The shade you pick relies on what you are trying to accomplish in your design. If you want to highlight the pattern your tile creates, a contrasting color is best. If you're trying to unify your tile, such as with a wood look tile floor, go for a close match that's a little bit lighter than your tile.
A lighter grout will brighten (or lighten) the general appearance of the tiled area. A darker grout will subdue (or darken) the general appearance of the tiled area. A grout color similar to the color of the tile will make the tiled area appear more seamless, and draw less attention to the joints.
Sanded Grout: Use sanded grout for grout joints from 1/8 inch to 5/8 inch to resist cracking and shrinkage. Unsanded Grout: Use unsanded grout for grout joints up to 1/8 inch. Use only unsanded grout with glass, polished marble or metal tile to avoid scratching the tile.
In reality though, epoxy is more advanced, but will stand up the strongest. Sanded grout is the classic stuff, while unsanded is slightly newer age and can fit into tighter grout joints. Easiest is subjective but most would say sanded or unsanded are easiest. Maybe not the best bang for your buck or effort, however.
The wider spacing will help to accommodate placement of tile and maintaining straight lines. TCNA recommends a minimum 1/8" grout joint for rectified tile and minimum 3/16" grout joint for calibrated tile. They also suggest adding to this width the amount of edge warping on the longest edge.
GROUT JOINT SIZE FOR LARGE AND HEAVY TILE
Daltile recommends that large tiles have a 1/8” or 3/16” minimum grout joint for the most successful installation. The difference is not really noticeable visually, but can make a big difference to the quality of the installation.
Tiles with a square edge need to have the grout finished flush with the tiled surface. Tiles with a cushion or radius edge should have the grout finished to the bottom of the cushion or radius.
Jim Whitfield, manager of Technical Services at Mapei told industry professionals, “Because epoxy grout is so tough, it wears extremely well. It doesn't wear down over time and become a tile gutter—like cement grout can—where all the dirt and liquid and junk collects.”
For balancing aesthetics and upkeep, you can't go wrong with a neutral grey or beige grout. These lightly pigmented grouts will enhance the pattern of both light and dark colored tiles, have less risk of staining your tile compared to a dark grout and will conceal dirt and stains better than a white grout.
Acrylic grout is a professional-grade single component grout that comes premixed out of a bucket and performs much better than sanded grout as it is stain resistant.
Factor in Tile Color and Pattern
Keep in mind that the specifics of your tile design will determine whether complementing or contrasting grout works best. For example, an intricate mosaic tile with multiple colours and shapes will look cluttered with high-contrast grout.
If you can scratch grout out with your fingernail, you might need a re-grout. If your tiles are falling off, you need a re-grout – and maybe a re-tile! If your tiles are cracked and you have signs of water damage, you probably need a re-tile, re-grout, new backer board, and wallboard too!
You can apply new grout right over the top of the old grout. To do this, all you need is a grout removal tool. Use the tool to strike out the old grout, making sure the depth is at least 2mm, which is about the thickness of two dimes stacked one on top of the other.
White and black are two of the most common tile grout colors. Shades of gray, brown, beige and mossy green are also popular choices. There are even more colors available, depending on what you need.
Porous grouts attract water, dirt, oils, etc. While the tile industry does not require sealing, it is always recommended, especially in wet or high-traffic areas. Penetrating sealers are the most commonly used and offer high water, chemical and stain resistance.
Thinset (also called thinset mortar, thinset cement, dryset mortar, or drybond mortar) is an adhesive mortar made of cement, fine sand and a water-retaining agent such as an alkyl derivative of cellulose. It is usually used to attach tile or stone to surfaces such as cement or concrete.
The shade you pick relies on what you are trying to accomplish in your design. If you want to highlight the pattern your tile creates, a contrasting color is best. If you're trying to unify your tile, such as with a wood look tile floor, go for a close match that's a little bit lighter than your tile.
What is important to know is that white grout will show dirt more, therefore you'll have to spend more time cleaning it. If you're set on white grout, you might consider using Epoxy Grout, which is stain-resistant.
If you don't want to go through all this to keep your grout clean, you can install epoxy grout. Unlike sand grout, epoxy grout is not porous, and dirt cannot be ground into it.
Professionals often use steam to loosen the dirt and other particles trapped in the grout without needing to scrub manually. While every steam cleaning machine is different, you'll follow this basic process to clean grout lines: Use a steam cleaner with a small nylon brush attachment.
However, caulk is usually a better choice in areas where moisture will accumulate, thanks to its flexibility. Caulk is also much easier to clean. While it is porous, it doesn't absorb dirt as much as grout does.
The most common types of grout are epoxy, sanded and unsanded. Epoxy grout is made of resins, silica fillers, pigments and hardener. Sanded and unsanded grouts are cementitious grouts. This means their main component is cement.
Dampen the substrate and tiles
The use of water is an important part of the entire installation process. Before grouting, use a clean sponge with potable water to dampen the substrate throughout the tile installation. Next, dampen the edges of the tiles with a light water spray bottle.
For standard patterns like offset or straight set, we recommend a 3/16” grout joint size. If you'd like a tighter install,1/8" is the absolute minimum size we suggest.
A good rule of thumb is to clean as you go, working in small sections. This is especially important if the grout application is slow-going. Optimally, no more than 30 minutes should pass for the initial wiping off of excess grout.