use grout or caulk between the Bath Tub and the new
Porcelain tiles? TIA

That depends. Caulk is flexible, which is good at the joint between
two dissimilar materials that may move differently. Grout, in my
experience, is good because it doesn't support mildew growth as much
as caulk does.

So if your bathtub is acrylic or steel, it will move too much for
grout, so use the caulk. If your bathtub is cast iron, which is
pretty rigid like your tile, you can use grout, and it will be easier
to clean. If it develops a few small cracks, you can seal those with
a very tiny amount of caulk--don't cover the surface of the grout with
caulk, or it will defeat the advantage of the grout.

Cheers, Wayne

"pkmicro" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
I have just finished laying 20x20 Porcelain tiles on my bath room up-stair.
Should I use grout or caulk between the Bath Tub and the new
Porcelain tiles? TIA

Something flexible and mold resistant.
I use GE Silicone bathtub caulk. Make sure the cartridge is fresh - shelf
life is short, and the use-by date is on the base of the cartridge.
Also, if you haven't practiced applying silicone grout to a seam, do some
practice on a 90-degree inside corner of scrap.
You actually need only a fairly thin bead, but it should be finished flat,
using slant-cut nozzle, so it doesn't bulge out and look ropy.
Roger

wrote:
On Mar 30, 2:45�am, "pkmicro" wrote:
I have just finished laying 20x20 Porcelain tiles on my bath room up-stair.
Should I use grout or caulk between the Bath Tub and the new
Porcelain tiles? �TIA

Caulk. There will be some unavoidable movement between the two, due
to temp differences, tub weight changing with water, etc. Caulk
flexes, grout cracks.

That answer seems very logical, but having observed many bathrooms, it
seems that the usual practice is to use grout and it works fine. I
used grout along the steel tub when tiling my bathroom and it has
never cracked or separated. And it avoids the problems with caulk:
one, a good smooth caulk bead is hard to get for a DIYer, and two, it
seems no matter what kind you get it supports mold eventually. -- H