Is Ugly Grout Ruining the Look of Your Tile? Grout repair to the Rescue!
Have you tried everything to clean it, but it still looks old and worn? Is it cracked, broken and missing in places? Are you thinking of tearing out the tile because it looks so bad? Is your shower missing grout or caulking?
Odds are, you don’t actually need new tile!! It’s usually only the grout that’s ugly and stained! All you need is grout repair and restoration to make it look perfect again!
We’d be happy to do whatever you need:
Grout repair
Deep cleaning for tile and grout lines
Recaulking edges and corners
Removing old, cracked dirty grout and regrouting with fresh new grout
You can even have us change the color of your grout if you don’t like it
We replace or repair broken or cracked tiles if needed
No slow jobs! In most cases grout repair only takes one day to go from drab to stunning
Save money – restoration costs only a fraction of a new installation. And you don’t have construction crews traipsing through your house for weeks at a time!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a wall or a floor, marble or ceramic, shower or dry area – we have the right procedure for each type of tile. And if you need tile repair also, that’s no problem – in fact, we can do both at the same time. We cover pretty much all of Eastern Massachusetts from Boston to Route 495.
So save your beautiful tile and get the look you want – all you do is call us at 617-221-4002 or just fill out the form below and we’ll get you an emailed quote right away so you can see all your options. We’re tile restoration fanatics and we won’t be satisfied until you are! You can see from the before and after photos on this page that it makes a dramatic difference (even if we are pretty bad with camera skills!)
Some recent job photos:
Tub shower Before RegroutingTub shower After RegroutingStall Shower Before Stall Shower After
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile 15 Main Street # 138 Watertown MA 02472-4403 617-221-4002 Text or Call
Recently we completed a challenging project color sealing and refinishing the stone floor of a large Boston hotel lobby at the Hampton Inn, which is part of the Hilton Hotelchain. It was a slate tile that was smooth on the surface, unlike some of the rough texture slate tiles.
The main problem was that the grout lines had not been installed correctly, so the grout color was inconsistent. In order to fix the situation, a previous contractor had done a colorsealing job on the grout lines, but it had not covered the grout uniformly. So the grout had a patchy, inconsistent look. NOT what you want in the main lobby of a hotel!
This is a close up of the grout they didn’t like:
Before Color Sealing Boston Hotel
The Challenges on This Job
If it were ceramic tile, it would have been easier. Recoloring grout lines with a tinted color sealer product (sometimes called grout staining or grout dyeing) is perfect for ceramic or porcelain floors with a glazed finish. The glaze on top of the tile prevents the liquid colorant from bonding to the tile, so it only bonds to the grout lines where it belongs. But with stone! Yikes, the stone is porous and absorbent, so the tinted sealer gets stuck on the top of the tile, not just the grout lines where you want it! Some stone tiles are so porous, they ‘drink in’ the stain and permanently change the color of the stone, so it looks like the color is ‘bleeding’ over the grout lines into the tile.
And if it were marble or granite tiles installed with a typical thin unsanded grout, it would also have been easier. That’s because we can regrout the traditional thin grout lines of polished marble floors. Unsanded grout is soft enough that we can do that manually.
But, no, this had to be wide grout lines with sanded grout, several thousand square feet. You can’t effectively grind out that much grout in a hotel lobby without making an enormous mess. So…what was the plan?
How We Beat the Challenges!
The only way to do this job was the following steps, in order:
1. Strip off as much as possible of the old wax finish (The stone actually needed a topical coating. The raw stone looks gray and washed out, but it’s a glorious lustrous black when finished with sealer) 2. Scrub grout lines by machine and by hand 3. Rinse the entire area 4. Painstakingly tape off each tile by hand so both sides of each grout line are protecting the tile but leaving the grout exposed – hands and knees time! 5. Manually color sealing over each grout line – More than half a mile of grout lines!…more hands and knees! 6. Remove the tape when dry 7. Apply 2 coats of stone-specific fast drying sealer 8. 4 coats of high gloss acrylic topcoat finish that turns the dull grayish stone to a brilliant deep black.
Only then is the floor is ready for high speed burnishing that brings out a depth of shine and melts the finish onto the stone for a long lasting durable surface.
If we could have done it all at once, it would save time and labor. But with color sealing on hands and knees in a busy downtown Boston hotel lobby, there’s no way to block off the entire floor – people need access to the front desk and exits at all times. So we discussed with the hotel engineer the idea of doing the work in the middle of the night, and going in sections blocked off, always leaving one exit open and one path to the front desk. Doing a long corridor ‘half and half’ this way almost doubles the labor time, but it’s the only way to do it in this setting without inconveniencing the hotel guests.
This is the floor partly done. Grout is recolored, but the finish is only partly applied. The dull gray is the unfinished and the black is the finished area.
Halfway Done
The hotel staff was extremely helpful and courteous and they were a pleasure to work with. From start to finish, the work took about 2 weeks and was done:
• As promised, with a clean, consistent light gray grout color throughout, • A rich glossy black finish on the slate and • Critically, the color sealing project was no trouble to hotel’s guests visiting Boston from around the world!
We worked an extra weekend night to get the job done in time for a last minute official inspection. We even threw in an extra coat of finish at no charge just to give it the final touch!
This is the finished product:
After Color Sealing Boston Hotel
If you want your floors to look ‘hotel lobby’ quality, feel free to give us a call or text at 617-221-4002 or fill out the form below and we will do our best to make your floors sparkle!
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile 15 Main Street # 138 Watertown MA 02472-4403 617-221-4002 Text or Call
Polishing and regrouting marble shower walls is not as easy as polishing marble floors or counter tops. Vertical surfaces create challenges for the polishing process, as this job demonstrates.
The photos show before and after results of a job in Winchester for regrouting a marble shower and polishing the walls. The homeowners called us in to solve two problems. For one thing, the previously polished shiny Rojo Alicante orange/red marble had become dull over time. There were unattractive etch marks running down the shower walls. And the grout and caulking needed an upgrade.
Challenges of Polishing Vertical Surfaces
Why are vertical surfaces like walls harder than horizontal surfaces? That’s because horizontal surfaces like floors allow for larger heavy equipment to hone down large areas. Most floor machines, for example, cover at least 17 inches of grinding area. By contrast, the smaller handheld buffer polishing machine for holding up against walls is only 7 inches wide. So right off the bat, the marble polishing pro has to run the machine at least twice as many passes to cover the same size area.
And of course, the extra weight of the floor machine helps push down on the floor, so it grinds the marble more effectively. But since these machines weigh 100 pounds or more, no one can hold them up against the shower walls, at least no one who’s not an Olympic weightlifter! But from experience, even holding the 7 inch machine up against the walls all day starts to feel like a real workout on the shoulders. So it’s more physical on the operator.
Regrouting Marble Has Excellent Results
Regrouting marble, on the other hand, is usually very doable, since the installers usually make thin grout lines with smooth unsanded grout. That’s the exact best type of grout to pull out and re-apply. The results are very satisfying and even our bad camera skills can capture the visual upgrade.
If you have a marble shower and want it to look great again, feel free to call us or text us at 617-221-4002. We’ll get you a detailed quote in writing ASAP, and no obligation.
Before Polishing and Regrouting MarbleAfter Polishng and Regrouting Marble
You can also fill in the form below and we’ll get in touch with you.
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile 15 Main Street # 138 Watertown MA 02472-4403 617-221-4002 Text or Call
Of all the requests we get for refinishing and polishing granite counters, green and black granites and marbles top the list.
Why?
Because the stone itself doesn’t carry a shine as well as some other colors. Even brand new factory polished countertop slabs in green are not as glossy as other colors. And black granites can have problems with some etching, water spots and color variations (not ‘black enough’ in some spots)
So we get more than our fair share of these extra challenging colors. To get them to shine, we need to go through some extra hoops and use more powerful sealers than usual.
These photos are from a recent green granite job we did in a suburb north of Boston. The cat was so curious it was hard to find a photo where he wasn’t ‘inspecting’ the work!
If you’d like us to polish your green granite or marble counters and you live in the general Boston area, including any of the towns listed below, feel free to fill in our form below or just call at 617-221-4002and we’ll be happy to get you a no obligation quote in writing.
Usually all we need to get started is a short conversation about your concerns and a photo or two from different angles. It’s best if you can send an overall view picture that shows the overall layout. Then we can send you your quote in writing. After that, all you need to do is tell us what day we should come and you’re on the calendar to get your stone professionally maintained.
Green granite counters water spots before polish near sink – Boston suburbGreen granite counters after polish sun view with cat in sink
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile 15 Main Street # 138 Watertown MA 02472-4403 617-221-4002 Call or Text
Cleaning Tumbled Marble – BeforeCleaning Tumbled Marble – After
Tumbled marble floors and other rustic look stones like unfilled or rustic travertine are beautiful and rugged. That’s because they’re mean to look old and rough cut, to suggest an old style look. But cleaning tumbled marble and other irregular surfaced tiles like travertine and limestones can be a real chore!
Basically, the drawback is that the less smooth surface catches more soil and can become darkened and very difficult to clean. After a while, mopping just doesn’t work any more – it stays dirty looking all the time. So cleaning tumbled marble ends up being aggravating. It’s not your fault (and not your cleaning person’s fault, either)! It’s the nature of the surface, especially the ‘hills and valleys’.
Our approach to cleaning tumbled marble and other stones is to use some ‘tough love’ chemicals and a brush type cleaning machine. Usually this is better than the common rotating pad type machine because the nylon brushes can dig down into the pores and recessed grout lines and reach dirt trapped in the pores.
This type of machinery is priced too high for most homeowners and even most commercial cleaning contractors – it’s very specific for heavy duty floor restoration and larger specialty contractors who can put it to use regularly to justify the cost. We use the same machinery for both residential jobs in someone’s kitchen as well as in industrial commercial kitchens – it works just as well in both settings.
ROTARY BRUSH GROUT AND TILE SCRUBBING MACHINE
But it’s usually a one day project and by day’s end the stone looks like it should: still rustic and historic looking, but clean! If you have a problem floor that you want to love again, feel free to call or text us at 617-221-4002 or just fill out the form below and we’ll get the job done.
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile 15 Main Street # 138 Watertown MA 02472-4403 617-221-4002Text or Call
We often have property owners tell us they have unsightly ‘water spots’ on marble counters and vanity tops or marble floors.
They DO look like dried spots of water, but the difference is that they have dulled the marble surface, and so they stand out from the rest of the stone.
Are these really water spots?
No, in almost all cases they are small acid etches.
Or, as the folks at marble.com put it: “Marble etching is surface damage due to a chemical reaction in the form of a dull mark on the natural stone that contains calcium carbonate. The etching is caused when an acidic substance comes in contact with a Marble surface”.
So water doesn’t create etches on marble. We use lots of water to hone the marble and granite while removing the etches, so it can’t be caused by water. The only exception is water so heavy in the mineral content that it actually leaves a film deposit on the surface of the granite or marble. It is correct to call them hard water deposits.
Before you say “Oh, I never use acid on my marble!”, pause and consider: Many common products or liquids the marble may come in contact with have an acidic component. Do you ever have, for example, orange juice? That’s a mild acid. Lemonade? Fairly strong acid. Vinegar? White or red wine? Pickles?
Even cleaning agents can contain acids, especially tile and grout cleaners, toilet bowl cleaning liquids and even some ‘natural’ based cleaners that use natural vinegar.
Additionally, cosmetics like shampoo and hand soap can contain citric acid, so it’s fair to say that in most residential usages, marble is likely exposed to more acid than we think at first.
The Solution To Water Spots on Marble?
Have the marble professionally restored. If you call us at 617-221-4002, we might be able to give you a recommendation on who could do that…. 😉
Review cleaning liquids and cosmetics used. Yes, it’s a pain in the neck, but it’s also a one time project. If no acid touches the stone, you simply won’t get etch marks.
If you have a countertop that you’d like to not only restore but also protect against future etching, let us know and we can review some options with you.
The good news is that about 99.99% of cases, etches and water spots on marble come out completely, so they’re no longer visible.
Our contact information:
Act One – Marble and Tile 15 Main Street # 138 Watertown MA 02472-4403 617-221-4002 Text or Call
