Removing Grout from Mosaics - Tile Advice

[Bringatowel]

Hi All,

Weve had one of our contractors install some small hexagon mosaics recently and have just had an angry phone call about the condition of the grout.

Not sure of the cause, but this is what it looks like - pretty shocking. The gappy patch in the middle is probably the worst of it

Digging out the grout manually would take forever (its about 5m2 of backsplash and each hex is 23mm wide) so looking for alternatives
Have looked into various cement residue removers, but cant find anything that says it will fully remove grout - do you think it might atleast soften it so it can be shaped and reset? Or soften it enough to easily remove then overgrout?
Would it be easier to just rip all the tiles off the wall and start afresh?

Thanks

 

[Andy Allen]

I'd rip it off and start again....

 

[ray coates]

try grouting over this abortion with a fast drying grout like bal micro balm use a new grout pad and do only a small patch at a time get all grout of area and move on then polish off with a dry pad only wash at the end thats what i would do.it looks bad due to grout been to wet for the mosaics and been draged out when grouting. its an easy solution.
pay my expences and ill come out and fix it

 

[Valentin]

Hi! As I can see from the picture, the grout overfill the gap just in a small area.

If this is true, I would take a bit of the grout off, in the area affected, then grout again all the wall with a thin grout, something made for 2-4 mm, to make good grip with the cracks in the old grout

 

[widler]

Was it mapei ? Looks sandy and over washed

 

[Andy Allen]

Was it mapei ? Looks sandy and over washed

grout 3000....

 

[Higgz]

I grouted something like that recently, I would rather rip that out and start again.

 

[Bringatowel]

Tried a few chemicals, like mapei pulicol 2000 and phosphoric acid - which softened the grout up a little, but still a mission and a half.
Think we've now got it to an ok standard - far from perfect, but acceptable