Cracks in grout

[sbj405]

Me, again. You may recall that I had my bath renovated about 3 weeks ago. Today while cleaning the floor, I noticed that there are cracks in the grout. These are tiny and run the length of the tiles. Is this normal? (I'm pretty sure not).

[NMDemDist2]

1. i'd call my contractor ASAP n/t

[jschurchin]

2. Do you know if he used...........

sanded or unsanded grout? If he used sanded then they are Not Normal. If he used unsanded with 1/8" or larger grout joints than he used the wrong type of grout. Either way I agree with AZDemDist6, call your contractor.

[sbj405]

3. Honestly, I don't know. I will give him a call tomorrow.

Just wanted confirmation as I didn't want to seem like a pain in the butt as they already had to come back once and I just got reimbursement for the carpet they damaged.

[Warpy]

4. Call that contractor!!!

Either he didn't set the tile properly (used too much or too little mastic) or he failed to mix the grout properly. The job needs to be redone.

Be prepared to take him to small claims court. Contractors are notoriously bad about coming back to fix stuff like this. Take photos. Lots of them.

On edit: protect that floor, make sure no moisture gets anywhere near those cracks. Water always wins, and will not only unseat that tile, but can also ruin the subfloor and framing.

[sbj405]

5. Update: Contractor claims this is

"normal shrinkage" and they will do a "service call." Not sure what that will involve.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. IMHO

He's fulla crap

Shrinkage, huh? Ask him why you've never seen shrunken grout anywhere else.

The only thing that appears to be shrinking is his reputation and you're estimation of his credibility.

[sbj405]

8. Can they regrout over what is already there?

I guess I should have asked what they were going to do.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Yes, it is okay to put grout over grout .... but .....

you first need to remove some of the existing grout so as to ensure the new grout has enough 'body' to stay in place.

The whole notion of grout 'shrinking' ...... what appears to be shrinking is likely to be casued by less than stellar workmanship. A possible cause: too wet a mix when he 'brewed' the grout. I purposely used the term 'brewed'. The true term is 'slaking' (long 'a' ... SLAY-king) Once mixed, the grout needs to rest for a while ... 10-15 minutes, maybe. This allows all the dry stuff to absorb the wet stuff. Skip this, and the grout might well appear to shrink. In fact, what's happening is the water isn't fully aborbed and when it evaporates, the not-fully-wetted dry stuff doesn't have the volume it appeared to have when wet.

The other possiblity - but far less likely - is that he simply overwiped the grout after intalling it.

[sbj405]

10. Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to watch and see if they remove some

of the old grout. He gave me no trouble about coming out, but it's a pain in the butt and more work that I miss.

[NMDemDist2]

7. what H2S said, he's full of it! I'd threaten him with the BBB if he gives

you any static and see if there is a contractor's board in your state too

[Lefty48197]

11. WHERE are the cracks?

If the crack is where two tile walls meet at an inside corner, or where one tile wall meets a floor (with a similar 'inside corner') grout will always crack, at least with new construction, because the lumber in a new home shrinks/settles for a couple of years. It's far better to use caulk instead of grout in those 'inside corner' situations. This includes where a tile wall sits on top of a tub or shower pan. From what I've seen, only a small percentage of tile contractors address that situation. Their tile supplier may very well have caulks that were designed to match their standard grout colors. The contractor should have access to that caulk, although they always seem reluctant to do caulking. He'll probably say that you should have specified caulk if that's what you wanted. (I've worked for general contractors, and probably worked with over 25 tile contractors over the years)
I wouldn't necessarily accuse them of poor workmanship over an inside corner crack. If a crack appeared somewhere else (in the field of tile for instance) then that may have been caused by something out of the tile contractors control too. If it's new construction, the wood framing may have shrunk, the drywall nails/screws may have begun to pop causing cracks etc.
If you have multiple cracks running along several of the grout lines, then there likely is a problem with the workmanship.
Either way, your contractor should be willing to address the cracks. Be calm when you call them, but say that you are worried about water infiltration/damage. That should get their attention.
If it is one of those inside corner situations, then I suggest that you just caulk over the cracked grout. Caulk in showers still needs to be replaced every few years. Over time, the grout in the corner will break up and start to push the caulk out. That's when you'll have to replace the caulk. Just pull out as much of the broken grout as you can!
If you can't find a caulk to match the grout, then just ask for a small bag of the grout and mix up a little bit every few months or so, and go over the crack. Either way, don't let the crack just sit there open, because it might cause damage.