Walls and Tiles - seek advice .

[Natalia]

Hello guys

I try to fix myself some stuff at home which has been bothering me for sometime now. I bought this place almost a year ago and it washed out entirely any extras on repairs so I start slowly with gathering some furniture and now try to get the rest in order. Can't really hire anyone - budget do not allow so I was wondering if any of you could suggest place with good resource and tips in regard to Tiles and Wall work.

By the way I did try search via Yahoo but came across lots of commercial sites endorsing products rather than some "grandma tricks and tips" , plus most of it it's not even available in Malaysia , where I'm located.

Tiles,

I try to whiten up the gaps between tiles. Malaysia it's a tropic with high humidity and stuff get ugly pretty fast. My tiles on the balcony get some stuff growing on them which is very hard to clean with brush and ordinary cleaning chemicals. It's possible but it takes lots of time just to work on tiny spot. Also the filling between tiles become very dark and it's hell to wash it. I attach little photo if you could kindly check it out to see what I'm talking about: //balcony

Walls,

The walls have some patterns, i'm positive it's not something the develop intend to do ,it's just low quality workmanship. In some places it's close too smooth with tiny bumps , in other the bumps become more frequent like :

here is the same wall just 5 feet away , closer to the door frame : pattern is very irregular and even cover with new paint still visible. I try in one room so far and the results are disappointing. I also have lots of smears like lines in circular shape , pretty large , like a meter in diameter.

I guess there is no way to smooth it all up w/o applying new layer of plaster on top or something like that so perhaps if I could make it equality uneven. I'm not sure how it is call , I saw one time a guy was holding a roller of some kind , spinning it and throwing tiny bits of cement , making the wall spiky. I figure this is perhaps something I could do . Do you have any suggestions ? I'm not in need of making it Glass flat/smooth , as long as it's equal in the entire room or house i'll be fine .

Any suggestions or url I could refer to are most welcome .

Thank you very much for taking the time to read it. Best regards

Natalia Malaysia - Kuala lumpur

[dadiOH]

It looks like mildew - a mold. A weak solution of bleach (Clorox) will kill it. _______________________

I've never understood why anyone uses white grout...it ALWAYS gets dirty. You need to get it clean and snowy white, then seal it with any of numerous sealers. The sealer will have to be reapplied periodically.

If you can't get it clean by scrubbing you can do so with an acid. The acid eats up a little of the grout so it needs to be weak and you have to keep an eye on it. If it is too strong it will eat up all of the grout and you'll have to regrout the tiles.

Since you have no knowledge of or experience with acid cleaning, don't try it yourself. I'm pretty sure that it would be a common procedure in Malaysia so search out an experienced tradesman - a tile setter perhaps - to do the job if needed. _______________________

On the contrary, it is "on purpose".

That's one way, texture paint might be another.

-- dadiOH _____________________________

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