Grouting rough unglazed tiles

I'm a bit worried! The wife has chosen some tiles for the bathroom and I've stuck them on the wall but I don't want to go any further. She insists I finish the job with the cream grouting but I just know I'm gonna mess it up.

The tiles are 50mm square like mosaics, about 8mm thick. They look like rough stone and the edges are uneven, so the grout will go all over the place. And I can't just let it dry and rub it off like with glazed tiles.

Is there a trick I need to know about to keep the tiles clean?

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Reply to
Peter Taylor
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Point them up as a bricklayer would. i.e just apply grout to the joints and not swish it across the face. I doubt your tiles are rougher than bricks.

Parellel strips of masking tape on either side of the joint might help.

mark

Reply to
mark

Not a total solution on its own, but a real rubber tiler's sponge (couple of quid from Axminster) works far better than a tuppence ha'penny pan scourer.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Can you get rubber tiles for walls? :-)

Reply to
NOSPAMnet

After grouting "gres" tiles which are unglazed and have a "broken" edge started to send me insane - I was spending more time cleaning than grouting - I got a mortar gun and used that to apply the grout to the gaps. Much easier than a squegee or sponge.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Don't be stupid!

It's the tiler that's real rubber, not the tiles.

;)

Reply to
PeterMcC

No idea, but you can get them for floors.

Price of the things is truly staggering though! They look the business, but just not affordable.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Great idea, thanks! I went to the tile place to see what they had and they looked at me as if I was mad :) (Not far out actually). But on the old internet I found a better idea of using a grout bag, like an icing bag. Amazon sell them.

Here are the tiles she selected:

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told me not to bother about the holes in the tiles, just fill them with grout using a squeegee. I reckon it will look terrible, what do you think?

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Reply to
Peter Taylor

I'm going to take you up on the tape idea Mark, thanks!

Reply to
Peter Taylor

I don't know, it depends on the tiles and the grout. When I tried it on ours erindoors told me to clean it off.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Peter Taylor coughed up some electrons that declared:

Looks like travertine, in the absence of anything on the website!

In which case, yes, you do fill the holes with grout - or the tiles are supplied ready filled.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

I think I'd use ivory coloured grout on those tiles.

mark

Reply to
mark

Thanks. You're right - that's what they recommended as well. The colour I bought is called Jasmine (but it's ivory) :)

I have a few tiles left over so I'm going to do two tests to see how it looks, just grouting the joints and filling the holes with grout as well. Thanks for all the help.

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Reply to
Peter Taylor

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