I have a white grout questions too. As most of you know, I'm grout challenged. Does it go bad (or is it user error)? I just stired a batch yesterday, and it was really really gritty. I want a smoother finish specially for edges. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Was the grout sanded or unsanded?

Needless to say sanded grout will be grittier.

I've heard a year is the most you "should" keep cementious products like grout and thinset.

Sanded. It's about 6 months old Polyblend white. Thanks for your reply.

I found a nifty cement discussion forum...here's a 'shelf life' discussion:

Here is a link that might be useful: Shelf life of cement & grout

Geez, that's interesting. I have bags of grout which are more than a year old. I keep them in an old bar fridge which doesn't work anymore. The door of the fridge is closed all the time since I have pets around the house and I sure don't want them getting into the stuff. It's considered a cool dry place. Hope it doesn't all go to pot! I actually used some on the buoys and it seems like it didn't skip a beat.

Thanks MM. Love that guy talk! LOL! BTW this "bright white" grout I have also looks dirty white to me. Probably a white acrylic paint wash wouldn't hurt.

One of my books suggests mixing sanded and unsanded grout if you don't like the grainy feel/look of sanded. Course you have to buy a lot of grout then. I've had my grout a long time and haven't noticed any lumps. Made a big mistake leaving thinset on a garage floor too long.

Just as a matter of course I always run it dry through a sieve before I use it. That way I get out any clumps BEFORE I mix it. This works for thinset too, and if they don't break apart and sift easily, I know the thinset is no good. I DID have some Laticrete grout that sifted just fine, but was bad nonetheless. It is white grout on a black tile countertop, and if you wipe it with a wet rag, it still leaves a white film on the black, nearly a year after I did the counter. I just keep my plants on this so haven't gone back and scraped it out to redo it yet, but probably will someday. By the way, I think it was called Bright White, and it really is. I also have some Mapei "White" which seems truly white to me. Here's the countertop with the Laticrete:

Close-up, where you can see how I tried to cover the grout with acrylic paint, but the paint peels off the grout too (never cleaned up the edges since it didn't work anyway):

Ladyronnie I have the same problem in my mst bath shower, 10yrs and it still bleeds!. black grout/white tiles. Did you seal your countertop? I've always suspected that our contractor never did.

{{!gwi}}