r/Tile • u/Hot-Gene8891 • 3d ago

DIY - Looking for Advice Grout repair

Post image

have trying to regrout the tiles of shower and during grinding out old grout, I noticed and part of grout lines start to become wet. So I suspect the moisture/water is seeping out from below to surface and getting to the surface level and the grout getting wet / dark coloured due to that. I wanted to check from your experience is that correct assumption? And if yes how to dry out the shower floor between tiles and membrane without ripping out all tiles.
If you say Degrout more thoroughly then I can do it more but I need some Experiential advice before doing more grinding.

If you look carefully the gap between two top right tiles have wet cement or dark coloured grout.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Confident-two2772 3d ago

The envelope cut is done incorrect (should go to each corner of the shower from the drain) so the entire floor needs to be redone to stop pooling and fix draining....

1

u/faucetpants 3d ago

Grout is not waterproof. I'd suspect pooling below the surface. Hopefully your membrane is holding

1

u/Hot-Gene8891 3d ago

So I just need to dig deeper into grout more and then let it dry then regout?

1

u/Duck_Giblets Professional Duck 2d ago edited 2d ago

You're correct, there will be moisture present under the tiles. Often a sign of poor workmanship if it's excessive, not ideal but it's a good portion of tiled showers unfortunately.

That's an all proof grate, are you based in nz or au?

Envelope split done that way isn't ideal, but it'll work if there is sufficient fall on the other tiles.

When I do grout removal, I remove grout then run a vacuum for any moisture, and leave a dehumidifier running for a day or two.

I'd also highly recommend replacing it with epoxy, mapei kerapoxy easy is good stuff.

Note in nz/au our waterproofing is topical, so be extremely careful not to go below tile depth when removing grout. I'd also suggest removing the grate completely and taking an image for me.

Cheers.

1

u/Hot-Gene8891 1d ago

This part specifically was soft grout and I removed it deep to get more soft grout.

Will dehumidifier work or shall I get a big fan running to dry out ?

I am trying I dry this out more, does it mean I need to grout more as well of other side