GROUT NIGHTMARE!

[Moser Bros.]

I cleaned some freshly installed ceramic tile yesterday in an upscale remodeled home. My contractor buddy had me clean the tile because his crew walked all over it during the remodel, everything came out perfect except.... 2 spots in front of the refrigerator, I think they were either ink or grease. My acid cleaner jug was empty so I put about 2 oz of water in the jug, shook it up and I had no effect on the stain, upt didn't work, I went to the hardware store and bought some acetone and some wire brushes, no effect. The only thing that worked at all was the CA safe super solvent, I was able to loosen the stains and spread the stain. I made it worse, I reapplied the super solvent about 4 or 5 times and had to use my cell phone light since the deck installed turned off the power, and I had to clean the last few rooms of carpet with my cell phone to light the way. I gave up on the grout stain.

I think the stupid tile setter rolled the fridge back and something leaked onto the grout before it dried, I swear the stain was in the grout and was a never ending stain. I hate grout now and I'll never waste a couple hours on $1 section of tile cleaning, I'm going to tell my friend that his installer need to remove that small grout section and re grout.

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

I never guarantee the outcome of any tile or grout results. If they want a guarantee they need to pay for the color grout sealant. ie groutperfect.com - I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

 

[Mikey P]

Either dig out the stained areas and replace or color seal over it.


Not a nightmare but just part of doing business.

 

[Moser Bros.]

Wasted 8 hours, including today for a $188 tile job that I reduced to $128!

I had to go back today, the home owner was irate with the contractor that hired me, they claims that broke a tile, left the some solution on the tile, and there were more stains than to begin with.

I went back to the job today, and recleaned the tile at 1000 psi this time and I discovered that the white grout was just paint over dirty black grout... So the stain was not a stain but missing painted grout. I never would have taken the job if I knew the previous owner did some half ass job of covering up their dirty grout. I assumed that my contractor friend had just put in the tile, and I was just supposed to clean up the mess his subs made, he charged the homeowner $60,000 for a remodel that included, granite counter tops, new tile in the bathrooms and the only area with old tile was the kitchen and dining room that I cleaned, and I didn't notice that the grout painted over since I was working on that spot in the dark, since the power was shut off last Saturday night when I cleaned the grout the first time.

My contractor friend called me and complained that he never paid $400 to have a carpet cleaned before ( I charged him my .30 cent sqft vacant rate and .70 sqft tile)

I learned two things, I will do a more thorough inspection, take before photos on every tile job, and include ( not responsible for pre existing tile and grout conditions) on my invoice, and I don't care if I ever do business with this impatient homeowner or my friend that tried to nickle and dime me on the price

 

[Mikey P]

Let this be a lesson to all of you.


Do a hands and knees inspection of all TnG.


and carry a pocket knife.

 

[Fon Johnson]

Let this be a lesson to all of you.


Do a hands and knees inspection of all TnG.


and carry a pocket knife.

Yep, and sometimes it is best to just walk.

 

[Moser Bros.]

The homeowners want to sue me now. And my former contractor buddy is tearing out all the grout and re grouting.

I never should have assumed that he installed the tile and grout ( the only part of the house he didn't put in the tile) 600 psi was enough to blast out some of the color seal that some amateur used over dirty grout. The instructor never told me to use a knife for inspections at the IICRC tile cleaning class that I wasted $300 on.

I think the contractor should eat part of the job, I'm losing $188 for the tile, $388 for the carpet cleaning and $115 for the carpet protector that the homeowners were supposed to pay for. The con artist homeowner who is a Lawyer isn't paying for the carpet protector because he assumed that it was a stain remover, when I explained on the phone prior to applying it that is a " dry soil protector" I never sell as a bullet proof stain guard.

 

[TimP]

One thing that may of happened was that you might of cleaned it before it had time to cure. I did one like that where I was rescuing the customer from a grout haze.....idiot installer decided to grout like 600 ft all at one time before cleaning.


Well They turned the grout completely white from trying to get the grout off. I acid washed it and it turned the floor colors. I went back and neutralised with an alkaline and the color came out the way it was supposed to and the spots disappeared. It freaked me out for sure. I fixed the problem and had a happy customer.

But messing with grout before at least a week of drying is asking for trouble.

 

[David Gelinas]

Moser Bros. (Man I hate it when people don’t have a name)

I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a hard time with that job, as you’ve seen from your own experience as well as from the posts – a good inspection can’t be over emphasized but I also sometimes drop the ball with it too.

When working with friends you need to make sure its in writing and that it’s understood. We just restored some stone in a very high end attorneys’ office, a close friend works in the office and was overseeing getting a contractor. That in its self didn’t mean we were a shoe in; as a matter of fact the bid process was a rather big pain in the butt. After giving them our standard Work Order they needed it spelled out. We did that and then they didn’t want all the bells and whistles so we had to tone it down some for them. In the end we did get it but at the same time as we did the final walk through before starting the work she still wasn’t clear on a few things so with that I pulled out the paper work and said, “No, see here this is what we’re going to be doing, not that”. And this was with a friend.

I don’t know how it is in the great state of CA but here in FL a contractor has 45 days from starting work on a residential job site to file a lien against the property. It doesn’t cost much and if you can do it, it might be kinda fun to annoy the heck out of the attorney home owner – you know, beat’m at his own game. Only twice in 24 years have we had to lien someone’s property, both times the people were very wealthy and they were just trying to be pinheads, in the end we got our money.

While you’re at it give IICRC and see if they will refund your money.

David Gelinas
Marbleguy