Mapei grout colors: When you’ve got a tiling job into your future (even the remote future), remember, bookmark, voice memo, tattoo, or do whatever you Want to do to recall Mapei Flexcolor grout.
I know that this sounds like I’m overreacting, but take it out of those who have grouted 7 toilet floors, 3 showers, 3 mudrooms, and two backsplashes in the previous two years: this grout has been life-changing. And no, this is not sponsored by either Mapei or Floor & Decor, and that’s where we typically buy ours (sorry, necessary disclaimer because this post will seem pretty gushy).
I meant to proclaim our love with this grout after completing the beach home tiling two summers ago but we got sucked into the duplex and, well, this article never got written. But the duplex tiling just gave us more time for our romance to blossom, so that I wanted to inform you why this has become THE ONLY GROUT we ever buy & use. We are going on two + years of not purchasing a single other kinds of grout (we don’t even look their way – our soul really is TAKEN). Even our contractor swears by this stuff. That’s actually how we discovered it.
So I’m going to dive into all the whys of that very big announcement about grout, and I am going to toss in some tips for choosing the ideal grout color (including our go-to color that works virtually every time we have used it in numerous rooms) and my brand new suggestion for minimizing grout haze while I’m at it.
1. THIS MAPEI GROUT COLORS IS PRE-MIXED
If you’ve ever mixed your own grout, I don’t need to say much more about why pre-mixed is a better experience.
For starters, it eliminates a lot of effort and time spent measuring out your liquid and powder additive, stirring it, and adjusting until you get the ideal consistency.
Instead, you can simply pop open a tub and get going. But a lesser valued advantage of premixed grout is that it also ELIMINATES COLOR INCONSISTENCY. We ran into this issue when grouting our covered back porch. We utilized a dark grout for the first time and the way we mixed/applied it caused it to dry milder in some areas than we’d expected (some areas that we mixed ourselves should have been a little more watered down, therefore it dried a slightly different color in these areas ).
It was not a huge deal, but we were certainly disappointed that after all that time and labor it didn’t look consistent. So using premixed grout implies that you don’t need to be concerned about your color changing from a single combined batch to another.
2. THIS GROUT DOESN’T NEED SEALING & IS STAIN RESISTANT
Tiling already has enough measures involved so I’m always pleased to eliminate you, particularly the annoying ones at the end like sealing your grout to avoid stains. This Mapei Flexcolor is formulated to prevent stains (how I don’t know magical? crystals? The dark arts?) So all you’ve got to do is let it heal for 3 days and it is better to go (you can walk on it after 24 hours).
I should disclaim that it has water-based stains this grout is more resistant to and like any”stain-resistant” surface, you still probably shouldn’t slather marinara on it and allow it to sit for days. But we are over 18-months in on the shore floors and they are still looking as good as new. As in, not just one crack or stain. Anywhere. Everything looks like the day we grouted it. Actually, I took the photo above this weekend, even over a year plus a half once we grouted only to show that this substance goes the space. Seems like brand new, eh?
3. IT’S CRACK RESISTANT & SHRINKAGE CONTROLLED
Old grouts that we used to utilize recommended a special liquid additive in place of water that made it more elastic to help it withstand cracking or decreasing. So it was additional cash and an extra step. Meanwhile, that feature is built right into this formula, and we’ve never had it crack or shrink in all of our years of using it which isn’t something we could say about another grout we have used (even with that distinctive liquid additive).
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