It's about grout! Pic attached

[idonotneedaman]

Help! I'm having a nightmare with trying to freshen up the groat in my bathroom.

I bought a grout repair thing, it was like a white tube and you spread it over and leave it to dry (an hour) then go back and remove the residue from the tiles with a wet sponge. As I was removing the bits from the tiles it basically just stripped the remover straight off the grout!

Do I just A) get new tiles, B) get some self adhesive tile sticker things?! Or C) use a different product

Yours sincerely, a determined single woman who refuses to enlist the help of anyone who knows what they are doing.

You can get a handheld tool to remove the grout, then just regrout. There's a B&Q YouTube tutorial on grout replacing which is helpful and the grout removing tool, grout and spreader should be less than £20 from Amazon.

Cillit bang mould remover.
Just done mine today.

Just use a black mould remover spray (if you have an opening window). That’s pretty bad so may need two treatments.

Sorry, should have said.

I want the tiles to be white - I don't like the black grout.

Is removing and replacing the black grout easier than the other options?

It's not mouldy - it's got black grout in it but the bits of white are from where I covered it today x

You can get grout pens, but not sure how good they are. You could also remove the grout and re-grout... would be tedious work as the tiles are quite small, but would be doable yourself and less costly than retiling. I'm going to do that to the floor tiles in my bathroom, as a lot of the grout has come out/chipped and it never looks clean even when it is!

Yes, you will need to remove the grout and re grout with white , the stuff you are using is ok for touching up similar grout but is too " thin" for what you need.

Thanks, all. Has anyone successfully used adhesive stickers in their bathroom - next to the shower - as I'm looking at these on Amazon?

Sorry, missed yours and the other replies! Definitely re-grout as it's doubtful anything will cover black.

I have, they've been on for about a year and they haven't budged

Oooh where did you get yours from? Don't suppose you have a pic? Xx

Tile grout paint pens/repair pens are meant for light colour grout, not black grout. Either way, they look good for a week or so, then the old grout colour starts to show through.

Not sure I'd go with stick on tile in a wet area.

I'd advise you to yourself a dremel tool with a grout removal attachment. Dremel out the old grout, which is a tedious (unless you're like me and happily get to repetitive DIY for hours) but not difficult job.

Re-grouting the tiles once you've removed the old grout is easy peasy. If you're after white grout just buy a pre-mixed, waterproof flexible grout (something like Mapei fix and grout), two big sponges, two buckets and a rubber tile float.

I really hate the thought of digging all that black grout out!! There's so many tiles.

How about while tile paint?! 🤣

It will be so satisfying to get rid of the black if it's really bugging you and will totally transform the look of your bathroom and won't look shit

Take all the old grout, it’s called a grout removal tool, it has a hook one side, and it’s like a knife the other. Clean it after with the brush on your hoover, and then the fun starts.

you get a bucket of grout, and you use the tool to put it in. If you’re good at doing makeup, this is a doddle.

once you’ve got that all on and smooth, do the silicone sealant around the bath and tiles.

let it all settle for 48hours, clean it off and you will be chuffed with yourself.

its all on you tube. Good luck

I used this onmy bathroom and it worked fine - the bathroom looked really clean and refreshed afterwards.

I was covering white with white though.

There is kind of a fine line between waiting for it to dry enough to not be taken off the grout but not having it set so hard you can't take it off the tiles. You could leave it overnight and then scrape the tiles and it would stay on better on the grout, but would be harder work to remove from the tiles.

It does wear off over time. The thing is when mine wears off you hardly can tell because it is still white underneath. When yours does it will be very obvious because of the black. I have done mine twice now, three years in between applications.

You may improve the placement of it by using masking tape on the tiles and just leaving the grout exposed and then using it on that, then just peel the tape off afterwards. But is probably hard work given the number of bits of tape you would need.

@idonotneedaman I used grout pens on my bathroom, kitchen and ensuite on the walls and floor tiles (you need to also buy spare nibs, as the nib doesn’t last long). It has really made a huge difference. I didn’t have black grout, but I am sure if you went over the grout a few times it would cover. I did it about 5 months ago, and none of the colour has come off with cleaning. I would far rather do this every year or two than have all the mess and bother of removing old grout.

I don’t recommend stick on tiles at all, that was my first option on the kitchen wall tiles, steam from kettle, cooking and cleaning meant they were constantly peeling off and needing replaced, I would never use them again.

I would re grout, it’s a bit of a job but will look better. We live in a hard water area. We had a bathroom revamp. Some new elements, but we just re grouted the tiles. One exception being the shower, where we covered them with aqua boards. The tiles were put on in 2012. Before and after images

Yeah, when I did mine there was some sort of sponge applicator thing on top of the tube which was quite big and IMO useless for getting the stuff into the slightly recessed grout "cracks" between the tiles.

I just took the top off and used a finger (in latex gloves) to wipe the stuff into the grout which for me worked much better.