tile grout question

[SeaKan]

i had new tile installed in my bathrooms yesterday. on the floor. the installers left after doing the grout and wiping off the tiles. but i have a dusty haze now. how do i remove? it is cermamic tile.

[Oren]

Sponge and clean water, rinse, etc.

Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

[Newfie]

There may or may not be need for alarm. If it is just haze wipe it down with a wet sponge, rinse and repeat several times. Haze will probably stick around for a couple days. Many washes are needed to completely get rid of it off most tiles.

If it is excess grout and dried to the surface of the tile, call the tilers and tell to too look at it. It may be a s severe as having to replace the tiles or using a chemical like sulfamic acid to remove the excess grout. Sometimes, and I admit in a lot of cases, a piece of Oak wood,a small strip, use it like a scraper and it will remove most dried grout.

SeaKan wrote:

[Norminn]

We had tile installed about 4 years ago, so details are fuzzy. I assume you have glazed tile. We were instructed to wait a certain interval, then wipe tile with vinegar/water mixture. It is important to do it right, as it can become difficult to remove. Call your installer and ask them how to remove it, and when/how to seal the grout. We had large tile with wide grout joints - installer told us ok to walk on it with shoes on (no toe prints in grout :o)

[SeaKan]

[MRnice]

If you can take an inch of haze off by scraping it with your fingernail then it is an easy fix. First, wet a clean sponge and pass it over the tile, rinsing often to keep the sponge free of grout. Make about 2-3 passes across the tiles until the haze almost looks gone when wet. When the tiles dry (less than an hour), you will see a light haze that you can then use a light grade steel wool pad to buff across the tile to remove the remaining haze. If the haze is really light, you can buff it off with a towel instead of the steel wool (almost like removing wax from a car).

[thetiler]

Your installer is an idiot. Tell him to clean the haze off himself. It's not your job. An installer should leave the new floor spotless- if he claims to be an expert. If your plumber tiled it on the weekend-----that's another matter... But since he's an idiot and you'll probably have to do it yourself anyway, just mop the floor for a good 10 minutes with a solution of about 10% vinegar, slopping it around liberally, then rinsing and mopping it up. It won't hurt the grout. If that doesn't do it, a tile dealer will sell sulfamic acid, which is a "safer" acid than muratic. It comes in crystals (like sugar) which you dissolve in water per instructions on the can. Slop it around as I described above and rinse it well. That will remove any grout haze.

Time is your enemy now as grout haze (usually a polymer film) gets harder day by day so act soon.

Since you said some of it came off with water and a towel, I'll bet it comes off with the vinegar rinse.

thetiler

[Norminn]

I would not use steel wool - it shreds and crumbles, and the user is very likely to end up with tiny rust spots all over his tile and grout.

[Keith Williams]

The green kitchen "Scotch-Brite" pads work very well for this. They'll take off a small amount of grout stuck to glazed tile too.