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I’ve been having a hard time achieving a consistent shade of grout color throughout an installation. Some areas are lighter or darker than others. I have followed the instructions on the package accurately. Is this an indication of too much water in the mixture, or too much moisture during the residue cleanup? I know there must be a variety of variables that could affect the results, but any suggestions would be appreciated. There is nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of energy during the tile installation and then to sacrifice for a substandered grout job. Thanx.
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Did you mix it thouroghly and allow it to slake before you grouted?
*The water to cement ratio can have a great effect on color, particularly with the darker ones. So, the key is to keep this constant. Mixing the grout for the entire job in one batch is necessary if possible. If it's just too big to do that, the break in the grout job should be in a less visible location. I don't know if too much moisture during cleanup would make the color uneven, unless you really treated different areas differently. However, too much moisture is bad for the strength of the grout. If you get too much into the surface of the grout it will weaken it, so that it the surface will crumble out or chip. So, for that reason, cleanup must be with a sponge wet then wrung out very dry. If you clean up a little too early, you tend to smear the grout all over, which might tempt you to use too much water to chase it. If you use a mixture of latex additive with water, premix them, don't dump in a bottle of additive, then add a lot of water afterwards.Anything else which causes the moisture to vary in different parts of the job can alter the color, such as sunshine heating a portion of the job while it's curing, or different thickness of grout, such as thinner areas where a lot of thinset oozed up between the tiles vs. where the grout goes all the way to the substrate.I'm sure other's would have some additional ideas.
*Use clean buckets and mix well with a machine. Slack for 10 minutes then remix. Prior to grouting, vacuum the grout lines and make sure there is no moisture in the lines.If your doing a big job where you must mix multiple batches, figure out how much powder and water will make a batch and then measure each batch after that the same. Always dry mix if you have several bags or boxes. Wiping is not as easy or simple as it looks. When you do a first wipe, try to level and feather the grout evenly. The second wipe should be for removing the excess.
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I've been having a hard time achieving a consistent shade of grout color throughout an installation. Some areas are lighter or darker than others. I have followed the instructions on the package accurately. Is this an indication of too much water in the mixture, or too much moisture during the residue cleanup? I know there must be a variety of variables that could affect the results, but any suggestions would be appreciated. There is nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of energy during the tile installation and then to sacrifice for a substandered grout job. Thanx.