Grouted epansion joints, what to do?

[Meek]

Hello,

A few months back we had some rooms plumbed and tiled - a ground floor ensuite bathroom (concrete floor, brick and stud walls) and an upstairs bathroom (floor was layed over 18mm wbp ply with flexible adhesive).

The bathroom and ensuite have both been grouted with epoxy grout, which is great BUT.. the grout has been used at every corner in the rooms and where the bath edge meets the tiles. It's also been epoxy grouted where the floor tiles meet the wall tiles and around the door architrave.

I understand this to be a massive mess up and I'm not sure what to do about it. I don't have money to rip anything apart and afaik epoxy grout is impossible to remove without damaging the tiles and probably the bath.. and the tanking would probably be annihilated too.

Any ideas on what to do? Is siliconing over the grout going to be of any benefit? How long is this likely to hold together before it starts cracking?

Thanks.

 

[AMtek]

personally i would leave it as it is and see how it goes. you could try raking the epoxy out with a fein or similar and then silicone to create expansion joints but as you say you may end up damaging the tiles

 

[kilty55]

i would ask the tiler who did the job to come back and rake out the epoxy as best he can

if the tiler is not competent in silicone work then you could contact a silicone man to come and put right

your problem is fixable

you really need that silicone where the bath meets tile as water will no doubt get in there at some point

 

[jay]

As Kilty put it and no silicone over the top is not the answer. no expansion

 

[Meek]

Thank you very much for the advice, it's reassuring to know something can be done to remedy the situation.

I don't think I want to call the original tiler back as quite honestly I'm not sure he'd want to fix his mistake. I'll try to find somebody with more experience to sort out the problem as now at least I know it's possible. Out of interest, does the epoxy need to be raked out fully for there to be an expansion gap for the silicone or can a certain amount remain? I'm concerned that with a rake the tanking tape will be ripped through.

Also, what sort of cost would I roughly be looking at to get it ammended by a decent tradesperson (I'm in the midlands, near Derby)?

 

[kilty55]

hi meek yes need to rake it all out,it will be a fiddly time consuming job i would imagine

if you want to advertise your job thre is a section on here to do so and local tilers may contact you through it for quotes

 

[Meek]

Fiddly and time consuming.. *sigh* horrid combination. I'll give the job section a go, thanks again.

 

[kilty55]

ok meek,its very important you get this done properly otherwise you will have a bigger issue on your hands later down the line