Tiling a Conservatory floor some basic questions (please)

[mikehardy]

Hi Rich, it is ultracolour plus. We have grouted 1m sq at a time and left it about 60mins before cleaning off but find it very difficult to clean off, if we shorten the time too much the grout lifts out so there must be an optimum time - but what time? is this going to be 'trial and error'.

 

[White Room]

I don't leave it that long, usually about 15-20 minutes works fine for me...

 

[Rich]

As above, I bet its a right pain to get off after an hour! Around 15mins, if the grout is setting on the face of the tile but not in the joints then give it a wash off over the face but try not to dress the joint to much as you can do more harm than good. After you have loosened the grout off the face you can then go over it again to get the joints nice and smooth.

 

[Ian]

As Whitebeam for me, 60 mins is far too long especially with ultra colour plus. You'll need a good grout film remover/acid to get that off the tiles now.

 

[mikehardy]

Having completed most of the grouting there is an area which I am not happy with, this is a grout line 5mm wide and 3m long. In places the grout is uneven and I would like to remove the grout ( about week old) and re-do. can anybody suggest a method of doing this? I have used a grout removal tool but all this does is leave a scored line about 2mm wide leaving the remainder in-situ. I have found the grout characteristics (before set) vary considerably with ambient temperature.

Thanks for any tips, Mike.

 

[Rich]

If the joint is 5mm wide, you might be able to get a thin grinder disk in there to cut out the joint but be very careful not to chip the edge of the tiles. I use a Fein multimaster to cut dry grout out of joints, its brilliant. I dont know if it is the type of tool you can hire? Might be worth a look.