Help please+advice on tile grouting in new bathroom

[allthefives]

Hi all! As an ordinary customer (not professional tiler!) am I glad to have found this forum! Some advice please :- we are having new bathroom installed; it's almost finished, white tiles on floor and walls, except for one which is mosaic tiled. It's a kind of cross between a wet room and a walk-in shower; have a shower screen but not having a bath installed.

Anyway, shower part went in about two weeks ago and work proceeding round it. I am doing best to keep it clean bearing in mind that I am very pleased with it and work is still continuing as we are having upstairs and downstairs toilets done too.

The bathroom guy suggested using a squeegee for the floor and a shower spray to keep it nice. I have been using Lakeland daily Shower Cleaner and also Lakeland Scrub Free. however I've noticed that grouting is starting to get discoloured/slightly limescaled. I've tried Viakal and scrubbing with an old toothbrush without any joy, and was wondering about scrubbing grouting with neat bleach next but it seems too soon after installation to start with this.

Any advice please? Thanks so much.

 

[allthefives]

Can I just add that I just scrubbed the tile floor with the Lakeland Scrub Free stuff and a scrubbing brush - the floor isn't actually dirty and the grouting is still discoloured which makes me wonder what it is. Any questions I need to be asking the bathroom guy (he is the boss but he actually has a tiler who does the work who didn't understand why there is a problem.....)

 

[Deleted member 9966]

don't use bleach on it! that might make your situation worse at this stage.

you need to find out who manufactured the grout that was used in your shower room. and also, have you been using the shower during the last 2 weeks? sometimes when grout turns orange, it's because it's mixing with the chemicals in shampoos and shower gels and getting a bad reaction.

 

[Rich]

How long after the grouting was finished did you clean the floor? If the floor was cleaned before the grout had completely cured it will cause the grout to discolor.

 

[Mike]

don't use bleach on it! that might make your situation worse at this stage.

you need to find out who manufactured the grout that was used in your shower room. and also, have you been using the shower during the last 2 weeks? sometimes when grout turns orange, it's because it's mixing with the chemicals in shampoos and shower gels and getting a bad reaction.

the grout in my shower discoloured a few weeks ago (went reddish) and i thought i'd have to re-grout but it's now gone back to white, may be worth giving it a bit of time and change your shampoo :lol:

 

[allthefives]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. I now realise that the grout isn't limescaled, nor was it dirty. We did start using the shower as soon as we were told we could, which was on a Saturday morning when all installation was completed on the Friday. And I must have gently cleaned the floor some time that day after all family had used shower.

Spoke to bathroom guy who is baffled. Says that they use top end quality grout (don't know what the make is). He said that maybe I cleaned things too vigorously! I told him that I do not suffer from OCD! He is going to scrape out some of the stained grouting and replace.

How do you know which chemicals in shower gels and shampoo could cause discolouration?

And should he have used a grout sealer? Don't think anything like this was used.

Thanks once again. It's just niggling at me - it's all cost lots and I want it to be just right!

 

[Rich]

And so you should. Could you find out what brand the grout was? A grout sealer is a good idea but if I was using white grout in a wet area I would use an epoxy grout.

 

[doug boardley]

personally I think the shower was used too soon after grouting, if possible I always ask my customers to leave it at least a week if possible to cure.

 

[allthefives]

I will ask him tomorrow what brand the grout was. Appreciate the idea of not using it for a week after grouting, Doug, but at that stage it was the end of the third week without a bathroom (we had to make alternative arrangements for showers)! Oh dear, we wanted to do our kitchen next year which would be a much bigger job, and the word 'tile' is starting to bring me out in a nervous rash!:lol:

 

[DHTiling]

Most grouts are 2 weeks before submitting to wetting like showers etc.. you could have damaged pigments,, but hard to tell without seeing it.