To those who were following, yes, I did get the grouting done before we went away on our trip. But I didn’t get the blog done! We’re back (and our holiday was fabulous, thanks for asking!) so I will catch you up on how the grouting went…
As you know, my husband cleaned the cracks between the tiles with a water-pressure cleaner. It was easy enough to mix up the grout and get straight to work.
How fortuitous that I had all I needed to weigh and prepare the mixture in my kitchen. (This tickles me, because I’m not much of a baker, and I finally got to put my kitchen scales to use!)
I chose black grout, because the courtyard is in the shade a lot, and does grow dark mould. I also thought that black grout would make the colours of the mosaic stand out in contrast. Lo an behold, no sooner had I prepared the grout, than it began to rain. Surprised at all?! I wasn’t going to let it stop me this time…
At first I used a spoon to apply the grout, thinking that with the cracks so closely spaced, a larger implement would be clumsy and leave bubbles of air within the cracks. But it was actually easier to work the grout in with the larger tool. I was careful to apply the grout from several directions, as you are supposed to work diagonally across each crack. This technique helps to push the grout well down into the cracks, avoiding air bubbles deep down that only form a fragile “bridge” of grout above them.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of my first attempt at grouting. I used much more grout than the directions suggested, probably because of the sheer amount of cracks between so many small tiles. But the whole process was far quicker and easier than I had imagined (which was a huge relief after the painstaking mosaic).
The wet grout was sort of sandy and inky all at once. I was shocked at how dark and thick it went on, especially when it turned even thicker and heavier when I tried to sponge off the residue! I worried that it might stain the light coloured tiles.
The sponge was only moving the inky black residue around, so I switched to a cloth. It was far more effective, and after several washes, the mosaic was beautifully clean. Thank goodness!
Then I used a wet toothbrush to clean some of the pebbles that had become clogged with grout.
Here’s how it looked just after the clean.
Can you see the “grout haze” (the smudges) in the close-ups below? This is easily polished off once the grout in the cracks has dried. I gave it a good 24 hours to cure.
The next morning, I polished off the haze, and was very happy with the finished result, and with my first ever attempt at grouting!
I usually go by Murpy’s Law when doing this kind of work, and assume that a project is going to be much more difficult than first planned. It’s not a pessimistic view, it just helps me be realistic about my deadlines and my expectations going in. Grouting has been one of the few activities I have undertaken that has dis-proved that Law: it was so much faster, and easier than I had imagined.
Have you ever completed a project that went unbelievably smoothly, when you least expected it?
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