Water sipping through the grout?

[Alphab]

Hi all,
Complete newbie here so I apologise if this is a basic question, but I hope you guys can help me out.

I've bought a flat a few months ago, and there are quite a few things done badly in there.
I have noticed that the tiles in the shower seems to have some kind of water leaking into them. I though tiles where hemetic, but there is a darker shade that is appearing under their surface, most often but not always starting from the edges of the tiles.



Would you know what is causing this?

How do I stop it spreading, reoccurring and and how do I remove these traces?



Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

 

[Gazzer]

The grout is cracked letting water in. Its a regrout job at the least.

 

[White Room]

As above, it would be interesting to know what the background is....

 

[Alphab]

Hi, thanks for your answers.

To whitebeam: am not sure what you mean by "background". If it's what's been put behind the tiles, I don't know. If it's the story of our flat here it goes...
This is a old Victorian house that has been converted into two separate flat. We have already seen many occasion where the work has been done very badly, so I wouldn't be surprised if the bathroom hadn't been done properly or with the wrong type of materials. Looking around in the bathroom, there are many cracks in many places in the grout. It is possible they are due to a structure issue with the chimney pushing this wall. (we have some cracks in other rooms too).

So I've googled regrouting and it seems like something I could do myself. I get that that might crack again in the future but that should save me a few years until we can address the structural issue. Is there a kind of grout I could use that would somehow stretch and not crack for such small movement? I presume I should also buy waterproof grout?

So regrouting should make sure no more water leaks in and do more damage, but is there a way for me to remove the dark areas that are already there? What are they actually made of? Would there be a point to try to dry this with a hair-drier?

Thanks again for your help & regards.

Fabien

 

[Martino]

EEEEEKKK that looks like a right bodge job!! mastic on the tile trim!!....your never going to get it amazing but have a go at re-grouting, get as much grout out as you can with a grout remover tool but be patient as it may take time...i reckon the dark is a stain and wont be removed!, you can try the hair drier if you wish

 

[White Room]

Background is the surface to which the wall is constructed of as in plasterboard or render etc...

 

[Alphab]

Hi,
Whitebeam: I have no idea what' s under the tiles, sorry.

I've now started removing the grout -and already made two scratch on the tiles .
I've put a hair-dryer in front of it for ten minute without any changes to the black stains.

It looks like these dark stain are caused by a very very thin layer of mould IN the tile, just under the glazing where I can't physically touch it. Is this even possible?
Is there any way I can get rid of that?

I wonder whether I could try putting mould remover through the grout gap between the tile, but that might wet it even more and be counter productive...


Thanks for your advice,

Fabien

 

[AliGage]

I have a gut feeling your going to open a nasty can of worms with this one. The staining on the "white" grout suggests that the background could be a softwood ply. But, as you said it is an old building converted your internal walls could be larf and plaster. If it's the later i wouldn't touch the thing until i could afford to replace the whole room.
The thing with the later is once it's blown it's blown. If it has blown your tiles won't be bonded, they may be being held together by the grout you're looking to remove.

Fingers crossed it's perhaps a ply background and grinding out the grout won't cause anymore issues. If you do get the grout out and re-grout use a flexible one such as BAL Microflex, which also contains your microban to combat the mould issues. I would get a heater in there for a day or two after de-grouting before re-grouting the room. VBut it really depends what the background is behind the tiles as to how to approach it as a whole. Hope that helps.

 

[Alphab]

Hi
While the house itself is a conversion, I believe the bit where the bathroom is has been added only a couple of years ago. This bit of the bathroom wall is an outside wall. I have degrouted a couple of tiles, and they all stay put nicely, and I everything looks nice and dry behind.(the black bit in the grout in the previous picture is not mold, it's just a gap in the tile adhesive.)

So I'm incline to believe the issue was just the cracked grout, which allowed for infiltration IN the tiles.
Doing this by hand is taking an awful lot of time, so I am off to buy the dremel with special de grout kit, which should speed things along.

What do you guys think about the dark thin spot IN the tiles? Any way to get rid of them? Would heating for a few days make them go? Should I use anti mould products?

Thanks again for your help. I'm a complete newbie for all this and got more than what I could handle when I bought this house...

 

[AliGage]

Definately use anti mould products. BAL micromax grout, it contains microban, same with the silicone.

 

[macten]

The dark spots look like the tile biscuit is soaked and should dry out eventually if the bathroom isn't used. If it doesn't then the water ingress over prolonged periods has caused staining - if that is the case then you will have to rip out and start again or live with it I'm afraid.