New tile grout washed away/not set
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:55 pm
Hello all,
Our landlord recently sent a handy man to fix up or bathroom, particularly some leaky tiles around our bath. The problem was in a 2 tile wide horizontal shelf at the end of the bath, level with the top of the bath, filing a gap between the bath and the wall. The tiles make a shelf and then go up the wall. This is the end with the shower.
At some point the tiles had been cracked and gaps had formed in the grout. Previously a guy came and sealed up the grout with silicone but this came off.
The new guy did a really nice job and replaced the horizontal tiles and one tile row on the vertical, and sorted out the side profile of the shelf which had all rotted.
However....
I checked it all this afternoon (Monday) and the grout on the horizontal is not set and some has washed away. Its all mushy. The ones on the vertical are dry and seem fine. Job was done on Thursday.
What has happened? I'm loathed to try and get the landlord to get the guy back as it seems it should be fixed asap and looks like a small job if its just a case of getting out the grout and putting in some new. I'm pretty handy and don't mind doing it but don't want to put it in there if there's something I'm not spotting going on there.
Was it too damp when the tiles went on? (It looked like a soggy bit of old wood underneath)
Did it not dry for long enough?
Was the grout mixed wrong?
How long should I leave it all before trying to fix it?
Thank you!
Our landlord recently sent a handy man to fix up or bathroom, particularly some leaky tiles around our bath. The problem was in a 2 tile wide horizontal shelf at the end of the bath, level with the top of the bath, filing a gap between the bath and the wall. The tiles make a shelf and then go up the wall. This is the end with the shower.
At some point the tiles had been cracked and gaps had formed in the grout. Previously a guy came and sealed up the grout with silicone but this came off.
The new guy did a really nice job and replaced the horizontal tiles and one tile row on the vertical, and sorted out the side profile of the shelf which had all rotted.
However....
I checked it all this afternoon (Monday) and the grout on the horizontal is not set and some has washed away. Its all mushy. The ones on the vertical are dry and seem fine. Job was done on Thursday.
What has happened? I'm loathed to try and get the landlord to get the guy back as it seems it should be fixed asap and looks like a small job if its just a case of getting out the grout and putting in some new. I'm pretty handy and don't mind doing it but don't want to put it in there if there's something I'm not spotting going on there.
Was it too damp when the tiles went on? (It looked like a soggy bit of old wood underneath)
Did it not dry for long enough?
Was the grout mixed wrong?
How long should I leave it all before trying to fix it?
Thank you!