Fully tiled showers have always been the very best amongst a variety of bathroom options when it comes to giving your home an upmarket feel. A well-tiled shower can last for 20 years or more if it also has been regularly maintained. Most tiled showers that we see have been installed with a traditional cement-based grout. Unfortunately, cement-based grout is porous and easily absorbs moisture which eventually leads to the breakdown of the grout itself. At its worst, water is free to work its way under the tiles, degrading the tiled adhesive and allowing the tiles to loosen and lift. Once a tile is loose, it can easily crack (a problem if the homeowner has no spare tiles).
When GroutPro was asked to view the shower of this Tauranga home we were not surprised that the grout had broken down. We were able to reassure the owners that a full repair of the shower was easily possible, without having to re-tile their bathroom. The owners had initially been reluctant to move ahead thinking that all the tiles would have to be replaced. GroutPro sees many of these sorts of problems.
A loose tile outside the shower enclosure and missing grout in the shower base proved to be the root cause of the problem. This had allowed excessive quantities of water to seep under the tiles. The tiles had then loosened and become detached. It’s a bit tricky to remove and re-glue these loose tiles but GroutPro has all the gear and experience to do this.
The best solution required removing all the grout in the shower base and replacing it with epoxy grout. Epoxy grout is a waterproof alternative to standard grout and is almost completely resistant to staining. It is extremely durable so a perfect product for your tiled shower. It is a lot more difficult to apply than cement grout and isn’t advisable for the home DIY-er to try. A general tidy up of the rest of the shower, re-affixing of the loose tile and a deep clean of the rest of the tiles has given this bathroom a new lease of life that should last much longer than the original installation.
