grout color too light: unglazed 1' hex floor

19 years ago

I have a American Olean 1" hex tile unglazed white floor and shower floor, and AO glossy white subways on the shower walls. I used Laticrete Silver Shadow grout, and unfortunately I'm disappointed: I think it's too light and doesn't show off the great patterns in the tile enough. The subway walls actually look fine, but I'm really pretty disappointed with floor. I guess I wasn't thinking that I like the look of a classic old hex floor once it's OLD; i.e., after the grout is dirty and dark! I have searched here and learned about the grout colorants, and I'm not sure I want to go to that trouble, but I would like to get all the facts about the process. I think I have only read about using the grout colorants on glazed tiles. Is it true it is harder to use them on unglazed tiles, because the unglazed is more porous and it's difficult to keep the colorant from discoloring the tiles? thanks for any insight you wonderful folks can give!

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Comments (8)

pirula
19 years ago
Welcome to my world.

Our grout started efflouorescing (or however you spell it), and I absolutely had to color mine because it turned completely white. I was pretty upset.

It was an incredible amount of work and yes the colorant did get into the porcelain (unglazed) tile a bit. You can't really see it unless you're down on your knees. I still think it looks way better and I'm glad I did it. It took me over 20 hours to do though, total.

Whatever you do, do only a small area at a time and wipe within a few seconds, or else. Bill Vincent recently posted a trick to help with this, but it was too late for me.

Ivette
bill_vincent
19 years ago
Unglazed tile might be just a bit more difficult, but not much, especially with the hex tile, being that it's porcelain, which isn't any more absorbant than glazed tile. Being that you've researched it, then I'm sure you've seen the thread with the directions that I've linked several times. If not, let me know, and I'll post em again.
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claybabe
18 years ago
Biiilllllll? I can't find the directions. Could ya, would ya please post em again? Thank you so much.
bill_vincent
18 years ago
Not a problem. Here you go. Refer to reply #2:

Here is a link that might be useful: Using grout colorant
claybabe
18 years ago
I don't know how you keep up with all of us, Bill, but I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
organic_donna
18 years ago
pirula,
What caused the effloresence?
Donna
pirula
18 years ago
Hi Donna,

Ugh. Well, we used a NobleSeal membrane underneath it, which is waterproof blah blah. Then the 1" hex tile was porcelain, so also impermeable. According to John Bridge and Bill Vincent, what happened was that the latex or whateverthehell from the thinset needed lots more time to evapoprate or whatever than we gave it, due to the fact that it couldn't go anywhere but through the cracks. Even though we waited about three days, it wasn't enough, and after we grouted, the stuff kept evaporating through the grout and turned it white.

I defer to the experts on how long you need to wait if you didn't use so many impermeable materials. The grout package said something like 48 hours I think. But since we did use these materials, I think we should have waited several days or even a couple of weeks. But who knew??

Oh well, it's fixed now. But man was it a pita.

Ivette
scherot
8 years ago
Bill can you please post the link again on how to use grout colorant on unglazed porcelain tile? The link is no longer there! Thank you!