Mapei Ultracolour Plus

[Christo1]

Hello there.
I've been having some problems with grouting my bathroom using mapei ultracolour plus in white. I have whiteish tiles with a row of blue in the corners. There is no problem on the blue rows but the finish colour on the areas of white I have done is not consistent at all. There are areas of up to 400mm of the joints are a dirty browny-grey. I have been mixing small batches and have heard that this can lead to colour variation but the difference in colour seems too significant to be this, also there is a variation in areas done with the same mix. Have any of you got any advice on how t put it right and how to avoid this happening again on the rest of the bathroom.

Thanks

Chris :8:no reson for the smiley apart from I like it

 

[kilty55]

hi mate,what colour was the adhesive you used on the job and were the grout lines cleaned out before grouting?

also recently there has been a thread on mapei white grout with a few people having issues with colour including myself as it seems to dry dirty/off white.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Christo

This has affected me too. I did my bathroom before Christmas with white tiles and white grout. The mapei ultracolour white is not a pure brilliant white like other manufacturers produce. My bathroom now has patchy white/grey/beige grout all over.

I even got a Mapei rep out to have a look at it. it's swings and roundabouts. Mapei say you have to mix it correctly to get all the pigments to blend properly but if you're a DIYer like me, how on earth would you know whether you've mixed it correctly other than by following the instructions :mad2:

I tried the keracolour in my en-suite when I retiled that in January and although it's fairly white in areas there are some spots that I'm not happy with.

When I complained to Mapei before Christmas, they sent me a bottle of their Fuga Fresca. I haven't tried it yet but when I do, I'll post a thread on here to let everyone know how I got on.

Unfortunately the Mapei white grout is like marmite - you either love it (cos you've had no problems with it) or hate it (cos it doesn't look white)

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who has had this problem

 

[mikethetile]

I found with the white you have to be carefull on the mixing, too much water and not enough whisking brought it up a dirty grey colour

not impressed, had to regrout with bal

ive had no problems with the other colours though and it is a nice grout to use

 

[jimbob]

Did you clean out your bucket thoroughly after each batch??

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Did you clean out your bucket thoroughly after each batch??

Jimbob, I used my best cake mixing bowls for mixing the grout for both the bathroom and en-suite :lol:

But yes you're right, a nice clean bucket will help, as will nice clean grout lines and nice clean tiles

The choices you have Christo are to either a) regrout with a different grout or b) try the Fuga Fresca in white to see if that colours it up better.

 

[stevee]

i had it again yesterday, im stickin with granfix now when using white

 

[Christo1]

Thank you all for your responses. The bucket i used was clean. The adhesive was water resistant mapei redymixed stuff in white, I did clean the joints out (with the bathroom cloth and plenty of water) It sounds to me this stuff was not intended for diy'ers. I deffinitely mixed it well enough, if anything I may have used a little too much water in places, as towards the end of the mix it was thinning due to the water from sponging off. I spoke to the Mapei rep who was no use, only repeating the mixing instructions and refusing to test the bag as he would not accept the product was at fault!

 

[Christo1]

Also i used ultracolour in grey for the floor with no prodlems. Next step is goback to the shop, kick off and hopefully they'll give me some Fuga Fresca. Does anyone know if it's any good?

 

[trevortine]

To me the problem lies in the mixing bud, 5kg of mapei needs a litre of water, mix, leave 2 to 3 mins and mix again. This will give a good open time and if grout starts to go off in bucket simply whisk again breifly. If you mixed in batches then you are never gonna get same consistency. Did you leave it long enough to go off in the joints?