When a product fails you

Tip of the Day: What Do You Do When a Product Fails You? Here’s What I Did.

I was finishing up a tile job—the last step was grouting. You follow the directions on the bag to the letter, and everything looks great when it goes on. But once it dried? Disaster.

The grout, which should have been black, looked terrible. Up close, it was gray and patchy. From a distance, it looked old and soap-scummy. I did everything right—or so I thought. The tiles had set for a week, so it wasn’t moisture from the mortar. My water-to-powder ratio was spot on (I even used a scale for accuracy). The grout was Mapei UltraColor Plus in black, a rapid-dry formula. To manage the drying time, I divided the 25lb bag into halves. Even my cleaning process was careful—I didn’t over-saturate it.

So what went wrong? I still don’t know.

What’s the Fix?

After some research, I found Mapei Grout Refresh, which turned out to be a lifesaver. It’s basically a dye for grout, and it also acts as a sealer (even though sealing wasn’t needed in this case). Applying it restored the rich black color the grout was supposed to have, and the job finally looked the way it should.

What Would You Have Done?

Have you faced a similar issue? How did you handle it? Let me know—I’d love to hear your solutions for grout failures like this.