Browse Forums Building A New House Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 21Jul 31, 2010 12:19 pm Maybe slightly off-grout, but what about floor tiling that has the "natural" cement-ey colour "grout" (or is it really the cement / screed)?! Should that also be sealed?? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: cost to seal grout? and is it worth it? 22Jul 31, 2010 1:00 pm shellb78 kek We have dark tiles/light grout in our bathrooms and laundry and it's still perfect after 21 months. That might be because I sealed it. Sorry, don't have any pics... It's easy to DIY, although I don't know if I'd fancy doing large living areas. Kek- did you DIY yours? If so what did you use?? Can you also do grout on shower walls? Yep, I did it myself before we moved in - we had light coloured grout in our old house and the living areas ended up a nasty grey colour after a few years, and I didn't care to repeat the experience. I sealed the showers and did the floors as well and it was easy. I think I did two coats, from memory. The product was one I picked up from Bunnings.... can't remember the brand now, but I applied it with a small brush. If you're doing a large area, I recommend knee pads. Depending on your tiles, you may be better off just going over the whole area; tiles and grout. This may have been it: http://www.suresealsealants.com.au/tile_sealer_1litre.html It was a similar product anyway. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 23Jul 31, 2010 2:15 pm i have a guy coming out from the other side of melb on tue to look and quote. Looks like it will cost approx 2K i dont know if this will be worth it! On wone had i see it as 1k to seal the whole house and 1k to re color the whole house..... We'll see Even if the grout color isnt an option i think i would def pay 1k to properly seal the whole hosue to pretect the way it is now, even though its still not what i wanted it to look like SO i guess the question is....1k either way, or do i pay the extra k and hope i get the look/clour/finish i wanted Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 24Jul 31, 2010 3:22 pm You have a new floor. It's false economy to cut costs here. You'll pay and regret and pay and regret for years to come. Have it properly colour sealed. Anything less is not going to give you the same benefits. Kek, was that sealer you used pretty pongy? I think its a xylene based solvent sealer. NOT what I would recommend. Anyone using xylene sealers should be quite careful about the toxic fumes, especially when working for extended periods. Ash. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 25Jul 31, 2010 4:24 pm We were at Point Cook today looking for ideas. I took the opportunity to pay close attention to display houses with floor tiles. Don't know whether they were sealed or not. But they get a lot of foot traffic and seemed clean. Is it better to save the cost of sealing and pay a professional to steam clean once a year??????? The other question is does the sealer peel off over time or dis colour??????? If it has a strong smell as mentioned above its probably toxic. I personally don't want to handle it or walk on it if thats the case?????????????? Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 26Jul 31, 2010 4:48 pm Dove We were at Point Cook today looking for ideas. I took the opportunity to pay close attention to display houses with floor tiles. Don't know whether they were sealed or not. But they get a lot of foot traffic and seemed clean. Is it better to save the cost of sealing and pay a professional to steam clean once a year??????? The other question is does the sealer peel off over time or dis colour??????? If it has a strong smell as mentioned above its probably toxic. I personally don't want to handle it or walk on it if thats the case?????????????? Good questions Dove! Display homes are just that...DISPLAY homes, so they are fairly new and maintained to be well presented. I would suggest NOT a good indicator of real life and cicumstances. Best to clean regularly instead of sealing? NO! Really.... if a new floor has colour-sealed grout and is maintained correctly, it may be many years before you even think about getting it cleaned. I do t&g cleaning. Costs to clean tiles & grout is normally somewhere around $5.50 per square metre. Going through regular cycles of soiling and cleaning will be costly, unnecessary and ultimately not good for the grout. Believe me... PREVENTION is the key here. Why spent $5000 over the life of the floor restoring it, when you could have spent $1500 from new instead, and enjoy cleaner floors year round? One good reason is that grout is porous and can readily become stained. Cleaning will usually not remove stains from grout. A colour seal provides excellent resistance to staining. Sealer peel off? Most clear sealers are penetrating sealers, and so normally don't come off. They degrade over time, and become less effective, but they don't peel off. Colour sealers however are topical coatings. They normally will not peel or come off. It is possible if the surface is not prepared properly before colour-sealing, or if there is a lot of water trying to escape from the substrate. One area that is a bit "iffy" is shower floors. If there is a lot of moisture beneath these tiles and they are colour-sealed, its possible the sealer may lift. Again, this is a matter of having it done properly. I have colour-sealed my shower floor and its fine after a few years of constant use. Of course any sealing job is only as good and effective as the products used and the workmanship of those applying them. If all is done well, colour-sealer lasts many years, normally the life of the grout. It can become a bit soiled and discoloured, but cleans up well without strong chemicals. Ash. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 27Jul 31, 2010 5:31 pm Thanks Ash, I think I'm convinced. Can I have sealing done soon after moving in or is it something that needs to be done prior to completion of build??????? Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 28Jul 31, 2010 7:32 pm makoby donuts...what was the cost if you dont mind me asking? we have about 100sq metres so yep....a looooooot of tiles I think it was between $800-$1000 from memory, can't remember exactly, but we had budgeted around $300 so it was wayyy out of our league! this was just for 2 bathrooms and a laundry, but included all the walls as well. no idea on the square meterage, but I'd say a lot less than 100. so your estimate of $2k is probably on the money, unfortunately. "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 29Aug 01, 2010 3:33 pm royal blue....is it safe to say the floor tiles will still look brand new if i do this? Im really serious about it and have someone coming out to do a couple of samples for me. I figure with the grout I have i would easily pay 1k to just try and protect them, so it may be worth the extra to get the look i was after to begin with? Is $2000 really going to be money well spent? And also, I have seen sooooooo many pics on the net from people going dark to light, but NONE that have done what I want to do? I would like to see some pics and just cant! Thanks Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 30Aug 01, 2010 5:01 pm Here is a tiled floor that I was in the process of colour-sealing. It was about 20 years old and very soiled. Despite through cleaning, the grout looked pretty patchy and ugly (as seen in foreground). I colour-sealed it using a colour that closely matched the tiles. The affect is that it makes the grout lines much less noticeable. I generally recommend having grout close to the tile colour. It often actually makes the room appear larger when the 'grid affect' is diminished this way. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Its best for you to choose the colour you want, and certainly worth it. You can see other images on various websites of those that do colour-sealing. Or Grout Perfect has some images you could look at. But lets get real here.... NOTHING is going to keep your floors looking like new forever. But with proper care and maintenance, you can enjoy a floor that is easy to care for and continues looking good for many years. Most probs people have with tiled floors is from incorrect maintenance or simply abuse! BTW I do NOT recommend steam mops in most cases. Ash. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 32Aug 01, 2010 5:20 pm Here are a number of businesses in Victoria http://www.aquamix.com.au/technicians/a ... bourne.php Scroll down to see all operators in the area. Also you could contact Grout Perfect Australia at www.groutperfect.net.au to find a local applicator. Ash. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 33Aug 01, 2010 5:27 pm royalblue Here is a tiled floor that I was in the process of colour-sealing. It was about 20 years old and very soiled. Despite through cleaning, the grout looked pretty patchy and ugly (as seen in foreground). I colour-sealed it using a colour that closely matched the tiles. The affect is that it makes the grout lines much less noticeable. I generally recommend having grout close to the tile colour. It often actually makes the room appear larger when the 'grid affect' is diminished this way. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Its best for you to choose the colour you want, and certainly worth it. You can see other images on various websites of those that do colour-sealing. Or Grout Perfect has some images you could look at. But lets get real here.... NOTHING is going to keep your floors looking like new forever. But with proper care and maintenance, you can enjoy a floor that is easy to care for and continues looking good for many years. Most probs people have with tiled floors is from incorrect maintenance or simply abuse! BTW I do NOT recommend steam mops in most cases. Ash. Also, (hope I'm not hijacking) what do we do about a cracked tile? There is a small area of about 50cm piece size that is cracked into 2 pieces. It's in a high traffic area where the tiles meet the carpet. Any ideas? (note, unable to replace the whole tile as don't know where it came from) Many thanks Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 34Aug 01, 2010 5:32 pm Spending money colour sealing the place you move from may not be well spent. Any of those listed in my post above should be able to professionally clean the tiles when you move out. That should bring them up well enough. Got a pic of that cracked tile? It is best replaced, but you will need a matching tile. There are other patch up repairs that can be done with epoxy, which may help disguise the crack, but it depends on a few things. Ash. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 36Aug 01, 2010 6:14 pm well ive pretty much made my mind up that i will get this done. A bit dissapointed that im needing to do something this extreme just cos i dont like the grout color, but i also know in 6 months time im going to be kicking myself wishing that I had just done it to begin with. I just hope hope hope that the tiles still look just as new as they do now and not obvious that Ive done this to them I know they wont keep 'brand new ' forever, but it would nice to think that they will be a lot less maintenance for a few years. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 37Aug 01, 2010 6:16 pm Hmmm, it is quite conspicuous in that position. Ideally, try getting a matching tile, and have a tiler remove and replace the tile. But then when it is regrouted around the tile, the grout will look different, no matter how well the grout is matched. If you did go that way, colour-sealing would blend in the old and new grout for a perfect finish, but all that would add up to $$$$. A simple repair might be possible to blend it in, Get a little 2 part epoxy pack from Bunnings. You can get thumb size packs with all you need. Also some coloured stuff to match (cream). Mix the 2 parts together, mix a bit of colour in well, and apply with a toothpick to the cracks. Let fully dry, then shave off any sitting high with a razor blade. Fiddly, but can give good results. BUT FIRSTLY, you must make sure the broken bits are not floating. If they are loose, you will need to carefully take them out and reset them with tile cement. After dried, proceed with the epoxy repair of cracks. And another way to sort it.... have a carpet trim fitted under the edge of the carpet which accepts a vinyl edge capping. The vinyl will at least partially cover the cracked tile. Ash. Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 38Aug 01, 2010 7:17 pm makoby well ive pretty much made my mind up that i will get this done. A bit dissapointed that im needing to do something this extreme just cos i dont like the grout color, but i also know in 6 months time im going to be kicking myself wishing that I had just done it to begin with. I just hope hope hope that the tiles still look just as new as they do now and not obvious that Ive done this to them I know they wont keep 'brand new ' forever, but it would nice to think that they will be a lot less maintenance for a few years. Many thanks Ash for your detailed reply. I'll weigh up the options I'll definitely be going with the colour sealer when we leave - I think the grout is beyond repair it is so stained. Thanks for sharing your expertise Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 39Aug 01, 2010 8:21 pm royalblue, i asked my tiler about sealing and this is the stuff they sell, they dont apply it only sell it. Do you know if its anygood? It's not a colour sealer. With a colour sealer, do you use a brush and basically paint it onto the grout? Oops, heres the link, http://www.robertsdesigns.com.au/sealers/superseal.html Re: cost to seal grout? rough cost for whole house 40Aug 01, 2010 10:45 pm InPakenham royalblue, i asked my tiler about sealing and this is the stuff they sell, they dont apply it only sell it. Do you know if its anygood? It's not a colour sealer. With a colour sealer, do you use a brush and basically paint it onto the grout? Oops, heres the link, http://www.robertsdesigns.com.au/sealers/superseal.html Sorry, I know nothing of that product, but that doesn't mean anything in itself. Its description is it is a solvent based clear penetrating sealer. I find it a bit disturbing though, that it is an aerosol and uses such solvents. That sounds like an OH&S minefield to me! For this reason alone, I would say avoid it. Chances are, the stuff was sold at the counter of the tile supply place as an 'add-on'. He buys a carton and makes a few $ from each can he sells. He probably has little knowledge or interest in performance. All this is speculatory of course, but why not make up a scenario if I don't know? Yes, colour sealer can be applied manually by a number of methods, including some I've done with an old toothbrush. After it has had sufficient time to dry on the grout, the residue is cleaned off the actual tiles. Here's one I did a year or so ago. I made up a colour to match these bathroom tiles. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I need to replace the worn mohair seal on my sliding window, but I can't get access to the end to slide the old one out & push the new one in. I could probably rip the old… 0 5177 4 14259 Thanks splashers, that makes sense. The waterproofing guy used this Davco product, I will raise the issue with builder and hopefully get resolved with him - if not… 2 12884 |