Redoing your grout

After doing a lot of testing in "Inconspicuous' areas with different products I stumbled across a process that was fairly easy to do and let me pick a different color than white plus didnt involve buying 15 pens of a magic marker LOL . Let me preface this by saying some of my grout was in bad shape. I mean it was bad enough that I was to the point of removing it, which is a huge job. First I cleaned the floors and grout thoroughly with this http://www.tecspecialty.com/co...id=68 I really scrubbed the grout lines and and rinsed them repeatedly. After they were dried I applied this http://www.mapei.com/US-EN/pro...a=102 My local store carried about 10 different colors and I picked out the one I liked. Not that there is anything wrong with white grout, I just didn't want it and I thought removal was my only option. I wish I would have taken some before/after photos so you could see the difference but it is quite the difference. Every one that has seen it has asked if I re-grouted the floors.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2vs0m89.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/2coir9d.jpg

Those look good Jeff. I did something similar for my mother as she hated the white grout in her house as well. But I did not remove any of the grout because it was still good. I found a product online that you basically "painted" the grout with. It penetrated into the grout and really looked good.

WOW jeff. that does look good. I would love to redo the grout in our house. there are some spots that are very dark compared to the rest of the floors. I woudl say I have about 800 sqft of tile. how long did yours take? how was the smell?

You could do it in a day if you are asking me about the painting option. The smell wasn't bad at all. I did a 100-200 sq/ft bathroom in a couple of hours.

It actually took longer for the cleaning part. No smell at all to the grout paint and it was a rather fast operation. I used a toothbrush to apply it and all went well. If i had to guess on just the grout redo without the cleaning. a 10x12 foyer took 2 hours from start to finish and the 12x20 kitchen took about 3+ hrs. Like I mentioned before I think the best part about this product is the selection of colors. My local store had about 7 in stock but said they could special order up to 30 colors.

thanks for this post jeff, exactly what i needed. im having a huge problem with my grout chipping in places, will the grout refresh fix any holes i have? lately ive just been thinking about busting it up and laying hardwood throughout.. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/ohwell.gif

Need to see why grout is popping first
Are tiles loose at all around that area? If so-need to to fix tile first