Changing the color of grout

new grout color

Over the years this ceramic mosaic floor with sanded white grout darkened considerably.  After many frustrating attempts to clean it, the homeowner called me and we agreed to apply epoxy-based grout colorant to the joints.  The grout colorant we use is dual purpose:  it not only changes the appearance of grout to a consistent color…

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Outdoor Paver Tile Walkway

Outdoor Pavers

Pavers from America, made in Lincoln California First step was to dig out the garden soil to the correct depth.  It is important to leave undisturbed soil at the bottom of the dug out area.   We dug out about 4 inches of dirt and framed it in with wood boards on the outside edge making…

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Sealing a slate floor

Slate tile treated with enhancer sealer

Here you see a slate floor which was cleaned with an alkali product and then the darker half was sealed with an enhancing solvent based sealer.se.

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Granite sealing

Sealing Granite

We recently sealed this Absolute Black granite vanity and the grout between the floor tiles in a master bath. Typically, most installers do not automatically apply sealer to grout or stone; this task is the responsibility of the homeowner to either apply themselves or hire someone to seal the stone or grout.  In a new house…

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Tile on slab floor is buckling upwards and coming loose

Recently, I worked on a repair to a large tiled floor where 12 tiles were coming loose and buckling upward in a bedroom and 7 tiles were coming loose in the formal dinning room.  The homeowner asked me, “why is this happening?”  This house had over 1200 sq. ft. of floor tiled installed over a…

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Cracked slab floor

Cracked slab floor

We received a call from a homeowner about a row of cracked tiles in their bathroom floor.  The cracked tiles were due to a slab crack directly under the tiles. When re-setting tile over a crack like this its important to use a flexible setting material.  Most membrane or elastic-type setting products will work over slab…

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