Mapei grout is considered to be one of the
best grouts for a shower surround, and today I need to grout this 12” x 24” tile. I’m going to be using Mapei’s Keracolor
U, which stands for unsanded grout, and the reason why is the grout joints are no bigger
than 1/8”. Plus, I don’t want to scratch the surface
of this tile. And if you have a very sensitive tile that
you’re working with, you may want to consider Keracolor U or an unsanded grout for that
particular job. So we’re going to be sharing tips and tricks
that we’ve learned over the years, that I’ve learned from my buddy, Steve White,
who is a professional bathroom remodeler here in Pittsburgh, and also our friend, Sal DiBlasi,
who has an awesome YouTube channel that you should definitely check out. Let’s dive into the tutorial right now. Here’s the Keracolor U that I got. Now, again the reason why I did it is because
these glazed tiles behind me, I don’t want to scratch them. So being unsanded makes this a great option
for those tiles. The other thing is it’s polymer enriched,
which means that you’re going to have less staining with this grout. Now you can add grout maximizer to it, which
I’m going to be doing today, instead of water. And the grout maximizer means that you don’t
need to seal the Keracolor U, and it’s going to be way better, stain-resistant than other
grouts that are out there. Before we do anything with the Keracolor U,
we’re going to dry blend it because we don’t color variation in this grout. So by dry blending it, you’re mixing all
the pigments together in the bag if they have settled to the bottom, and you’re going
to get better color consistency. So this is the Grout MAXimizer. We’re going to mix this with the Keracolor
U. and what it does is it adds that extra stain defense, strengthens the grout, and
makes the color consistency really good. You should also shake up the Grout MAXimizer. We’re going to pour in most of this. We’re going to reserve about 15% of it at
the bottom here. And now I’m going to pour in most of this
10-lbs bag. You can use a piece of drywall. In this case, it’s a piece of KERDI Board. I’m just going to fish my mixer up through
there, and we’re going to mix this up pretty good. So one thing I do want to tell you is you
don’t want to whip this up too much because you will get air into the mixture, and that
will cause pinholes to form in your grout. So don’t go hog wild on this. Once you’re done mixing this, allow it to
slake or just sit here for about 5 minutes. While we wait for the grout to slake, make
sure that your grout joints don’t have any thinset in them. Obviously you should have done this when you
set the tile. If you do see thinset or any kind of shims
stuck in here, remove them because you’re going to have to pack the grout joints obviously
with the Keracolor U. So just inspect everything. Make sure that your tiles are nice and clean
as much as possible. And in that way, you’ll be ready to pack
the grout into the grout joint. Now that we’ve waited 5 minutes, what you
can do is take a margin trowel like this one. It’s not exactly clean, but this thinset
is set on there. It’s not going anywhere. And I would just scrape off the excess Keracolor
U that’s on the side of the bucket and get it into the center of the bucket where you
can mix it. You have to mix up the Keracolor U for another
1 or 2 minutes. But again, don’t go crazy with the mixing. Just enough to kind of whip it all together. As soon as you’re done mixing this up, go
ahead and clean off your tools. Mapei’s instructions recommend taking a
damp sponge, not a super wet sponge, but a damp sponge and just wiping down the tile
surface. That way the grout will glide over it. And you definitely don’t want any standing
water in the grout joints. So I’m just using a standard rubber grout
float to pack the joints with the Keracolor U. So as you can see here, this is the consistency
of the grout after using the Grout MAXimizer and following the directions. So it is very much like a thick peanut butter
consistency. I’m going to start at the top and work my
way left to right and down. We’re going to split this into two sections:
the slanted one, and then the vertical section down below. Now I do have a gap between the tile and ceiling. I’m not going to fill that with the grout. I’m going to be using the Mapei sealant
for that. So all I’m doing is packing the joints and
removing the excess grout. I’m just going to be removing the excess
grout on the surface of the tile that’s not close to the grout joint. So over here I used a Schluter profile between
the tile and the wall. And I’m just going to be filling that transition
with the Keracolor. We have this transition here where the wall
slants down and then goes vertical. I am just going to fill that in with grout. Now in the corner here where these two walls
meet, we’re not going to be filling this in with Keracolor U. We’re going to be using our sealant. We’re just going to pack these vertical
joints here on this main wall. When we get down to the tub-to-tile transition
right here, again, we’re not going to be filling this joint here with Keracolor U. We’re going to be filling it with sealant. So any kind of grout that gets in this joint,
you’re going to have to remove it. After this main wall is done, we’re going
to move on to the plumbing wall. One thing I want to mention about the plumbing
wall: I’m really, really bummed about this in terms of the tile job. That was done because I had a perfect plan
for it, and I meant to execute it. And I got caught up in making a video, and
I totally messed up. So down in the comments let me know if you
can see where I messed up on this wall. Totally bums me out. So again, I’m just going to start at the
top here and fill in this grout joint. And we’re going to fill in the Schluter
profile as well. This is PVC door casing right here. This is waterproof. It’s meant for outside. That said, I am not going to be grouting in
between it and the tile. We’re going to be using sealant here as
well. I did forget to sponge down this tile with
a damp sponge, but because it’s so glossy, you know, it really isn’t an issue. But if you have tile that doesn’t have this
finish, you definitely don’t want to forget to apply a damp sponge to it because it will
allow your grout float to glide over the tile. As you’re grouting, just make sure that
there aren’t any pinholes in this. There aren’t any voids. Really take a close look at the grout and
make sure that’s it’s performing the way that you need it to perform, which is basically
just packed into the joint; no voids in it whatsoever. Before I move on to the next wall, I’m just
going to clean off the bathtub. By the way, this is also a good time to get
any grout off the ceiling that you got on the ceiling. You don’t want to let it sit on there. So here’s the final wall in the tub area. Again, we’re not going to be filling in
this corner joint or the joint between the tile and the tub with the grout. We’re going to leave that empty. Oh, and by the way, this piece of marble here,
there is a joint in between it and the top tile. Again, I’m not going to fill that in with
grout either. But this joint right here between the tile
and the Schluter profile, I am going to fill in with grout. There’s a tiny 1/16” grout joint between
the Schluter profile and the tile. One thing I did want to mention was you can
use your finger to tool that joint between the Schluter profile and the tile. And then finally, we’re going to grout this
small little face right here. But really, most of the grout joint is just
the Schluter profile. We only have one grout joint right here for
the tile. After about 15-30 minutes, the Keracolor U
will definitely stiffen up, and you should have two buckets of water. So I’ve obviously been using this one to
clean the tub. We should probably swap it out for clean water. So one for wringing the sponge out in. So you want a damp sponge. There shouldn’t be water dripping from this. You want a damp sponge. You’re going to tool the grout joint. And when you get grout on the sponge, you’re
going to wring it out in this dirty bucket here. Then you’re going to dip it in here to further
clean it, moisturize it—for the lack of a better term—and go back to the tile and
tool the grout joint and remove any excess grout that’s on the surface of the tile. So for example, we’ve got some grout there. Some grout on the ceiling here. I’m trying to only tool in one direction
using this sponge. And in this case, I’m just doing that downward
motion in between the tile and the Schluter profile. And you have to pay special attention that
you’re not removing the grout from that joint. Now I’m just going to be using the sponge
to tool the grout joints by hand. In the grout joint, the grout should be pretty
much flush with the tile. To further help with the tooling, you can
move your sponge diagonally to the grout joints. And that will help. What really helps at this point is attention
to detail and just really analyzing every single grout joint for pinholes, for voids
to make sure that it looks good when you tool it with the damp sponge. But you don’t want to tool it too much because
that can actually lead to F fluorescents with Portland cement based products. What should not be happening is the sponge
be super wet and you’re putting water in between the grout joint and the grout. You don’t want that to happen. So make sure this is just damp. The next step is to fill in all of the joints
between the tub and the tile and the corners and at the ceiling. I’m going to be using Mapesil T for that. I’m going to start at the corner here and
work from right to left. It’s just easier for me to do that. No I just dipped my finger into some water
and tool this joint here. I’m going to do that for the entire tub
surround. Now I admit it’s probably better to have
the tub full of water. We’re just not in the position to do that
right now because of the plumbing in this home. But if you can, fill the tub up with water
and then fill the joint between the tile and the tub with the sealant. About 1-2 hours after you grout the tile,
you might see a haze. If you do, you can use a microfiber cloth
to remove that. You just move the microfiber cloth across
the tile in a circular motion, basically you’re buffing the tile, and shining it, making it
look really good. All of the tips in this video should help
you grout your shower surround. Now if you want more detailed step-by-step
video tutorials like this one, and you’re redoing a bathroom, click right here. It’ll take you back on over to Home Repair
Tutor where you can take a look at our online courses. They’re pretty phenomenal. I think you’ll like them if you are going
to be doing a bathroom remodeling project. That’s it for today. Thanks so much for watching the video. If you’ve got any questions, let me know. I’d be more than happy to help you out. Take care.
