QRock black floor tile and a grouting problem

[YADT]

Hi

A few months ago I laid some QRock black floor tiles (30x60) on the bathroom floor and i finally got around to grouting them over the weekend with Mapei Ultracolour plus 110 (this is a spare-time job and i dont have much spare time these days). It's the first time that i've used a powder grout after seeing so many recommendations on this forum and i was pretty pleased with how easy it was to mix and apply. However tonight I've been trying to clean off the excess grout and i'm having a damn hard job trying to get the tile clean.

When the tiles is damp it looks fine, but as soon as it start to dry off i can see something like a film of grey grout on the surface of the tile. Having done a search for QRock i found this old thread http://www.tilersforums.com/tiling-forum/3196-q-rock-tiles.html and from what i can tell i have exactly the same problem that is described there, however that thread was started 3 years ago and i bought these tiles in September 2010! I havent sealed or pre-prepared the tiles in any way because no-one at Topps said i needed to when i purchased them.

Should i just keep scrubbing until they come clean or will i need to use a cleaning agent of some sort?

Since the grout has only been down 24 hours, is it ok to get it reasonably wet or will that cause problems?

If i need to use a cleaner, which one and where can i get it from? (I'm in Coventry, West Midlands)

I can post an up-close picture of the floor tiles if it would help diagnose the problem.

Thanks
Ian

 

[DHTiling]

Hi Ian.. Try some grout residue remover and use a white scotch pad to help..

 

[nybor62]

as above

 

[YADT]

Sorry guys, thanks for the replies but this has probably been a false alarm

After posting my original message i decided to go back in and have another go. Armed with a bucket of clean water and a clean sponge the tiles came up a whole lot better. I suppose with hindsight, its easy to realise that dirty water with grout in it isnt going to clean much.

I think it's probably going to need a final clean again tomorrow, but i'm certainly not worrying as much as i was an hour ago. This is the first time i've done floor tiles and the first time ive used a non-glazed tile, so i was sort of expecting it to clean up like a glazed tile.

Lesson for today - dirty water dont clean anything

Ian