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Derek mason

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Can any one offer any advice. We grouted a bathroom about three months ago using Bal ebony grout on white ceramic tiles. After five weeks the grout was still bleeding black everywhere. The ball rep came out and put it down to under hydration. We striped all the grout out which was a awful job and re grouted it to the letter. We still have the same problem. Ball are now suggesting we spray the tiles and grout with water and cover with plastic. They say this will cure it. Can this really be right. Has any one had the same problem

All the best derek
 
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Bill

Never heard of that 'curing' method before but as I have said umpteen times, black grout is the devil's own.

I am sure there is a sealer to use that would stop any bleeding and we do have some guys on here who specialise in sealants.
 
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oliver theobald

Can any one offer any advice. We grouted a bathroom about three months ago using Bal ebony grout on white ceramic tiles. After five weeks the grout was still bleeding black everywhere. The ball rep came out and put it down to under hydration. We striped all the grout out which was a awful job and re grouted it to the letter. We still have the same problem. Ball are now suggesting we spray the tiles and grout with water and cover with plastic. They say this will cure it. Can this really be right. Has any one had the same problem

All the best derek

Hi Derek, We have just found the same thing from a batch of BAL Micromax 2 Ebony. Did you ever solve this issue? We're looking at a complete strip back as our only real option.... arghhhh what a mess!
-Oliver
IMG_2492.JPG
 
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Dumbo

Hi Derek, We have just found the same thing from a batch of BAL Micromax 2 Ebony. Did you ever solve this issue? We're looking at a complete strip back as our only real option.... arghhhh what a mess!
-Oliver
View attachment 96325
How old is your grout. Also does it look that like because you have just used the shower. If so is your shower gravity fed , power shower or pressurised system
 
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oliver theobald

How old is your grout. Also does it look that like because you have just used the shower. If so is your shower gravity fed , power shower or pressurised system

It is just using a hand spray (the ones for watering flowers etc). We were just washing down the tiles before completing the silicone work. Really gutted to note that the grout - one week on from application - is so weak that it is soft enough to scratch out with your finger nails!
 
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Bill

Bad batch of grout I would say..... it does happen, the formula is broken and has been undetected during the mixing process.

I hate 99% of https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/ and grout manufacturers responses to these matters. They have a less than 1% self-fault tag line.
 
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Derek mason

Hi Derek, We have just found the same thing from a batch of BAL Micromax 2 Ebony. Did you ever solve this issue? We're looking at a complete strip back as our only real option.... arghhhh what a mess!
-Oliver
View attachment 96325
Hi Oliver. The best way we found to stop it bleeding is to spray the tiles with water and then cover it with cling film. It forces the water into the grout and re hydrates it . You might have to do that two or three times. But after each time just wash and wash and wash the tiles eventually it dose stop bleeding. It is a ridiculous situation though and very frustrating.
 
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mark0161

I have also had this issue, grouted an entire bathroom including a fair amount of mosaics, only to find that the gout wouldn't stop bleading. I had a section in another room to do so I decided to see if I could get it to work. No luck, didn't matter if I did a wet mix, standard mix, dry mix, and it didn't matter how I cleaned off the excess with a sponge, wet or dry, it always ended up the same. I've been to Topps to complain but they are quite dismissive, insisting bal make the best grout and if there was a bad batch then they'd know about it. Clearly wanting to blame me. I've been waiting a week for them to visit my customers house to view it but they are obviously in no rush. In the meantime I decided to try the plastic covering technique round the shower so at least the customer could use it. I had no other real option as removing the grout from the mosaics would be unbelievably time consuming. Surprisingly enough it's seemed to work. I've saturated the grout with water from a spray bottle then covered with clingfilm, after its dried I took the clingfilm off and wiped it down with a wet sponge then repeated 5-6 times. Very time consuming but not as much as replacing the grout, especially considering I've already siliconed half the bathroom. For anyone else who has this problem try this on a small patch to see if it'll work, it's worth a shot.
 
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Tommythetiler80

I only ever use grout 3000, and I only have ever had good things to say about tilemaster products, I do have a strong dislike for any black grout but I must say that I’ve never experienced such a thing like bleeding. I can only assume it must be faulty batch . I’m not much of a lover of mapei grout either but if customers purchase it I’ll use it.
 
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Dumbo

In my experience under hydration usually comes from a very absorbent biscuit to the tile and this usually manifests itself with shrinking back from tile edge and also grout cracking . If you have neither of these I wonder if their may be some value in allowing grout to dry and then putting a grout sealer on it to stop further water absorption which in turn leaches back out .
 
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mark0161

I did consider a grout sealer on the rest of the bathroom as it would take quite some time to do the clingfilm technique on the whole bathroom.

Can you recommend a grout sealer? There's so many out there I don't really know what's good and what's not.

The quality of the tiles was not fantastic to be honest, the customer bought them without me, which I wasn't thrilled about, but I never considered the tile to be at fault for the grout. I did a small patch of the tiles behind the mirror in the downstairs toilet, grouted with black mapei leftover from a job a few weeks back but had a slight issue with colour uniformity so decided to change back to Bal for the en-suite. Wish I hadn't now but I guess it's a lesson learned, I'll have to give tilemaster a go on the second bathroom, which I start next week.
 
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Dumbo

If the tiles are really absorbent . I have this it is usually with a white biscuit you should damp your joints down before grouting to reduce absorbency (don't think that's a real word ) as for sealer use something like lithofin grout sealer probably best on the market .
 
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Tommythetiler80

I did consider a grout sealer on the rest of the bathroom as it would take quite some time to do the clingfilm technique on the whole bathroom.

Can you recommend a grout sealer? There's so many out there I don't really know what's good and what's not.

The quality of the tiles was not fantastic to be honest, the customer bought them without me, which I wasn't thrilled about, but I never considered the tile to be at fault for the grout. I did a small patch of the tiles behind the mirror in the downstairs toilet, grouted with black mapei leftover from a job a few weeks back but had a slight issue with colour uniformity so decided to change back to Bal for the en-suite. Wish I hadn't now but I guess it's a lesson learned, I'll have to give tilemaster a go on the second bathroom, which I start next week.
Don’t let customer talk you into black grout use your charm and wit!if all else fails you should consider an extra charge for sponges and floats and buckets
 

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