Patchy Grout and colour mismatch

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kevin_robson

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I've just grouted our bathroom in a greyish grout. They place I bought it from have me a couple of samples of the grout which I tried with scrap tiles and chose the colour I wanted - mixed with water.

I then grouted for real and also used flexible additive as it is for a floor. There are now two problems.

The colour is very patchy. its been left 24 hours so must be dry now, but is very light grey in places and very dark grey in places. This is across the whole floor i.e. not in different area of floor where I've used different batches of grout.

The second problem is the colour is much lighter than the sample I did. Its almost white looking in places. If I put the sample on top of the floor in the same place it is a completely different colour.

Is this becuase of the additive? Can batches of grout be different? Our neightbours had a similar problem where two bags of grout didn't match.

What are my options - is it easy to take up grout and start again?

Thanks
 
Did you power mix it as mixing by hand will not mix the additive very well, you should also mix the additive into the water then add the powder.

Iy will take a day or two to fully dry, where the grout is deeper it will take longer to lighten up.

The white on the surface sounds like you got it too wet when cleaning off.

JAson
 
Damn. Mixed by hand. Though it was very runny and pretty well mixed.

I also mixed the additive and water together first. Does the additive affect the colour then? Is this why the overall finished colour is different to the sample I did without additive?

What are my options then - can it easily be removed and redone?
 
Update:
I've spoken to the place I bought it from and they have spoken to the manufacturer. Apparantly they think that the adhesive has reacted with the grout to give the discolouration, and happens fairly regularly with DIY jobs.

Does this sound feasable or rubbish. The adhesive was done a week ago so would have been dry.

In terms of options, I can either rake out the grout and start again, or apparantly they do 'grout pens'. I really dont fancy raking and starting again - are these pens any good? And will the finish last?
 
Kevin,
I wasn't happy with my grout as it wasn't White enough. The only option open to me was these grout pens. The result wasn't to bad at all. You may have to give the grout a couple of coats.
 
Thanks. I've been warned that although the colour is good, it is acrilyc based so the texture doesn't always look right. Not sure what this means. I'll try on a test piece first.

They still reckon the best route is to rake it out, but I cant really bring myself to do it if I'm honest.
 
Can you post a pic of the grout? I'd like to see how the shades vary. Over time the grout will take on an amount of dirt and the shades will probably be much less apparent.
 
Turns out I was given the wrong sort of flexible additive for this grout. The company concerned have been very good though, and are sorting it for me (regrouting it)

Thanks for your advise though all.
 
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