True or false:

Can white grout show discolouration (that IMO looks like mould due to water damage but this is being denied) - blue/black-ish, spreading. Not really sure how else I can describe. Pic below, sorry about quality. Nothing to do with not keeping the floor clean as you can see the tiles are clean and the surrounding grout is in OK condition too in terms of being white.

My peep tells me it's totally normal & nothing to do with water leaking from shower and moreover that it's due to, ahem, "stones" in the grout. He says "ask anyone who knows anything about grout and they'll say the same".

So here I am! I would have thought if this were true nobody would use white grout ever. Why have a white bathroom if in 3 years time it's going to have black patches at random because of these pesky "stones"

This is floor grouting too BTW. Right next to offending leaky showers. If that's relevant (apparently it isn't according to my tiling peeps ).

REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING YOUR OPINIONS ON THIS ONE! AM I BEING A B@LL-BREAKER ABOUT THIS?

Thats the best ive heard for a while. Did you ask him to remove the stones and use white ones the next time. Thats mould. itis caused by poor ventilation, soap and other things. Every bathroom is liable to get a bit, I would clean it with a mould killer then paint the grout with a sealer. But there aint no rocks in grout.

yes, it was very hard not to laugh at the "stones" theory. Funny you should mention sealer...never was used AFAIK....is it standard to seal grouting on all surfaces or just floors

Hi Kelly,

There is definitely no stones in grout.

Some grouts are a courser grade to use in larger grout gaps (say 5mm or over), but most wet area grout should be fine grade as well as mould resistant. If you ever get a chance to see the fine grade grout powder, it literally looks looks icing sugar (I dabbled in cake decorating as well).

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but as I see it, it could be one of two issues. The first one is mould. An easy check is to spray it with exit mould and let it sit for few hours. After washing away the excess, most if not all of the mould should be gone. Regular treatments as soon as the problem recurs will keep it under control. If this is the issue, external grout sealer can be used to minimise future occurences.

The other thing it looks like is that the tile adhesive was not cleared properly from the gaps prior to grouting. It may not be noticeable at the start, but as the thin veneer of white grout is scraped off through wear and tear, the adhesive begins showing through. An easy way to check this is to scrape some of the dark area away when it is dry. The grey bits should feel like cement powder when rubbed between your finger and thumb, while the black spots shoul feel like rubber, as the adhesive was likely the flexible variety with shredded black rubber in it. The fix here is to scrape all the grout lines clear where the problem is and re-grout (very easy job DIY, 30 mins time, $5 grout, kitchen utensils as tools). Sounds like the tiler was a tool.

My money is on the tiler being a numpty and not cleaning grout gaps properly, based on his advice, and the black speck on grey background. Most mould is generally uniform in colour, while flexible adhesive dries dark grey with black spots.

Either way, fairly easy fix.

Looks like Tile Adhesive to me.

You know, I think you are correct. It never occurred to me someone would do such a poor job, but looking at it again, I guess he did. It shows the guy can not lay tiles. I always thought you dropped your tile too close then moved it out, this guy is bringing it in along with excess adhesive. Next question is why didnt he clean it before he grouted?

Thanks for everyone's feedback

Dr Freud, I will try to exit mould suggestion tomorrow and try to establish exactly what I am dealing with. It may be that you are correct and it is adhesive. I know the adhesive is that colour having removed some tiles in the laundry.

Either way you are all right and the guy that did the job is cr@p at it and should consider a career change. The builder is insisting this is normal and feels I am being unreasonable. In fact the rep they sent out claims that it is to be expected that every 3-4 years I will have to regrout my shower! BS!

Just for laugh, here's some pics of the stellar grouting efforts in the kitchen. Forget for a minute the grout is not that spotless (bad choice, white ) and concentrate on the actual grouting...or lack of it. I am sure you will agree it's absolute cr@p! All pic are of different areas throughout the kitchen.

Hi Kelly,

Based on your kitchen pictures, forget the exit mould, it is adhesive.

I would advise calling your local builder's registration board and having both the tiler and the builder trying to justify their actions investigated. This will be no cost to you, but will hopefully clear out some of these muppets.

I do admire that you have not lost your sense of humour on this. It is the best way of dealing with these clowns.

Thanks again
I took those pics this morning and it was not until I resized them that I could actually see the adhesive peeking through in pic 3 quite clearly (and once you'd mentioned it of course). It makes sense it's the same problem in the bathroom.

I feel so tempted to blurt out the name of this mob They are one of Australia's largest builders...note I did not say they are one of Australia's best builders, lol!

Yep, that's tile adhesive between the tiles. (it's the 'good' tile adhesive, too, if that's any consolation...you'll never get those tiles up)

The grout that is falling out looks like it has either been too wet when put in, or it was put in too shallow and was gone over a second time when they noticed how shallow it was to top it up (or there is too much adhesive underneath it which is only leaving a shallow area for grout ). Either approach means that the grout tends to 'dry' rather than 'set', which results in low performing grout!

If they re-do the grout, budget a few hours for crawling on your hands and knees inspecting every tile for scratches in the glaze - scraping out set tile adhesive is a slow and labour intensive job, and it's real easy to slip with the tungsten carbide bladed grout rake. Take close up photos of the whole floor before they start, so you can knock the 'it was like that before we started' excuse on the head.

Contact a grout company and ask them how often grouting is expected to be re-done.

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Yeah and people ask me why I'm so expensive. The Glue in the picture is Megafix actually a good glue, just used by a moron with no idea. I did a inspection on a house 1 day after it passed it's final inspection and found over 90 building defects all passed by the building inspector. The bigger the company the more work they give the private inspector, the less chance of them not passing a job. Good luck.

If the house is still under warranty use this guide to check the rest of your house and get it fixed.

http://www.buildingcommission.com.au...T_GUIDE_07.pdf

This is what happens when you use too much water to clean up, or the tiles are wet before grouting.

Actually by the look of the amount of grout dislodged in the kitchen I would suspect that the tiles have been laid on a timber floor with an underlay that is allowing too much movement - or no underlay. If that is the case re grouting won't solve the problem.

Are your floors timber?

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Our floors are are tiles over chipboard.

I actually believe they were not laid on an underlay although the builder denies this. I kept track of the building as it was progressing and, while I unfortunately knew nothing about underlay at the time, I do recall visiting a friends house as it was being built maybe 3 or 4 years afterward and thinking "WTF!?" when I saw their underlay because it was something I didn't recall seeing when my place was going up

When I have questioned them about this in the past they just say "yes we used underlay"... but how can I prove my suspicions correct

It's quite OK to put tiles onto particleboard flooring - the reason underlay is used on wooden floorboards is because floorboards move more and there are so many more join lines, which, unlike particleboard, aren't glued to each other or the joists.

The cracking may be caused by an overly bouncy floor - the joists may be spec'd to the 'just squeaks by for acceptable deflection' side of the table, not the 'hey, this is getting into overkill territory' side.

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Electrical info on domestic wiring and appliance repair to AS/NZS3000. Only for New Zealanders, as Australians aren't smart enough to do their own!