How To Repair Shower Grout Cracks

Fixing Cracked Shower Grout

Our shower had lots of cracked and missing grout so I took a few hours to fix it. Be warned… these pictures are gnarly.

The shower in our principal bath was in crude shape. The grout betwixt the floor tiles was croaky and missing and, as a event, it was always musty and mildewy. Stained grout is ane matter, merely upon closer investigation, the grout betwixt lots of the tiles in our shower was MISSING which is a much bigger effect. The purpose of the grout is to seal the area from water damage. When that grout comes loose, h2o gets between the tiles, soaks into the mortar board and tin can ultimately rot the subfloor. No bueno.

Footstep 1. Remove the loose/ damaged grout

I picked up one of these tools to help scrape abroad the damaged grout. I besides ended upward using my trusty 6 in ane painters tool to scrape away some of it. (I really removed ane side of the grout grinder to it fit between my tiles easier.) Your goal is to remove the damaged grout, only also grind away the grout so that there'southward space for the new grout! I put heaters in the shower to dry out the subfloor earlier applying the new grout.

Step ii. Clean Up

Vacuum and clean up whatever dust that resulted from removing the grout. I used baking soda and white vinegar to scrub away remaining mildew/ grout dust.

Step 3. Regrout

I used this sanded premixed grout considering I didn't that much. It comes in lots of different colors so consider what your existing grout is before purchasing. I used a spatula to scoop some grout onto my rubber grout bladder and so pressed it into the space between the tiles. Move your bladder back and forth like an 'x' to ensure the grout is pushed all the fashion between the tiles.

Step 4. Make clean the Residue

Follow the directions on the bundle to determine how long to wait earlier sponging off the backlog grout. Using a big yellow sponge wipe abroad the excess grout, rinse… and repeat.

Step 5. Leave to Dry and Caulk

Because this grout was on a shower floor, I had to let it set for seven days.

Notation: Remember how I had the heater going? Well, the surface below our tiles was and so saturated and damp from the cracked grout, that the kickoff time I applied the grout… it never cured. Later 7 days, it crumbled away. I knew it wasn't a problem with the grout since I bought the premixed, so I scraped information technology away and left heaters going for a few more days and repeated the in a higher place process.

After 7 days, the grout appeared to have set and I was able to caulk around the corners (I used this caulk) and…. our shower was back in activity! I wish I had washed this sooner… considering we used the shower with cracked grout, it just meant the backerboard/ flooring beneath the tile had that much more water getting downward onto it. Notation to cocky: fix cracked grout every bit soon as yous notice it!

Remember how it looked earlier?? Here'south the earlier and and then ringlet downward for the later!

SUCH an easy project, but also And then necessary! If the water is immune to seep downwards and saturate the surface below the tile, information technology will erode the rest of the mortar and yous'll have to demo/ supersede the unabridged shower. So yeah… keep an eye on that grout, y'all!