Grout sinking?

[afright]

When the water is really cold I do add warm water to it. I try not to be too heavy handed with the washboy and I leave it for as long as possible before using a damp (well rung out) microfibre, then I use a nice soft cotton tee shirt or dress that my two little girls have grown out of (other items of clothing can also be used!!)

A nice pair of stockings would complement the dress while grouting,but watch out the knee pads might ladder them :lol:

 

[jonnyc]

we double grout on 90 % of jobs we do ,and it was something i never thought of till i saw a swiss tiler in action on a job over there .
it makes sense.
we will do fairly wet first grout without worrying about getting flush and leave it for however long it needs to lose some of moisture but never let it dry or get hard. then second pass with stiffer grout and get the joints nice and flush.
the other thing we do is use the air blower which makes a big difference especially on porcelain floors.
i think gary the tiler has posted a picture of one of these before , but i would say that it is one of the most useful tools i have.
I started off using them for my floor restoration as it enabled us to seal the floor same day as cleaning if it was not too porous.
ive had a few makes which all look similar and they do burn out if left running all day too many times but a vital bit of kit. if you use a good little kroll fan heater to get temp up and the blower its another plus.

 

[beanz]

Jonny, i've seen your pics, so know it's obviously not a problem for you, but i'd be concerned that if i tried your method, i'd end up with patchy grout!?! And does the air blower not dry the grout out too quickly? I thought forcing cement to dry too quickly would cause cracking!?!?! You think you've learnt something, then someone goes and turns the whole world upside down!

 

[jonnyc]

Jonny, i've seen your pics, so know it's obviously not a problem for you, but i'd be concerned that if i tried your method, i'd end up with patchy grout!?! And does the air blower not dry the grout out too quickly? I thought forcing cement to dry too quickly would cause cracking!?!?! You think you've learnt something, then someone goes and turns the whole world upside down!

You won't end up with patchy grout.
you might worry that the second pass will not stick to the first but that is the point of not letting grout dry too much before second grout.
the blower I'm talking about is only circulating air and is not force drying the grout .
it would be no different than grouting outside with a bit of a breeze.
I don't pretend to know the technical workings of air and heat but have just worked out a technique that suits my business and have never had any comebacks on grout failure to date thank goodness.
In same vein I have always mixed my own grout colours from base colours for twenty years and everyone thinks I'm nuts mainly because I can't remember the mix for another job or if have to add to an area already tiled. That's just me being slack.
but I am not trained at all and taught myself as I went along.
i think I probably do a number of things that members on here might question but iam very cautious as I have done work using very expensive materials for more than twenty years .

 

[beanz]

You won't end up with patchy grout.
you might worry that the second pass will not stick to the first but that is the point of not letting grout dry too much before second grout.
the blower I'm talking about is only circulating air and is not force drying the grout .
it would be no different than grouting outside with a bit of a breeze.
I don't pretend to know the technical workings of air and heat but have just worked out a technique that suits my business and have never had any comebacks on grout failure to date thank goodness.
In same vein I have always mixed my own grout colours from base colours for twenty years and everyone thinks I'm nuts mainly because I can't remember the mix for another job or if have to add to an area already tiled. That's just me being slack.
but I am not trained at all and taught myself as I went along.
i think I probably do a number of things that members on here might question but iam very cautious as I have done work using very expensive materials for more than twenty years .

Interesting.. And a lot of food for thought there.. Thanks