Hello,

Was wondering what is the best flexible grout for a polished porcelain floor with 2mm joints. (Tiled on a floating floor)
Was advised by tile shop to use Mapei Ultra colour plus, adding flexible primer?? But grout has cracked, well more sort of come away from the edges.
Tiler happy to come back and put right but talking of using epoxy grout? Wondred if that sounded correct or not?

As an absolute no nothing about tiling lady, I have spent ages trawling through the internet and it would appear that a flexible adhesive with no additive would be better? Read Bal superflex (not wide joint) sounded good? I am of course ready to be corrected

personally I think you're going to struggle with the floating floor and the grout. it's the floating floor that is causing the grout to crack more than likely. so no matter how flexible the grout is, it will still eventually fail as the grout is not rubberised to take the floor deviating in different directions. unless of course your floating floor is more rigid than it seems, you will struggle to keep the grout intact. many professional tilers do not like floating floors because essentially you are not tiling on to anything rigid. As soon as you walk over the floor, you're adding movement to it, and if it's not rigid to start with, the tiles will go with the movement and become detached in the worst cases.

do you know how your floating floor was constructed?

To be honest, your tiler should have warned you about the dangers of tiling on a floating floor. Most tilers on the forum would recommend not to tile, as a floating floor isn't suitable to be tiled on, and more than likely, all types of grout are going come loose from the joints due to too much movement in the floor.

as above. however try bal non flexible grout mixed with gt admix this might solve your problem

Hi All again,

Didn't know how to answer back - Sorry first time post!

Tiler did actually warn us beforehand, but spent a long time making floor as rigid as poss (unsure exactly what he did - sorry)

Am aware that this may be an ongoing problem with the grout if there is movement but think its woth one more go to see - Any suggestions as to which grout would be best.

Grout appears to be coming away from the edges, tiler mentioned as they were sealed porcelain, grout may not have bonded to edges of tile? therefore he suggests Epoxy - Sounds very messy from what I've read.

I assume no one thinks its the additive that was mixed with the Mapei Ultracolour that was the problem?

Your advice is invaluable, what a great forum - Thanks for your time

Hi All,
I'm assuming no one thinks the epoxy grout the tiler advised is going to be any good?
Thanks Again

I really dont think Epoxy grout is the way to go.
I would be thinking that if the Mapei grout has failed then there was either and error in the application or there is too much movement in the floor.
The most flexible grout I have ever used was Bal Wide Joint with GT1 admix.

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I really can't see anything working tbh, tiling a floating floor is like tiling a trampoline in most cases.

Floors should always be 3mm minimum. Just for future reference.

British standards is 3mm

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hello,

Was wondering what is the best flexible grout for a polished porcelain floor with 2mm joints. (Tiled on a floating floor)
Was advised by tile shop to use Mapei Ultra colour plus, adding flexible primer?? But grout has cracked, well more sort of come away from the edges.
Tiler happy to come back and put right but talking of using epoxy grout? Wondred if that sounded correct or not?

As an absolute no nothing about tiling lady, I have spent ages trawling through the internet and it would appear that a flexible adhesive with no additive would be better? Read Bal superflex (not wide joint) sounded good? I am of course ready to be corrected

Ultra color plus grout should not have an additive added to it as its already flexible.

try the Bal non flexi with Bal GT1

Originally Posted by simon1

Ultra color plus grout should not have an additive added to it as its already flexible.

try the Bal non flexi with Bal GT1

On a floating floor..?

have any of the tiles come un stuck ?

Mapei is the best. It already has polymers in it which means its already flexible. Used on loads of jobs, best by a mile.

As a few others have mentioned use Bal standard grout and use bal gt1 additive! mix the bal gt1 50/50 with water and mix this togeather and then add your grout! you will have to measure the grout powder and the gt1 and the water exactly if you have to mix more then one batch so as the colours are identical! There maybe other makes you could use but I worked on a floor which was tiled by another tiler which was floating and they had the same issues! 3 times the tiler re-grouted it and it cracked everytime after about 6 weeks! I used the bal with the gt1 and it has been there for 9 months and so far no cracks! but there is no guarantee as the prep work was all wroung on this particular job!
I contacted bal before i did this and they advised using the gt1 at a 50/50 mix and this is the most flexible method that they do! They also advise NOT to mix there gt1 with grouts that are already flexible as the polymers are different.
There are probably other makes you could use but this one worked for me (so far) Its worth giving it a try to see if it will work.