Hi guys and gals,

Tiled a bathroom with 100mm tiles using white star and then grouted a few days later with Microflex wide joint grey grout. Got a call from the customer to say it has patches of dark grey within it. Went round to have a look and it looks awful. Called Bal up who then sent someone down to have a look. They agreed it was bad phoned through the code on the back and hey presto the grout was manufactured September 08 ( out of date grout).

Bal said it is the suppliers responsibility to rotate their stock and to sort it out with them. How should i go about this as they do give me work periodicaly. Its going to take a couple of days to regrout and i will have to hire something like a multimaster aswell.

Any ideas would be great.

check out Mapei Fuge fresca whick is a polymer modified paint for touching up or changing grout color in an easy to apply pen....saves the mess of cuuting out

Or Aquamix grout colourant

I think that in this case it was the shops responsibility (not yours / you only have a secondary responsibility). I believe this falls under the sale of good act – anything sold is sold as fit for purpose, anything out of date must be market up as sold as out of date. (saw a lot of careful legal marking when Trade Depot went out of business and were selling off their entire stock before clearing each £100 line at £1 each – wonder where that went?)
Obviously out of date grout is not fit for purpose! Your stockist is liable I would say for not only replacing the grout but for compensation for any costs that may have imparted (whether that is regrout or touch up methods). Unless they have a disclaimer in smallprint on the actual paperwork they sold you attached to that actual specific sale then you can either take them to court for the costs – or more realistically explain that to the manager (citizens advice bureau or trading standards can tell you exactly what to quote at them) who will know this and you are then in a position to request free of charge any goods (grout – touchup – and anything you think he can supply to recompense for your labour) or he / his company goes to small claims. I believe that’s how it works.
S0 realistically in this case, if you go a touch up method and don’t want to lose your relationship with your supplier (and your labour / time to touch up is low on this easy job) then you could politely and firmly suggest that he provides you as goodwill with more than enough touch up to do this job and throw in x? amount of addy etc to recompense you for your labour (as he can probably provide you goods but not cash), then you both call it quits.
BAL Microflex grouts are very good, I use them because all the time – I’ve never seen discolouring with BAL, Ardex or Mapei grouts, I’d love a technical explanation as to why an old grout would get patches of grey in it – I know if you knock up any grout too wet you get coloured patches and patches of white, but these grey bits are new news for me.

Aqua Mix Grout Colourant is the answer it will save hours of work and mess.

tel

Quick question... How thick was the adhesive bed...?.. A depth over 3mm can take longer to dry out and the patching of the grout might be moisture wicking through..

Originally Posted by Dave

Quick question... How thick was the adhesive bed...?.. A depth over 3mm can take longer to dry out and the patching of the grout might be moisture wicking through..

Only 3-4 mm and its been on for about 4 weeks now. Ive resigned myself to regrouting the job Tomorrow. Going to see the supplier of the grout to see if they will chuck me some blades and grout for the inconvenience. Then i'll have a few beers and off to watch the Prodigy tomorrow night!

No probs..just a thought..

Good luck..