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Hi. I'm afraid I'm not allowed to post links or pictures so you'll have to visit these URL's manually.
I have a room tiled with these:
i.imgur.com/Srt7Zu9.jpg
They're 150x150 quarry tiles and as you can see they're not square on the edges but have a profile. A lip which varies in depth and structure, in fact - see the top-left tile for an example of this. I'm having a lot of trouble grouting them, so far a lot of it is looking like this:
i.imgur.com/C9ZsVRT.jpg
i.imgur.com/JI5CPdn.jpg
i.imgur.com/ySkQqqP.jpg
Which is just awful. The best technique I've found so far involves using a wet finger to very carefully pack grout into/onto the lips all around, especially at the 4-way corners where tile-to-tile unevenness is more pronounced. Then, for the first sponge down I have to use a small washing-up sponge and carefully wipe around the edges of every tile to cut the grout back to just where I want it - this takes me a very long time. Wiping across the tiles with a large sponge, as you would do normally, just pulls the very thin layer of grout back off the lip. I tried leaving it for a couple of hours before wiping and it still happens, and I daren't go longer or I may end up struggling later to get the grout off the tiles.
Questions:
> Why are these tiles shaped in this way?
> Am I supposed to be grouting only up to the lower level and not right to the top surface? I tried that and it was even harder to get right.
> Does anyone have a good approach to this job that will take hours rather than days?
Thanks very much,
I have a room tiled with these:
i.imgur.com/Srt7Zu9.jpg
They're 150x150 quarry tiles and as you can see they're not square on the edges but have a profile. A lip which varies in depth and structure, in fact - see the top-left tile for an example of this. I'm having a lot of trouble grouting them, so far a lot of it is looking like this:
i.imgur.com/C9ZsVRT.jpg
i.imgur.com/JI5CPdn.jpg
i.imgur.com/ySkQqqP.jpg
Which is just awful. The best technique I've found so far involves using a wet finger to very carefully pack grout into/onto the lips all around, especially at the 4-way corners where tile-to-tile unevenness is more pronounced. Then, for the first sponge down I have to use a small washing-up sponge and carefully wipe around the edges of every tile to cut the grout back to just where I want it - this takes me a very long time. Wiping across the tiles with a large sponge, as you would do normally, just pulls the very thin layer of grout back off the lip. I tried leaving it for a couple of hours before wiping and it still happens, and I daren't go longer or I may end up struggling later to get the grout off the tiles.
Questions:
> Why are these tiles shaped in this way?
> Am I supposed to be grouting only up to the lower level and not right to the top surface? I tried that and it was even harder to get right.
> Does anyone have a good approach to this job that will take hours rather than days?
Thanks very much,
