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I have problems with the grout on the walls and floor

Posted by Suhail Shaukat, on
I have had a wet room fitted about 2 years ago. Impey tray former was used with the impey membrane. The tiles were fitted by a professional tiler. I have problems with the grout on the walls and floor in the shower area. The wall tiles has started to become loose from the wall and have become darker as they have become wet from the back. A few of the floor tiles have become loose and the grout is breaking into pieces and coming out. The floor has been re grouted twice using a BAL grout and an additive suggested by BAL technical help desk. Still the grout has broken away. I'm at a loss what to do. My research leads me to getting the tiles grouted using an epoxy based grout. Can any one advise me if this will cure my grout problem "forever" A suggestion for the wall tiles has been to have a glass sheet fitted on all the walls in the shower area, I like this idea, as the glass can be coloured to match my colour scheme. Are there any downsides to doing this?

Karl Hockless

Hi there Suhail. From my experience, grout starts to crack and break up when the tiles next to it are loose. You have mentioned in your post that some of the wall tiles and floor tiles are loose. This, therefore I would suggest is the root cause of your problem. No amount of re-grouting will correct this. SAFETY! If tiles are loose I would urge you to get this sorted straight away. Also keep any children out of the room. Can you imagine what a tile falling off the wall and hitting a child on the head may do? It sounds to me like the whole lot need to come off and be re-done. I would: a) Get the original tiler back to inspect the job. b) Look at getting an independent tiler round for a second opinion c) Find out what adhesive was used and speak to their technical people. You must also find out what primer was used. If it was PVA this might be part if the problem as this is not recognised as a correct tile adhesive primer although lots of people still use it. I hope this helps to point you n the right direction, Karl

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