
04-24-2006, 01:36 AM
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Handyman
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Roanoke, Texas
Posts: 24
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I agree with pushkins. Buy dry polymer modified grout in bags, mix the stuff with clean water in a small bucket...I like the two gallon buckets I have left over when purchasing primer or paint from a popular home improvement store. You can mix it by hand with a small square edged margin trowel, add just enough water so that the grout is about the consistency of thick cake icing or cold oatmeal. Work the grout into the joints by moving the rubber float at 45 degree angle to the grout lines, holding the float fairly flat to the floor...maybe at a 25 degree angle or so. Once the grout joints are filled, turn the trowel up to 90 degrees from the floor and rake off all the excess you can, still moving the float across the grout lines at an angle. If you haven't done this before, you might best work in small sections, say 4x4 feet at a time. If you get too far ahead of yourself, you'll either wind up with curing grout haze on your tile surface, which requires acid or major elbow grease to remove, or you'll rush cleaning the tile surface by using too much water in your cleanup sponge and the result will be splotchy, uneven grout color. Use kneepads, frequent changes of water in your 5 gal water bucket, and a new smooth hydrophilic grout sponge with rounded corners, wrung as dry as you can wring it after each rinse. And don't forget to polish off the surface of the tile with a soft cloth or cheesecloth an hour or so after your final cleanup on each section.
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