What is the best way to remove grout and regrout tile?

Video Transcript:

Best way to remove grout and regrout tile?

Hi, today we’re going to talk about the removal of old tire ground but before we do that, let’s talk about what it is we’re getting ourselves into. We’ve got individual tiles placed on a water-resistant backer board with adhesive. They’re placed in such a way that there’s spaces in between them that space can vary anywhere from a sixteenth of an inch to a quarter of an inch as we see here this is about a quarter of an inch spacing right here. When those tiles dry those spaces in between need to be filled with the substance, the substance we’re dealing with today is grout which is what we’re going to remove today and put in new. 

Two types of tools to remove grout 

In order to do that, two things we need depending on the size of the job. We have a hand tool with an abrasive blade that on small areas work in such a way that scrape away the grouting that’s there. For larger jobs, an electrical tool has the same type of bit as we do on the hand tool and this will remove the grouting a lot faster. We turn this tool on, put it on an angle into the grout lines. The tool does all the work itself, it’s up to you to keep it steady and to run it back and forth being careful not to chip the tile. 

Remember to use safety glasses

One thing to remember though if we’re going to get into a big job and we need to use this, safety glasses always. 

Remove the old grout

So let’s remove some grout we’re going to take our saw and we’re going to put it in between the tiles and we’re going to scrape away the grout. Once all of our grout is removed, brush it out. Get all of the grout out, we want all of the bad grout out, we do not want to adhere new grout onto old grout. 

What are the different styles of grout

Now that we have all of our lines wide open, let’s discuss the grout. We have a couple of different options. Number one we’ve got premix already to go out of the bucket into the lines, secondly we’ve got powder for the powder mix we need to mix it with water. A mixture of about three to one will do, although you may need to add water or add powder in order to get the consistency that you like. We have a couple of different styles, we have sanded and we have unsanded. Unsanded grout is for narrower grout lines only, sanded grout is for the wider because it has sand in it a little more binder, a little more hold. Once we’ve mixed all of our grout together, we’re going to take our grout float and we’re going to put some of that grout on top of this and with a vertical wall like we have here we put the grout on top of the float and run it right over the tiles and we want to continue to run that grout right over the tile, a couple of times, maybe two, maybe three, maybe even four. What you’re going to find is that all that grout that was on there and runs onto the surface of your tile is going to work its way into all these grout lines. It is very very important for you to make sure that you fill those lines all the way. Run it continuously everywhere that you need to until you’re done.

Remove the extra grout off of the tile

Next thing, take your sponge bucket of cold water, rinse it, wipe the excess grout off of the tile, being careful not to remove any of the new grout that you’ve put in there. You’re going to end up doing that a couple of times, it takes three, if it takes four. Do it as many times as it takes. Make sure you start with a bucket of clean water. When you get all done, you’re going to find that there’s a very light haze on this. A couple hours after it dries, take that same sponge, wipe it off. Grout will take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to dry before you could use it, before you could put a silicone seal on it. So allow it to do that. Now you have just replaced replenished a brand new grout wall on your old tile.