Here is a little guide I made on repairing SMALL areas of cracked grout…

Sanded Caulking: a type of caulking (caulking is a rubbery sealant used to seal all the corners and joints in a shower) which has sand added to match the appearance of sanded grout (the grout usually used on tile floors).

This is especially useful when the grout cracked as a result of slight movement or a settling crack when the grout is likely to crack again.

This is not a good solution for large areas but it is a helpful trick around door thresholds and also if you have a very small hole to fill after you do a cleaning job.

The area in question:

Close up:

Sanded caulking and sponge being used:

Available at Lowes and Home Depot:

After sanded caulking:

After floor has been color sealed to match:

Grout Color Sealing: Using an epoxy based or similar type of product to fill the pores and surface of a grout line to change the color and seal grout lines – a “semi-permanent” process

Here is a job I did where the customer wanted white grout. Actually it was pure white originally… the truth of the matter is that you can never get it 100% pure-pure white unless you use a color sealer.

Even then it’s best to add just a slight touch of “off whiteness” to the batch.

Pure white is a BAD because even the slightest non-whiteness from below shows through and gives you hard to cover-up inconsistencies.

Whether you can see or not… I did add a tint (a tiny bit) to the “Bright White” colorant to make it a bit off white.

The customer didn’t notice and it turned out great!

Before

After

Here is a during photo for comparison:

During

This video shows a guy from GroutShields.com showing how his color sealer product works.

Basic a grout “color sealer” is a type of epoxy-ish product (their chemical make-up can vary but you get the point) which fills in the pores of the grout and covers it.

Grout Color Stains/Color Sealers (called by different names) are pretty much the best type of sealer you can get for grout because they are considered “semi-permanent” and difficult to remove.

They are more time consuming to apply than regular “clear sealers” but are worth the effort in my opinion.

I don’t particularly endorse Grout Shields as I’ve never used their product but the video is helpful…

Dirty:

Cleaned:

Color Sealed:

Before:

During:

After:

Job was complete in a few hours.

I was also able to use up a lot of the half empty bottles I’ve been carrying around in my truck for over a year
Can anyone identifty the 3 different grout color manufacturers I used here?