Just finished grouting our new shower room. I used a waterproof cement based grout (says suitable for swimming pools), which went on very nicely.
I was wondering about the possibility of sealing the grout - does anyone have any experience of using a grout sealer? Are they worth using? Do they give good results?
Whether it is worth doing if you have a waterproof grout, I am not sure. It may not have any effect. Is the grout fungicidal?
For stone tiles and grout in the kitchen, I used Lithofin sealer which is a solvent based silicone. This is certainly good and the grout easily wipeable.
I've used several Lithofin products, as have others here with good results. Not the cheapest, but you don't need a lot and do what they say.
It is supposedly fungicidal, but IME the fungicidal qualities of grouts and/or sealants are fairly short lived.
The thinking behind sealing it is simply to make it easier to clean - if I do seal, it will probably be only the area within the shower cubicle, not the whole room (which is all tiled).
Yes, I've read lots about these from you and others. So it's a solvent based silicone - once the solvent has evaporated, it leaves behind a polymerised silicone layer - what does this look like? Does it make the grout shiny?
OK, well I used MN Stainstop on walls of tumbled marble tiles in the kitchen with quite wide grouting - typically about 8mm.
The tiles, as a result of the tumbling, end up with random rounded edges and a smoothish matt finish on the front.
I didn't want to raise the sheen at all on this because it would have looked wrong - I had previously rejected ceramics because I couldn't find any that I liked that weren't screen printed, so I'm very picky.
The MN Stainstop has done a good job and has not raised the sheen that I can see on tile or grout. We have a small number of these tiles with motifs of fossils which have then had another sealer over them when they were made. I can just about see a slight sheen on these, but it wasn't influenced by the Stainstop.
You might see a slight difference in certain lights between areas that you do and those that you don't but I did the lot.
Not in what we did at all, not even a hint towards satin.
I notice on Lithofin's site, there is a KF version of Stainstop for ceramic tiles. Whether it is really different I don't know. If you look in the problems/solutions section at ceramic tiles in bathrooms it steers you to this product.
What I would be inclined to do is to make up a small test board with some spare tiles on a piece of ply or something and then buy the smallest size of the appropriate Lithofin and try it before committing to the whole room. It might also be worth contacting their distributor, Casdron and asking.
Expect to pay about £30-35 for a litre, although depending on the area and number of coats (probably 2), half that might be enough. It goes a long way.
Not from what I've seen. I've generally applied it with a brush, taking a little care not to splash it everywhere but not much. The first coat tends to soak in a lot and the second a little.
I put it on the kitchen wall (marble) tiles 2 1/2 years ago and it's still fine even with regular wiping. I don't use aggressive chemicals on it because it isn't necessary.
I believe the data says 5 years lifetime on average.
They are glazed. I'd assumed that Lithofin would wipe off from their literature and your previous posts. I'm just wondering how easy the polyvine product would be to remove.
(I don't know why I repeated that - I knew what I meant, you knew what I meant...)
Another product you may consider is Polyvine dead flat varnish
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which says it is suitable for plaster, stone and brick (amongst other surfaces). About £20/l from decorators' merchants (e.g. Eurodec round here). The only problem mightbe a tendency to a milky look if you put it on too thickly. Does Lithofin do this? I've used it on tiles but it's too early to tell how good and long-lasting it'll be. (Bloody magic on emulsion though - just wipe off kids' scribbles!)
I've also applied Thompson's Waterseal Ultra to tiles and grouting to waterproof them: it leaves absolutely no trace in terms of colour difference or gloss, but I don't know if it'd be any good for preventing staining (I'd guess not much).
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