tile repair

[zook1shoe]

I was curious if there are any tile repair/general contractors him for some questions?

[geniussavant]

I'm not licensed, but I did all my own tile work in my house, and it came out well. What's the question? Maybe I can help.

[zook1shoe]

The shower floor has some major wear in the grout. We've gotten several quotes about repairing or replacement. The original people used unsanded grout in these 1/4-1/8" spaces.

One company told us that the grout replacement with epoxy was recommended, but might be cheaper to replace the whole floor tiles. Another said they'd cover over with a filler that'd seal the old grout for much cheaper.

here is one spot I scrapped w a grout remover
here is another
here is the supplies they left

My question is... we only plan on keeping this house another year or two.

- Would be better to just band-aid it for $200 and let the next people deal with it?
- Or replace for $1000 and just not worry about the next people requiring the replacement on closing?
- Or look into the $ to replace the floor including tiles.

There's other tiling that also needs regrouted, but I'm gonna fuck around with the old grout they left and do that myself, since it's not water related.

[geniussavant]

I had a similar issue, and did a bunch of research when I did mine. For that grout line size, you shouldn't use unsanded grout with tile. Assuming it's porcelain or ceramic tile, I'd remove as much of the grout as possible and use either sanded grout and a good grout sealer,  or if you can afford it,  epoxy grout. If you had polished stone, it would be sdifferent story as you have to worry about scratching the stone(use expos with polished stone. Epoxy grout is (much) more expensive, but won't require being resealed every 6 to 18 months. Whatever you decide,  do not use a premixed grout,  they won't stand up to the water long term.  I ended up using sanded grout on all my stuff and just reseal it once a year. 

[zook1shoe]

thanks for the advice! as you kind of suggested, i will definitely look into it more and go from there

[geniussavant]

Basically it comes down to how much money you can afford and what kind of headache you're willing to put up with.

[zook1shoe]

Exactly, thx again