Shower Floor Grout & Efflorescence

11 years ago

Do you have white cruddy stuff in the grout lines of your shower floor or even perhaps in your tile ? This is mineral content called efflorescence and comes from accumulated moisture and water under your shower floor tiles. Mineral content will rise and come through to your shower floor through the grout lines or any crack or gap in the tiles. This usually cannot be remediate by cleaning and even if cleaning removed it, it will come back fairly quickly. In really bad situations the shower floor will need to be replaced. Sometimes this can be avoided by regrouting with an extended period of drying time to allow for moisture and water buildup to dry out. The cause of the problem is generally clogged weep holes that did not allow any water in your shower pan to drain out. Here is a shower floor that was a really bad case of efflorescence in NJ.

Featured Answer

PRO

TERSO MR®

8 years ago

Homeowners learn more about what we are doing to permanently preserve showers, making them simple to care for afterwards. No superficial cleaning, no amount of sealer or caulking will preserve showers once structure settling occurs. Visit our website see our systems and methods for timeless marble, natural stone, and porcelain preservations https://www.tersomr.com/

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Comments (8)

User
11 years ago
So how did you fix it? I have it in the family room. I think I cleaned with too much water prior to sealing and I need to fix it.
PRO
Grout Works of Central NJ
Original Author
11 years ago
If you think that their is no water under the grout rather just under the seal you put on the grout the solution should be easier. First use a stripper and a brush to remove the seal you applied. Afterward use an efflorescence cleaner and a brush to remove the efflorescence. They are generally acid based. Then rinse thoroughly with a small amount of stripper when you rinse it to neutralize the acid. Then dry it. This will probably resolve the issue. If the efflorescence hardened and will not clean off you may need to scrape it. If it ate away at the grout you may need to regrout those areas. Hopefully you will not need these additional steps. If you wish to seal after let it dry properly before sealing at least 24 hours. You may be better off using a, water based penetrating sealer like aqua mix gold that will not inhibit the moisture and reduce the risk of future efflorescence. Good Luck and keep me posted ! More shower tips on the article section of my website at
http://www.groutworksnj.com and click on articles.
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User
11 years ago
Thanks!
PRO
Grout Works of Central NJ
Original Author
11 years ago
A word of caution. If your tile is marble you cannot use any acid based cleaned.
Lindsey Holzberger
11 years ago
How long should the shower dry out before re-grouting? When is it necessary to scrape up the tile and re-lay entirely?
PRO
Grout Works of Central NJ
Original Author
11 years ago
Good questions. Some things are beyond the scope of an article as their are numerous factors that have to be taken into account. That is why there are professionals like us who do this type of work. However the basic idea is to evaluate where the problem is stemming from and to what extent of a moisture issue there is. Signs like leaks, loose tiles can be ominous. We always test with a moisture meter as well to see how high of a reading there is as well as take into account a number of other things.
Yve Love
8 years ago
Our tile has only been in for 6 months and we are having huge problems with efflorescence on the wall tiles. is that an indicator that the tile person did not install it correctly and that it is not waterproof?