Tile – How to do a minor grout repair properly

floorgroutrepairtile

I've got grout between some floor tiles that is cracking and coming out in small chips, over time. The tiles and remaining grout are otherwise in great shape. I suspect this is just a problem high-traffic area of the floor in our hallway. I'm not about to tear up the entire floor to solve the underlying issue.

But, if I did want to patch the grout (while accepting it is likely to crack again, down the road) what is the proper way to fill in missing grout so that new grout bonds with the old? Should I remove any more of the old that appears to be cracking before filling in?

Best Answer

When I've done grout repair I've cleaned out the old grout, did some slight prodding to see if anything else was loose, made sure the area was bone dry and then got a small batch of grout from the local hardware store. You can probably buy a small tub of the premixed grout (unless you have colored grout then you're stuck buying a larger tub usually).

I just put it on as normal grout, slap it on, push it in, smooth it out a bit, let it dry and wipe off the excess. It'll take a little while to fade in but now it looks like it was part of the original tile job.