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Sidenote Saturday: Grouting is Not Fun

by | Jul 16, 2016 | DIY, Sidenote Saturday

So far, tiling the backsplash has been fun. Not fun like going on vacation fun, but fun as in learning something new and taking pride in the fact that I did it and it looks great fun.

But yesterday, the fun came to a screeeeeeching halt.

Grouting is not fun.

It is tedious and messy and time consuming. You should definitely hire someone to do this for you. God Bless those people that enjoy this step or make a living doing it. YOU ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY!

First I mixed the Flexible Grout Admixture (the bottle on the left) with the sanded grout. The Tile Shop suggested using the admixture instead of water. Since this is my first time grouting, I can’t say that it worked better than water, but I can say that it worked really well.

Per the instructions on the bottle, the consistency of the grout should be similar to toothpaste. Again I added the liquid first and then the grout powder. After finding the consistency of toothpaste, the mixture needed to sit for 6-8 minutes before starting to grout.

At this point it was a matter of squishing the grout between each tile using a padded trowel. (I have no idea if that is the correct name for the trowel, but it has a little bit of give to it.)

In the area that the trowel was too big, I grabbed some grout with my fingers and filled the cracks. Grout will fall off your trowel and onto the counter and behind the stove and onto the bottom of the cupboards and maybe even possibly onto your glasses. I warned you it was messy.

I grouted about a ten to twelve inch space and then wiped everything off with a damp (not wet) large sponge. Rinsing my sponge often, it took at least five times to remove the grout from the tiles. I warned you about tedious.

Final warning: Time consuming. The pattern of grouting and wiping continues until you have bumped your head 3000 times on the cupboards, you run out of grout or you’re finished.

The grout needs to dry for 24-72 hours before I can seal it. Thank goodness. I am going to need that long to get motivated to finish. 🙂

On Monday I will share a couple of tips and tricks I have learned and then the big reveal on Wednesday!

Have a great weekend,

Wendy