Friday, October 5, 2012

DIY Grout Disaster

 I have been reading about ways to renew or refresh tile grout.  After reading several tutorials and seeing successful results, I decided to try it for myself.  I have a 1989 kitchen with 1989 tile - I don't need to go into any more detail - you get the picture!  I bought this "Grout Refresh" at Lowes.  It is grout colorant and sealer.  I read the directions 3 times and started it.  You put a little bead of the stuff on the grout & rub it in with a toothbrush.

 This part was very successful!
( This is the old grout pictured below)
 After painting the stuff on
 The next step is to let it sit for 30 to 60 minutes.  Then spray it with water and clean off the tiles.  Here lies the disaster!  When I started cleaning off the tile, it pealed the color sealer right out of the grout!  DISASTER!!!  There was no options left other than scraping it ALL OFF!!!  YIKES!!!!!  Here is the garbage can with much of the stuff scraped out.
 On to plan B (which I never knew I even had!)  Scrape out the existing grout & re-grout.  My lesson learned is to just do this process first - it is not really that bad. 
 It's now 9:30 at night and I have enlisted the help of Handy Hubby!!  We got all the grout scraped out.

 We re-grouted all the counters.  Now I just have to seal them.  So, my 1 hour project turned into a 2-day project.  I should really know better!!

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