Are you tired of looking at cracked and dirty grout? Well I was. So at the beginning of the
pandemic when we were all stuck at home, I decided to take on a DIY pandemic project,
not only on how to repair grout that was damaged and worn out in between my floor tiles, but
how to refresh grout that was dirty and ugly; if you’re watching this video, you know what I mean.
Today, I’ll show you what product I used to regrout my floors, the steps I took to do it,
and just as importantly, I’ll share with you a product that will help prevent you
from having to do it again…anytime soon. Spoiler alert, it’s all pretty simple,
it doesn’t cost a lot, and it’ll make your grout look 1,000 percent better.
But, first real quick, I want to welcome you to my channel, How To with Kevin, where of course,
I’m Kevin. I made this channel to share things that I’ve learned over the years that’ll hopefully
help you do them as well…and maybe even a little easier. We cover a lot of different things here,
home improvement projects, tech things like video editing, self care…really anything, so I hope you
consider subscribing so you can not only learn new things to do, but through your comments,
you can help determine future videos. Now, I will say, if you’re also interested in personal
finance and DIY investing, I’ve reserved those topics for my first channel, Healthy, Wealthy,
and Wise where we focus on money issues there; so if you want to check that one out,
I’ll put a link in the description for you. I’d love to have you with me on both channels so we
can share ideas and work together in doing simple, easy things to improve our lives.
Anyway, let’s get to our task at hand: repairing, restoring and/or refreshing worn out grout.
So let me share with you some before pictures of what I dealing with when I started out. As I
was stuck at home, more than I’ve ever been in my adult life, I was getting more and more irritated
looking at my tile floors that had cracked and ugly grout; the grout was old and had a gray
look that really contrasted with the tile, and not in a good way. And so I decided to figure out how
I could best repair the grout, and hopefully make the rooms look a lot better. I actually
ended up doing 2 bathrooms, the entry way, and my kitchen. Now obviously the first thing I had
to do was research and figure out the product I wanted to use. Now, I’m all about doing something
the right way and using the best products, but to me that also means it has to be easy to use.
And, to that point, considering that I wasn’t laying new tile, but just wanting to spot repair
cracked grout and then refresh all of the grout, I decided to use a premixed grout by Simplefix.
I can tell you that 1 quart of it was enough to do all of the floors I had mentioned and the price
of it was around $15 at the time. Because I was really happy with it, and you’ll see what I mean
when I show some pictures of the finished work, I’m going to link it for you in the description.
Now keep in mind, I’m not being sponsored for either of the products I’m going to tell you about
in this video, but to make it easy for you to find them, I’ve added links where you can buy them.
Again I’m not being sponsored by the companies, but if you do buy them through the links,
full disclosure, I would get a small commission from Amazon, which does help me and the channel
out so it would be great if you would buy them that way, but other than that,
I’m not being paid to tell you that they’re great, just sharing my own personal opinions on them.
Okay, so the Simplefix premixed grout comes in some different colors, so for the tile that I had,
which is sort of an off white, I decided on the alabaster color and was really happy with that.
I will say though, if my floor tiles were a clean or bright white, I would’ve chosen
the white option. Another good thing about the alabaster version is that it will definitely
hide the dirt better than a clean white grout. From a cosmetic perspective, that sort of leads
me to one of the reasons as to why I wanted to refresh grout in rooms that weren’t damaged.
So as you can see in some of these pictures I have, one of the things I thought that made the
room feel cold, and just overall uglier to me, was the contrast in the existing grout
that came across as gray against the off white tile. In this picture, I’m showing you grout
that has been refreshed next to grout I hadn’t touched yet, you can see difference…it’s pretty
stark. I guess for me it’s a personal choice, because I just don’t like the grid pattern look;
but you or someone else might like that, and in that case, you might want a contrasting look.
This picture might help you decide what look you like better. If you end up liking either a
white or gray option, I’ll link those grout colors in the description for you as well.
Okay, so to start the project, there are 2 things you want to do right off the bat.
First you need to use something to pry out any cracked or loose pieces of grout;
I just used an old screwdriver which worked perfectly fine. Just stick it in there and
pry it out. After you do that, then you just want to give a good cleaning or sweep over the floor.
And you want to do that so that pieces of old grout or dirt don’t get stuck
in the new Simplefix grout that you’re going to put over the existing grout.
That’s your prep work, pretty easy, right? Well, I’m not going to lie, you might want
to do some stretches, too…because you’re going to be on your hands and knees…and it’s going to
take awhile. And the older we get, the harder it is, right? Now if you have some older kids,
this might be a ‘fun’ project you could talk them into doing! Although, it might cost you. However,
if you don’t have any kids or someone else that you could talk into doing this for you,
one of the things that you can do to make it a lot easier is use some knee pads like I have
shown for you on the screen. Trust me, it’ll make things a lot more comfortable for you while you’re
crawling around on your knees on that hard tile. One last thing to get started is to get a pair of
rubber gloves that are pretty skin tight that will allow you to push the grout where you need it.
The gloves will protect your skin from any irritation that could be caused by the grout
and also from any razor-like cuts that you could get from tile that might have a sharp edge to it.
Now as you select your gloves, just realize that if they’re too bulky, you’ll end up wasting a lot
of grout, plus it’ll make your cleanup longer. But on the other hand, if they’re too thin,
like vinyl or latex gloves, you’ll wear a hole in them pretty quickly because of the grittiness
factor of the grout, particularly the underlying or existing grout that you will be going over.
So once you get to this point, it’s pretty simple, you stick your finger into the container and
pull out some grout and then slide it over the existing grout lines between the tile;
that’s what I did, no special tools needed. What I did was start on the areas needing grout repair
first, those areas where there are cracks or where there was loose grout that you removed.
You’ll want to put in enough grout to bring it to the depth it needs to be,
which is basically to the level of the existing grout. And you might want to do this in layers,
not a lot, just a couple where you let it dry in between. It dries pretty quickly so by the time
you finish making your rounds in restoring grout in all the damaged areas, it’ll probably be dry
enough for when you’re ready to put another layer on or maybe when you get to the grout
restoration phase where you looking to refresh all the grout. Honestly, throughout this project,
there wasn’t a lot of time where I waiting for the grout to dry, because it does dry pretty quickly.
Okay, after you get all the grout repair done if you needed to do that, then you’re ready to
restore the rest of the grout. When refreshing dirty or ugly grout, you’ll just want to use
enough of the Simplefix grout to cover the old grout. It’s been over a year and a half since I
did this project and I didn’t have a problem with it shrinking or fading through, so you don’t need
to over fill it. And I only put down one coat over the non-damaged grout and it held up really well.
The actual regrouting is easy in one sense in that you’re just using your finger to go over
the existing grout lines, but not gonna lie, it’s a little uncomfortable being on your hands and
knees. So what I did is go around each tile and do about 10 to 12 tiles at a time. And then I would
go back to the first tiles I did, which because the coat was thin was already beginning to dry,
I would take a damp rag and wipe off all the extra grout that found
its way on the surrounding tiles to keep the grout lines looking clean.
And this is another reason you want to make sure you’ve cleaned the dirt off the floor before you
started, because the water in the rag could pick up any dirt left in the floor and you could end
up accidentally pushing it into the new grout and discoloring it, because grout is porous and can
suck up water, which is likely how it got nasty looking in the first place. In a minute, I’ll
tell you what I used to help prevent any future dirtying of the grout during normal mopping.
Okay, so by breaking it up by doing about dozen tiles of regrouting and then wiping down the
tiles before the grout completely dried definitely made it easier. And don’t worry; if after a day,
or a week or even a month later you see some grout stuck to your tile that you missed;
it’s really easy to remove it; you could just use your fingernail to pick it off.
One of the things I remembered was, as you’re putting the grout in, and definitely once you’re
finished, you’ll be pretty impressed with what you did; the grout will look really clean…and
if your actual tiles are in good shape, your floors will look completely new. Of course with
the experience of having just did all that work on your hands and knees, you know you won’t want
to do that again…any sooner than you have to. And because as I had just said a minute ago, grout is
porous and can easily get discolored again when you mop…as the water turns brown from any dirt on
the floor and then that brown water can seep into the grout and ruin the beautiful job you just did.
So the final thing you want to do is to seal the grout after it’s completely dry.
Based on the instructions on the grout container, you’ll want to wait 24 to 48 hours to do this.
Now there are a lot of sealers out there in the market, but you probably don’t want to
use one that leaves a glossy look on it, unless that’s what you’re looking for. That would just
enhance that grid-look pattern that I don’t like. Real quick before I get to the sealer I used,
if you’re enjoying this video so far, please push that like button. Not only does that let me know
that you enjoy videos like this one, but it also helps me with YouTube and its algorithm, because
by you liking the video, YouTube knows it has good content and that it should send it to more people
which will help the channel grow. And that’s important for me to be able to do more and more
here, especially since I’m not being sponsored or asking for any donations, your quick push of the
like button is all I ask for…so thanks in advance. Alright, so if you watched my video on skimming
over my laminate bathroom countertop with concrete, I talked about the Miracle Sealants
511 Impregnator sealer. The main reason I picked this one is because it doesn’t change the look of
grout or concrete as it’s not a surface sealer. What it does is forms an invisible barrier that
is supposed to be resistant to moisture and stains while penetrating below the surface.
And it’s really easy to use. You just need to use a clean rag or cloth to put it on, wait for
3 to 5 minutes, and then use another clean rag to wipe it off. The bottle mentions you can use
a specific applicator that you can buy from them, but just using a rag worked fine for me. And while
it definitely darkened the grout while it was wet, it went back to the original color when it dried.
Now one thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that the fumes are really strong with this sealer, so
definitely open up some windows or use an exhaust fan. As far as coats of the 511 impregnator,
I put on 2 coats myself, with probably like 2 hours or so of dry time in between.
You just want to make sure it’s completely dry before you put on another coat.
Putting on extra coats would be fine, probably even preferable, but as I said the fumes are
strong and I was getting tired of working on my hands and knees, so I stopped at 2,
and really it’s been over a year and a half and it’s held up really well.
The big question is: would I do it again? Absolutely…I think it looks great and you
can do it for under $40 buying just the premixed grout and sealer. The only caution I would tell
you is that it is fairly physical demanding working on your hands and knees, so it might be
worth spreading out the amount you do over time. I did my 4 rooms in two days which was a lot,
but I was so bored being stuck at home, at least it gave me something productive to do.
So I’m interested in hearing what you guys think on how it turned out or knowing what questions
you have, let me know in the comments. I hoped you found the video helpful,
and if you did, please like it. And if you enjoy doing a variety of DIY projects,
definitely consider subscribing and also following me on Instagram.
And once again, if you’re interested in DIY investing and financial types of videos,
check out my first channel, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise…all of this and the products I used in the
video will be linked for you in the description. Thanks so much for watching and have a great day!