I think the title says it all!!
Just spent almost as long grouting 25m of slate as I did fixing it!! (well not quite, but you get my drift!!) I just don't know why its' so awkward to work!
It's 'greasy', messy and knocks up sloppy or stiff as a board...ruins your squegees, not mention sponges/bucket/anything else that comes into contact with it (I may give up getting my nails done at this rate ha ha ha!) and I'm never truly happy with the final polish....does anyone know the reason it seems so much harder to work than other coloured grouts???

....Phew!...I think I'm ranting...and there's more of the same on the next job..arrghhhh!!!

Oh yes......... vile stuff.

I charge a lot more if the dreaded black stuff is in the spec, sponges, buckets etc, hate the stuff

The best part is it wont stop black for long, go back in 12 months and it will be grey, better to just put grey in in the first place, but the customer is always right so just obey the last command

I hate it as well, been lucky lately as its been grey all the way on floors!!

USE MASKING TAPE ON WALL GROUT LINES,WORK USING RUBBER GLOVES ANH CHANGE THE WATER MORE FREQUENTLY.I HATE THE STUFF

Originally Posted by Sean fsy

The best part is it wont stop black for long, go back in 12 months and it will be grey, better to just put grey in in the first place, but the customer is always right so just obey the last command

how right you are!...everyone seems to be an expert these days tho!..especially the buggers flogging the stuff!
to add insult to injury this particular customer was sold a very poor own brand from the suppliers ..not good. ended up in the awkward position of refusing to use it after the first patch..so had to supply and re-grout...will be having words with the supplier next time I'm in!

yip! the worst of the worse to work with,always charge a bit extra on top,sponges need tossed and the seperate float i use for the stuff comes out! yeeeuuuccchhh!

I haven't had the "pleasure" of the black grout. By the sounds of it I'm best off keeping it that way!

Black grout is proper,















difficult to deal with so you are not alone.

if you were wondering whats with the big space between statments..

i had to remove the profanity, dave,doug and the rest of the team dont like it!

One consideration was the use of black grout to give these tiles a "one panel" look.



But then we decided to avoid the dreaded black grout and to highlight the tiles with cream.

One key factor was the bleed of black onto the cream tiles. Messy Messy!

If I would have thought black grout would have added anything we would took our time and used it.

But I think its actually a better look.

terrible stuff, like grouting with black shoe polish

Originally Posted by 365drills

One consideration was the use of black grout to give these tiles a "one panel" look.



But then we decided to avoid the dreaded black grout and to highlight the tiles with cream.

One key factor was the bleed of black onto the cream tiles. Messy Messy!

If I would have thought black grout would have added anything we would took our time and used it.

But I think its actually a better look.

Looks loads better! shows the lines nicely now go and convince all my customers ha ha !

Originally Posted by brian c

USE MASKING TAPE ON WALL GROUT LINES,WORK USING RUBBER GLOVES ANH CHANGE THE WATER MORE FREQUENTLY.I HATE THE STUFF

like the masking tape idea on walls..might give that one a try in future.
I already use gloves for all grouting just cos of dreaded dermititus (especially during winter!)

Evil stuff

hate it filthy stuff should be band dont stay black anyways always charge more ,even better dont do it ,

I got 10 meters to do in about a week,
Easy peasy ,trick is NOT to use a washboy.

When I was learning to tile I was started on the darkest grouts first.
Sure teaches ya how to wipe off properly.

I highley recommend it.

Nowadays I rarley have to dust off with a towel on floors.

Trev

p.s I'll post up some pics of the job next week

That job looks great. Nice job.

...and it could be worse....black EPOXY grout.

Wish I had read this thread a few weeks ago - looks so much nicer than my black grout/black tile combination.

BTW - mean the picture of the black wall with contrasting white grout

black grout is basically grey grout with a black die that will inevitably wash out leaving just grey or patchy grey grout.

Yes in fact we even did the

SMALL MOSAICS

around the toilet with jet-black tiles and the cream (ivory) grout



As part of the first fix I had to route the soil stack at a bit of an awkward angle out the back of the loo. And at right angles on 90deg bends to meet the main stack.

I boxed the pipe in and was going to tile it with large format porcelain in cream but decided to go for the black contrast to highlight the white furniture. Even on the small brickbond tiles we went for ivory grout.

The result you can see for yourself...

i know this might sound odd but im currently doing most of my wall jobs with bal grey wall grout, goes with every colour tile and makes all the detailing stand out. customers are a bit iffy at the mention but when the job is complete they just say wow thats superb, excellent idea, much better than just plain white or ivory.