February 11, 2008
Shower Restoration – Grout Removal – Replacement – Recualking
Here is a real garden variety type of job that we do in showers. Typical shower is a few years old (about 4 years old to be exact). The water does not drain properly causing build up of hard water near the drain. Caulking is beginning to mildew and the shower door starts getting a little hard to see through.
Before:
The shower is cleaned using an acid and a special cleaning process to remove all the hard water, soap scum and mineral deposits that have built up on the shower.
Next the caulking is removed. You can clean the mildew out of the caulking to a certain degree but I find that I can get perfect results by removing the caulking and replacing it. Next we remove the grout on the floor and minimally the first rows of grout on the bottom and do our best to blend it in to the existing tile and grout.
This applies mainly to newer showers where the problem is isolated mainly to the caulking and the lower part of the shower. From about half way on up – the shower looked nearly perfect.
It should also be noted that many people call us to “clean” their showers but in my experience it’s very difficult to clean shower grout perfectly. So in most cases the grout is completely removed and replaced in a shower like this.
Takes a few hours but you can’t beat the results of that “oh so clean” shower look.