Problems with BAL charcoal grouts

[The D]

Has any body had the same problem. I used BAL charcoal grout on a job I did the other week. I applied the grout as I always do. The customer rang me the next day and said the grout was blue. I went to see and it was as blue as blue can be it looked like I had spilled the chalk from my chalk line on the floor. I then rang BAL technical and can u guess what the said ? Yes that is Efflorescence . So I called the BAL rep to cut a long story short BAL’s answer to the problem was to offer me a couple of free bags of adhesive.
My answer was no thanks I will just use mapei or weber from now on. “25 year guarantee my but”

 

[Fekin]

Never had that problem, always looks black as black can be to me.

 

[The D]

the rep told me there are at least three other jobs like this one

 

[MICK the Tiler]

Very strange Dean. What has the client said to you at this stage? Will it need to come out? What an absolute bugger that would be.

I had a similar problem on a job just before xmas, bought my regular quota of sanded grey grout went and used it on a job and it just felt different, so rang the company they came and had a look to a sample and got back to me within 3 days with the explanation. "It seems the factory has put NON-Sanded grout into sanded grout bags" SHEESH!!! how hard can it be to bag the stuff up correctly.

 

[david campbell]

happened once with the charcoal but it had more greyish/white spots through it,still the same problem though efflourescence!
but apart from that it's been fine well apart from having to keep seperate floats/sponges and buckets for the stuff!

 

[CBTC]

I had a problem with Bal ivory that dried very unevenly and stayed that way. All the process was done correctly let me say. Bal came out and duly produced a report, which cleared themselves. The guys who came out were the most helpful; they were coming accross this fairly regularly and it was always with porcelain tiles, but in certain circumstances. The thinking was that the lack of porosity in the tile, was sometimes affecting the dry out process, causing efflouresence and an uneven dry out. The quiet advice was that Mapei, which uses a different type of cement (higher aluminum content I think) than OPC was better for porcelain tiles. I stick with Mapei for porcelain for that reason. In any case where black grouts are used it usually means a return once dry to clean down the tiles with a haze removerbefore they look as they should - it just doesnt seem to be able to be done in the clean down process alone.
The case of the charcol going blue !! yikes that cant be right

 

[Gazzer]

I did a job last year and the client supplied Charcoal (BAL) grout. It was a lobby to a shop and the floor and 2 walls were tiled in the same tile. They didnt have enough grout in the end and all i had avaialble on a Sunday was Mapei black grout. So on their instruction ( shop was being opened on the monday) the walls were grouted in Mapei and floor in BAL.
Looked the same until it dried and then the floor grout looked lighter and patchy. The wall grout was great. the client wasnt over bothered as i had explained it could be a different shade when dry and didnt even bother that much with the patches of lighter grout. they felt that as it was a floor and it will be subject to wetting due to it being on a high street entrance.
They also said that it was a good job the grouts werent used the other way around as it would be more noticable.

 

[Perry]

thats bal 4 u 25 years for u not 4 them lol

 

[basshunter]

atleast you got some free bags of grout.mapei gave me nothing!

 

[cornish_crofter]

I have used the BAL Ebony, not the Charcoal. And this claimed to be efflorecsence free.

I got this from Topps together with some GT1 and it worked a treat.

Since then I've bought some BAL Smoke in the same range, Smoke is a dark grey. Again, no patches etc.

Maybe their Efflorescence free is OK.

 

[doug boardley]

bal charcoal has always been black for me, sorry to hear it let you down

 

[d13ken]

Had this problem only it turned from black to white overnight. next day re-grouted using a nearly dry mix but usable,IT WORKED not had a problem since.

 

[Olz]

Always been black for me aswell, I use the patches of it that are usually left all over my arms /clothes / tools for at least three weeks after i've used it to monitor any change in colour :lol::lol:

 

[bendle]

Has anyone had a problem with bal micromax ebony? just did a couple of floors recently and there is black dye still coming off if you run a finger along the grout line.

 

[Qwerty]

Hi @bendle , it's great to see people like yourself are using the forums search facility to resurrect old posts they feel they can contribute to or benefit from.
This thread is 7 years old!

To answer your question....... did you mix as per instructions? (ratios, waiting time, remixing etc) Also, did you shake the bag a few times before opening. Sounds silly but it really can help with mixing up the powder with the dye powder etc.

Got any photos?