Help: Time to Re-grout the shower

[2planka]

Never done this before, but I'm noticing some water damage on the wall outside the shower stall in my bathroom. I figure I have to remove the old grout and reseal the bugger. Might as well regrout my wife's bathroom, too (FWIW, separate bathrooms are the bomb).

I'm unfamiliar with the different types of grout products. I would think a silicone-based sealant would do the trick for my shower, but I'll need some other product for the Warden's. OOT homeowners: please enlighten me.\


edit: my shower is metal framed with glass, and I assume the leak is coming from the glass/metal or metal/metal interface. The Warden's is a standard tub/tile setup.

[jakethebake]

Are you talking about the actual grout? The stuff between all the tiles? Or just the sealant around the edges?

[chas19]

In your bathroom I think what you mean is chalk, not grout. Grout is the cement-like stuff between the tiles. You can pick up a tube of chalk at the home center (or whatever hardware store). It will be labled for use in bathrooms and yes it is silicone based. Many of these tubes are meant to be used in a chalking gun; if you don't have one and don't want to buy one, look for the smaller tubes that look like a toothpaste container, not the longer ones that look like the cardboard roll inside paper towels. It can be a little messy to work with so be kind of careful when applying it, if you get it all over it's hard to clean off, especially once its dried.
In your wife's b-room you can use the same stuff around the outside where the tile meets the tub or door frame. You probably don't need to mess with grout at all.
BTW, the chalk usually comes in several colors so you can sort of match the existing tile, or clear if you don't want to mess with matching colors.
Good luck.

[2planka]

My mistake. I'm talking about the sealant around the edge in my bathroom, and actual grout in the Warden's bathroom.

[dtbog]

[ QUOTE ]
Never done this before, but I'm noticing some water damage on the wall outside the shower stall in my bathroom.

[/ QUOTE ]

*makes 'Kilgore Grout' joke*

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
My mistake. I'm talking about the sealant around the edge in my bathroom, and actual grout in the Warden's bathroom.

[/ QUOTE ]

The actual grout is a considerably larger job, but not really difficult. When I did ours, the local home depot actually had a class on it so check for that. They also had a video tape you could either buy for like $9.99 or check out free. I retiled our whole bathroom in a few days. If I can do it, anyone can.

[bosoxfan]

The sealant is called caulk pronounced cock. So be sure to walk into home depot and ask everyone, "where do you keep your caulk?"

[2planka]

[ QUOTE ]
"where do you keep your caulk?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Pardon me, can I see your caulk?

[Dominic]

call the guy.

that's what I do when anything needs doin' around the house.

call the guy.

[MrTrik]

You may want to do a tiny test to make sure the leaks haven't damaged the backing wall beind the edge tiles. Just get up close and gently push against the top tiles and the others along the edges around the water damage you've noted. If you see them giving at all, you have a bigger problem. Water has leaked behind the tiles or the wall and got part of the backing wall wet. If you seal it up it will only fix the problem for a short time, because sealing it will not allow it to dry and it will rot and mold on you. This is bad news if it happens because it usually leads to replacing a lot more than caulk along the edges. Better to check now though since these problems never fix themselves and the longer you wait the more they cost you.