when should i Silicon floor edges?

it is amazing how you just go through a natural progression Tile - Grout - Silicon without thinking too much.Dave's suggestion has just hit me like a christmas pudding!!i will be following Dave's lead from now on, Cheers!!
 
I've seen this Silicon question before. If you Silicon when grout is new and not hard the Silicon won't stick to it. I have had this very problem on a kitchen I was in a hurry to finish. Ended up looking she-ite and the Silicon was coming away! I had to remove it and do it properly. It looked much better the second time.

If you Silicon before grouting, how long do you leave the Silicon to set before attempting to grout up to it? if you do it too early you will disturb the Silicon and make a mess!

Grumpy
 
I would prefer to grout 1st and then Silicon over last . It makes sense to me because if you Silicon 1st i feel that when it comes to grouting , small pin holes in the grout can appear next to Silicon.
Also Silicon should really be one of the last jobs before the house is handed over. How many times have i seen the Silicon done and then another trade follow me in and drill holes for shower screens etc...then the Silicon is a mess. I know it shouldnt happen but it does.
Regards.
 
I would prefer to grout 1st and then Silicon over last . It makes sense to me because if you Silicon 1st i feel that when it comes to grouting , small pin holes in the grout can appear next to Silicon.
Also Silicon should really be one of the last jobs before the house is handed over. How many times have i seen the Silicon done and then another trade follow me in and drill holes for shower screens etc...then the Silicon is a mess. I know it shouldnt happen but it does.
Regards.
welcome to the forums Sir Ramic ( fantastic name ) you do have some good points...but overall I feel that when Silicon is applied after grouting, the Silicon is sitting on top of grout and not actually in a joint,A-as an expansion and B- to repell water.....also with it not being pushed into a joint, it tends to spread across tiles and meeting surfaces creating a feather finish, which peels off when customer wipes or scrubs to clean........Gaz
 
silicon should never sit on the grout ,the joint should be raked out after grouting,this also means that a adequate expansion joint should be left between the tiles and the wall/skirt otherwise your silicon will peel off. andi have tried to train several plumbers to use silicon properly and its never worth the effort!!
 
learn summin new everyday on here. :thumbsup:

I just thought Silicon could sit on the grout as the grout is flexible it didnt matter but I know different now cheers.
 
Ok lets put it another way. In a perfect world when tiling Bathrooms etc, i prefer to tile the walls and floor without any sanitary ware fixed (except bath and shower tray. There by all sanitary is fixed after tiling. So the order of the job would be,
Bath and shower tray
Tiling
Grouting
Fix of sanitary
Silicon.
This would mean as you say the Silicon would be on the grout as opposed to being in the joint. Personally i have never had any problem due to this in over 30 years.
Most failures in the Silicon dept are down to not applying to a clean dry surface in the 1st place.
When smoothing the Silicon to get the finished look i prefer to apply the Silicon using a suitable mitre on the nozzle and to make sure the Silicon is pressed very lightly between the 2 surfaces. Then i use a wet finger either moistened with saliva or a weak mix of washing up liquid and water. For the final finish i like to spray the Silicon with a fine mist of washing up liquid and water and tool over with a rubber finger or the like. I guess what ever works for you is best.
 
i guess i live in your perfect world! here in oz there is only bath and optional tray fitted be.for tiling ,everything else is fitted afterwards usually by the plumber.i fill the joint with silicon ,spray it with dilute dishwashing liquid,and smooth it witha wet icecream stick -gives a nice tight contour.there is also a tool made by maxisil in germany which gives different contours
 

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