Grout turned out to be the most problematic for me. I made the mistake of mixing it up with water – which was one of the options offered on the bag. This was all fine and well for most of the floor, but the lip I constructed between the tiled area and the wood floor didn’t fair so well. That will be a blog post all to itself, though. Suffice it to say that in the future I will always use latex.
First the area has to be cleaned up a bit. Anyplace where the mortar sticks up has to be scraped out to make room for the grout, which really does need at least a quarter of an inch. Luckily the mortar crumbles nicely under a well-placed crowbar. I think even a screw driver would work to remove the excess. You do have to apply pressure gently so you don’t knock the tiles loose, but it isn’t very difficult.
I managed to clear off all the spots in less than half an hour. I wouldn’t have had to do it at all if I’d had the foresight to use the little plastic spacer things to even out the mortar before it dried. I did that in the closet area – running the spacers back and forth along the tiles as I set them, but more because I was struggling with the spacing than because I knew what I was doing.
If you’re using water you have to be very conscientious about the proportions. The wrong amount – either too much OR too little – will result in grout that doesn’t want to stay put when it dries. When I followed the directions on the bag closely I got something that reminded me a little of pie crust, only not as sticky.
I glopped this over the gaps between the tiles. If the tiles weren’t so big I would have simply covered them entirely. As it was, I could easily avoid putting the grout in the middles, which saved some work later. That decorative edging I just covered completely.
Then you’re supposed to work the grout down between the tiles with a floater. I don’t know why I had envisions a smooth, sweeping motion with the floater would do the trick. Hah! I ended up using the edges of the floater to jamb the grout into the gaps. A soft cake spatula might have worked as well. By the time I was done with the entire floor, the poor floater was showing some wear and tear.
This was a time consuming process, which was no fun when the kids kept wanting to go in and out by the front door. After the project was done, the kids were so used to taking the back door, they kept doing it. Mind you it only took a few hours to do the actual work, but then the grout had to dry over night.
Then comes the clean up – wiping off the excess grout with damp rags. It spent a good chunk of my afternoon on this. Every time I thought I was done I’d let it dry only to see a sheen of grout dust and have to do it again. By the end of the day there could be no question I got it all, but a fair amount of the grout came up too, and anyplace where the mortar hadn’t been taken down far enough had to be re-done. That added a day to the project as the new grout had to dry. Next time I expect to be able to skip this step and save a day.
Yes, I am going to do it again. Why do you ask? *innocent blinking and befuddled smile*
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