cathouse remodel, page 2

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Brian starts with the inner design of the tile
3-23-02

3-23-02

3-24-02

3-25-02

Grout problems.
3-28-02

3-28-02

Angel checks out the new tile
3-29-02

It's a miracle!
On the right side of the image, you can see the haze
left by the grout mixture. On the left, you can see how
it looked after scrubbing with vinegar.
3-29-02

Well, the tile itself looked really nice. I did find an additive for the grout, a liquid that is used in place of water. "Acrylic Mortar Admix". It's supposed to make the grout really water resistant. Brian did a small area of grouting Tuesday night, washing as he went along. It wasn't as dark as he had thought it would be, but it was fine. As a matter of fact, it looked pretty good.
Well, our original plan had been that I would clean as he grouted. I have the kneepads and gloves. We figured it would go quicker that way. Wednesday, the 27th, I started working on our tax returns. And as I was doing that, he worked on the grout. But he didn't clean up as he went along. He said that it should be okay for me to clean up Thursday. But it wasn't. I guess in wiping the excess grout, the tiles had a thin coat (sometimes a thick coat) of the grout mixture on them. And it had bonded. It didn't wash up. I spent hours yesterday trying to get it up. I got much of the excess, but not nearly as much as needs to come up. I called the manufacturer's toll free number and the technician told me what we'd need to do. Brian didn't think I had the product down right, so I looked it up last night and found cleaning instructions. The Virtual Showroom Porcelain Maintenance. The fact that we'll be working with an acid product means that Brian will have to work with me. We'll only be able to do a few tiles at a time, with me doing cleanup behind him. Right now, I'm wigged out about the cats as it is, stepping in this ick. Granted, the grout wasn't powdery, but they have little systems and I don't want them getting ill because we got careless.
New furniture will have to wait.
Brian called late Friday morning (3-29-02) and told me that his brother suggested trying vinegar on the grout haze. I figured it couldn't hurt and it wouldn't be nearly so bad for the cats. So, I tried it and was very pleased to see that it will do the job. There are a couple of spots that will need the sulfanic acid cleaner (which we got last night), but they are small areas and it should be fairly easy to keep the cats away from them while they're being worked on. We also went to CostCo and bought four gallons of vinegar. Going to have a busy day.