Chipped grout

[Kai1977]

We had our kitchen tiles fitted a year ago with a microban based grout. There are a few places where the grout is now chipping in small sections. It looks like someone has actually hacked at it but that's not possible, so I'm assuming it's crumbled away with mopping the floor or something.

The kitchen is in a Victorian house. We used large format tiles and the tiler put in a wood base underneath to stop too much movement. We didn't seal the grout (I was supposed to do this but haven't got around to it).

Any suggestions as to what is happening?

Thanks
Neema

 

[Crystalclear]

Hi Neema.

Sorry to say, it's less a case of had you sealed it, but maybe more a case of your tiles are moving, hence the grout cracking.

Were you there when the tiler installed the wood base? Did you see if he drilling and screwed it in, or did he just glue it in?

 

[Kai1977]

He definitely used screws and glue. He wasn't keen on laying such large tiles across a fairly old and wonky area (60cm by 60cm tiles) but said he would do his best to get them straight and make the base nice and solid. He seemed pretty professional so I'm wondering whether it's just the nature of our floor and the fact that we used larger tiles which could cause bigger movements?

Will it mean regular refilling of the grout do you think?

 

[Crystalclear]

he would do his best to get them straight and make the base nice and solid

So he knew the floor was an issue? Ok, it confirms that the floor under the wooden base was an issue.

No, I wouldn't say regular, just use a professional flexible grout in this case, more so because of movement of the floor.

They do large 2.5kg bags in Screwfix, not sure if you can get smaller bags.

 

[Crystalclear]

8 different colours...

http://www.screwfix.com/p/mapei-buildfix-flexible-wall-floor-grout-white-2-5kg/70239

 

[Kai1977]

Thanks, I am going to go home and check what grout we actually used originally as I am pretty sure it was flexible grout for this reason!

 

[Kai1977]

So Microban flexible grout was used but it looks like that wasn't quite flexible enough! Should we just refill whenever necessary?

 

[Crystalclear]

Wow, that is flexible indeed. Hummm...

I'd suggests you fill in the gaps prior to mopping or spillage; last thing you want is your wood base expanding/bloating.