👍 Repair Cracked Grout - Tile over Tile Shower Floor - (Never Seal Again) - Super Grout Additive®

how you doing this adjacent with ceramic tile pro and today I want to show you a project involving tile over tile now this is a great project for Sherriff floors typically you'll see a shower floor start to deteriorate down low at the Sherriff floor most often you will see grout starting to crack where the Sherriff floor and the walls meet once that happens it starts to fall apart and water can find its way under the tile we're going to go ahead and we're going to install tile directly over this tile and we're going to use our epoxy bond to completely seal the shower floor and make it waterproof this is going to allow us years of protection I'm going to show you step-by-step all the way through the entire process so you too can have an amazing shower now for our tile over tile installation we do need a few things we need a high quality primer that is going to allow our new tile to bond to our old tile we also need a drain frame we have a stainless steel version and also a drain extension we always want to make sure we have a nice clean surface and that includes vacuuming up any debris so our next step is to remove the two screws which can be difficult at times the problem is they can come Road and actually either be stripped or the head of the screw can be sheared off which causes a lot of extra work involved you want to take your time with this process and use your utility knife to clean out any debris in the screw head and use a high-quality number 2 phillips screwdriver taking your time to break the screws loose freely without stripping or shearing the head off take your time with this after the screws have been removed go ahead and remove your screen okay so our next step is to go ahead and mix our primer I like to use what's called a margin trowel and will span approximately 60 seconds I want to make sure that I mix this completely from top to bottom take your time with this so our next step is to apply the primer I like to use a roller and apply a nice even thin coat the drying instructions mentions 15 to 60 minutes of drying time before you can go ahead and install your new tile so while the primer is drying there are a few things that we can do I always like to apply some type of grout release or even a grout sealer on top of the tile which really helps during the grouting process it keeps the grout from sticking to the tile and that's pretty important especially when you're using an epoxy grout such as our epoxy bond I like to apply one thin even coat to the surface on all the tiles I am using what's called 5:11 impregnator which is made by miracle and is available at most Home Depot's it is an excellent sealer especially for natural stone and also serves as a great grout release for grouting our next step is to go ahead and lay out our tile directly on the floor what we want to do is figure out where we want our full tiles and where we want our cuts one you want to make sure and take your time with a step it's always a good idea to know not only where your cuts are but what size they are you can always shift your tiles to the side or up and back to find the best layout possible using our black rubber shims we want to make sure that the new finished height of the drain is slightly below the top surface of the tile we can use our trowel to make sure that we have approximately 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch below the finished tile height you want to check from both sides to make sure your drain is nice and level once you have established your new correct drain height we can now start applying our thin set mortar directly to the floor for areas such as shower floors you can go ahead and apply your thin set mortar to the complete floor especially if you have all of your cuts already made it's a very easy process to go ahead and install all of your tiles at one time I like to use a notch trowel approximately 3/8 of an inch deep by one quarter of an inch wide that is the size of the ridges that you see right there I also like to make sure and squish that then set mortar into the areas that have voids take your time with this in what you are trying to achieve is a very nice uniform surface for the tile to stick to you really don't want to have any areas that have more thin set than others as that will only create a mess once you start installing the tile you have approximately twenty minutes maybe thirty minutes depending on the temperature to install all of your tile if you feel that you need more time then I would suggest not applying thin set mortar to the complete shower floor you can always do small areas at a time you so you can taking my time I'm in no big hurry to apply that thinset I know that if I can apply the mortar to a nice smooth consistency without any lumps it's going to make the installation of the tile much easier once you're satisfied with the thinset application now is the time to start installing the tile and it really couldn't be any easier especially if you have all of your cuts made now it's just a matter of simply applying your sheets one by one and taking a few extra moments to pay attention to aligning your joints as accurate as possible as you can see I will work my way around the shower drain with the full sheets one at a time placing them as accurate as possible this next sheet is going to tell me how close I was and guessing the placement of the prior sheets as you can see there will be some adjustments that are necessary in order to align them and maintain that same grout joint once you are comfortable with that you can now begin installing your full tiles around your drain I do like to leave out any cuts that are to be made around the drain frame I will then go ahead and start installing the perimeter tiles once the tiles have been installed I will take my rubber float and press down firmly which will allow the tiles to finish and provide a nice smooth finish this also helps embed the tile into the thinset mortar which creates an incredible bond the drain area is generally the last thing that I do because it is the most time-consuming and I want to make sure to install my tiles on fresh thin set mortar if the process of marking these cuts and cutting them are too timely I can simply take my margin trowel and remove the thin set mortar and apply fresh mortar I am in no hurry to mark these cuts as I only want to mark and cut it once which is generally faster than rushing through this I'll need to find out that you have to remake your cuts because they were not marked accurately enough I will go ahead and transfer all of the markings that I made to each tile using my pencil I typically do not like to use any type of ink based pens especially on natural stones such as this travertine as they can permanently stain the tile I like to use a pencil and mark somewhat light yet not light enough that the water from the tile saw will wash it off once all tiles have been marked I will go ahead and number in a clockwise fashion after the cuts have been made I like to use sandpaper here I'm using 80 grit and will smooth the edges made by the tile saw we do not want any sharp edges surrounding the drain frame one note if you are concerned that marking the surface of your tile will cause permanent damage you can go ahead and label the bottoms of your tiles you could also use masking tape to apply to the top side of the tile before marking and then use an ink pen this will work really good on a wet tile saw as the ink will not wash off the tape once the cuts have been made you can simply remove the tape once all the tiles have been sanded smoothly I will go ahead and dry them off and for these particular tiles I will remove this netting which is generally very wet from the tile saw again I do not like to install wet tile as it does not bond very well to the thinset once all of the backing material has been removed I will simply apply a small amount of thin set mortar to the backside of the tile this will really help bond the tile to the mortar I then will go ahead and press the tiles firmly into place paying attention to trying to achieve a nice flesh finish with the surrounding tiles sometimes I like to use a little thicker or stiffer thinset for these final pieces as it really helps keep the tiles from moving also please note that I tend to use modified thinset for almost all of my tile installations modified thinset mortar is a higher-quality thin set with a slower drying time which really helps especially when dealing with porcelain tiles on this particular job I am using what's called speed set or rapid set which is basically a modified thinset that is specially designed to set up and cure in a very short period of time this particular thin set made by custom building products is available at most Home Depot's and comes in the color gray the reason why I chose to use the rapid set is because I want to go ahead and grout this floor soon after the tile installation it is not necessary to use rapid set only for special uses regular modified thinset works fine and actually allows you more time for you to install your tile once all the cuts are in place I again take my grout float and make sure the tiles are flesh now we will go ahead and take our drain frame and temporarily fit into place to see how we did with our cuts if we are happy with the result we will go ahead and remove the drain frame and apply then set mortar to the bottom I do like to use thicker thin set for this as it really allows me to place the drain frame very accurately and not worrying about the drain frame moving during the drying process again place the drain frame in its location and make sure that it fits flush or even slightly below the surface of the surrounding tiles after the tile has dried and we are able to grout it is now time to mix our epoxy bond I am using four units which will provide plenty of grout for the shower floor the first step is to add the four units of white resin to the bucket then add the four units of hardener to the resin I then take my margin trowel and we'll mix for at least 60 seconds once the resin and hardener has been mixed completely I will then start adding our sanded based grout I like to gradually add the grout one or two cups at a time and then mix here we have cup number three cup number four and mix keep in mind that epoxy bond is not a fast setting epoxy you have approximately 60 minutes of working time it's very important to thoroughly mix here we have cup number five and we're starting to achieve that consistency that we're looking for you can see that mixing slowly is very effective here I've decided to add the final cup of grout I have found that using four units of epoxy bond and 6 cups of sanded cement based grout provides a nice smooth creamy consistency that works very well for complete shower floor installations I probably would not use any more grout to make it thicker 5 cups of grout would work as well especially in warmer climates where it could set up a little faster once you're happy with the consistency we want to go ahead and make sure that our floor is completely clean and that includes removing any thin set mortar that has used in between the joints sometimes I do like to pre wet the surface of the tile with a damp cloth which helps keep the epoxy bond from sticking to the surface of the tile keep in mind that we have treated this travertine with a very high quality grout sealer that helps assure that the washing and wiping process will be much easier applying epoxy bond is a sticky type of grout I have found that slow movements with moderate pressure allow for the epoxy bond to flow into the grout joints completely filling them up 100% you're trying to achieve a nice smooth even pressure into the grout joints filling them up 100% we then use the edge of a grout float to help skim the excess material off the tile using slow controlled movements works very well for sticky types of grout such as epoxy bond I know I have approximately 60 minutes of working time if you feel that you cannot grout the sheriff floor in 60 minutes simply mix half the amount you can always go out half your shower and then simply mix up the remaining half and finish your floor you do not have to wait for the prior installation to dry a certain period of time epoxy bond will stick to old Grell it will stick to new grout it will stick to tile it'll stick to plastic wood it's an incredible product I've also learned that as a tile contractor here in California I now will grow all of my new shower installation shower floors and curbs with epoxy bond and the reason why is because I know that regular cement based grout has a weakness especially with corners it does not matter if it's a horizontal or vertical corner we have all seen shower floor perimeters where the floor and the wall meet develop cracks typically a homeowner will either purchase a silicone or caulk and run a bead around the perimeter an attempt to prevent water from getting below the surface of the tile we also know that that is a short-lived repair and generally develops a black fungus or growth issue which means we have to continuously remove that silicone or caulk and replace every so often with the epoxy bond we know that it's a very strong product it's not going to crack to begin with therefore we're not going to have any water seep below the surface of the tile and the grout and that's really the key difference between a regular grout a silicone or a caulk the epoxy is the best of both worlds the key and having a shower floor that lasts for years without any issues is to allow the shower floor to dry between uses and if the sheriff floor is used on a daily basis we want to make sure it is drying out before each use when that happens you no longer have this growth or fungus issue also epoxy bond is 99 percent waterproof which means that we're not going to have any water seep into the grout joint and go below the tile and we also know that the tile is approximately 99% waterproof so during use the water is staying on top of the tile and that is the key difference between epoxy bond and regular grout the water has nowhere to go except down the drain now during this process I'm using a epoxy sponge which is a special sponge used for epoxy type grouts it's a more coarse type of sponge and we're also using hot water during our washing process that you see right here all I'm doing is I'm concentrating on wiping the excess residue off of the tile I'm not really focusing on the grout joints what I'm doing is I'm breaking up the film on top of the tile I will then take my microfiber cloth and I will go ahead and I will start removing that film on the tile as you can see one sweep really picks up the residue using the hot water in combination with the microfiber towel makes washing the epoxy bond extremely easy as I'm wiping the surface I am looking for any imperfections in the grout such as possible pinholes maybe some air pockets or some voids that I may have missed if you do find any air pockets or voids simply take some of your grout and fill those areas here you can see I am applying a nice amount of epoxy bond where the shower drain meets the drain frame I'm being careful not to get any inside of the drain if you're not comfortable with this method simply apply some masking tape to the top of the drain once we are completely done we want to allow the shower to dry for a minimum of three days before getting exposed to water congratulations you now have an awesome shower floor that will last for many years to come thanks for watching

Channel: Ceramic Tile Pro LLC

Views: 1,379,474

Rating: 4.5729666 out of 5

Keywords: Repair Cracked Grout, Grout Cracks Repaired, Grout Repair Products, Tile Grout, Grout Sealer

Id: JqEu-Vssobg

Length: 34min 14sec (2054 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2015