Hi, can someone give me advice on a ceramic tile job? I do mainly handyman type work with the occasional remodel but have little experience with tile. The floor is in the kitchen of a restaurant (less than a few years old) and among the many problems is a lack of grout in areas. It seems like it’s about half the depth of the quarry tile and is popping out in other areas. The floor is also wet alot. Is there any way of filling in more grout on top of the old and making it bond? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks RC
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remove the grout as best as you can...
replace it with 'poxy grout with it being in a resturant.....
avoid "layering" if you can...
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Scrub and rinse thouroughly with a quality degreaser cleanser. SCrub thos grout lines out with a scrub brush, lots of elbow grease then rinse heavily, suck up water with shop vac.
Once the area is properly prepped (like above) then you could replace the grout over whatever remains.
Many things in restaurants are corrosive (food products and by products), at least mildly so. Vinegar is a big one for eating away grout quickly. I bid a local chicken joint that used vinegar as the primary ingredient in their chicken marinade. The "chicken area" was left without a trace of grout after a relatively short time in operation.
Remember that these floors take a huge beating and grout loss is common and should be part of any restaurant regular maintenance considerations.
This will be labor intensive and will likely have to be done after hours. Also, you may need to do a portion at a time as time allows. Think of how you might protect the work area btween visits. Heavy cardboard laid over the areas and taped may be good for this... you may even want to lay plastic first... but not only platic as it would be too slippery and prone to puncture and subsequent infiltration.
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Another problem I have seen with quary tile is that it aborbs liquid to some extent. Finding a sealer that does not make the tile slick when wet may reduce the amount of future maintanance.
I don't recall what my tile man friend used on his installs for Winn Dixie,( in the meat cutting rooms), but he seldom had grout problems. Course all he did was mud jobs, no thinset, and that may have helped.
You ever do a tare out of quary tile in any food processing/ prep. area? The stink would gage a maggot. Ugh!
Dave
Thanks to all for the help. I'll ask if they use a lot of vinegar.
is this floor over concrete or wood ?
carpenter in transition
The floor is over concrete and has a black mastic(?) There is a low spot in the floor he also needs brought up which is next to the floor drain. The water stays in this low spot and has popped up one tile which is how I can tell the floor underneath has something black over it.