Sealing Before grouting?

[bordershouse]

Just had 2 of the bathrooms upstairs tiled and the tiler has asked me to get a sealer to use before grouting so that the tiles can be cleaned up easily.

The first bathroom is tiled in a matt ceramic (Padova from Topps) and we have the same tiles in the kitchen downstairs and the grout haze was a nightmare to get rid of. The second bathroom is done in a matt textured porcelain (called Noranda Beige). A very small area has been grouted so that I could decide on the colour and it looks as if that will leave a haze also. We're using Mapei Ultracolor grout.

Another bathroom with a satin ceramic has already been tiled and grouted with no problem. It's just the matt / textured ones that the grout seems to stick to horribly.

So the question is, is it better / easier to use a 'sealer' on these beforehand than use a haze cleaner afterwards, and if so what one? Google brings up various impregnators and grout release products but I'm not sure what's what. And should I seal the porcelain ones at all after grouting? I'm assuming I don't need to seal ceramic?

Many thanks!

[whitebeam]

I'v never sealed ceramic, is the porcelain a glazed one.

[Daz]

I've never experienced problems with the Padova and no need to seal, IMO.
I've only ever worked with the Noranda "polished" versions which deffo require sealing prior to grouting. I imagine the matt versions will be difficult but the surface pores only really "open" when the surface is polished, so I would have thought that the matt version should be okay to grout and not require sealing prior or after grouting.