Tim, I just want to thank you so much for putting these 'How-To" videos up for us! I just completed grouting the first 24 sq ft section of my tile floor, and it looks terrific! So much important info can't get put into the limited instructions on the packages, but is available here, free, and thoroughly explained. I know I'm only 10% done with it, but I am confident I will have near professional results, thanks to the expertise you have shared. Thank you again!!
Thanks, Tim. I'm about to grout tile for the first time...and feel a lot better about it after watching your videos on how to do it! Thanks for sharing your expertise with us DIY scrappers!
THANK YOU! I watched all four videos and followed your instructions to a "T". I would have never known how to smooth the grout once it was in the joints without your tips. Project turned out great. Your videos, by far, are the best ones I've seen on this topic. Many thanks!
TNX, Jeff! It took a few jobs to figure it out on my own all those years ago. The old tile master craftsmen didn't have video 100 years ago to teach us. You lucked out.
This is one of the best instructional videos I have ever seen. I followed the instructions to the T and it worked exactly as shown. Thanks Tim, I will definitely look for you in the future for any other DIY that I have not yet done.
Neat. I've just started grouting our terracotta floor and haven't been too impressed with the result to far. I see now that I have the sponge too wet and am applying too much pressure, and the sponge has sharp edges. Result: I'm gouging grout out of the joints. So when I continue, I now know what to do differently. Thanks!
I 100% agree with susanthescribe, fantastic series. My hubby was starving waiting for me to bring lunch to the work site; took me most of an hour to find all of the parts to the series. I'd reconsider renaming them or adding part 1-4 to them. I just came back from putting these instructions to work, and the tile looks fabulous;. can't wait to see how it looks after my final cleaning. Hope overnite isn't too long Thanks for the info. Didn't know the part with sponging the grout before you said it
Thank you sir! I'm about to grout some tile, and wanted to get a refresher since it's been 10 yrs since my last tile project. Checked out a tiling tutorial by someone else before I found yours, and he made many of the common mistakes you mentioned. Anyway, while watching his video I couldn't figure exactly what he was doing wrong, but it just didn't seem right so I moved on to your video. And man, I'm glad I did!!!
This is a terrific series of instructional videos, which are even better for having been filmed in HD. They are by far the clearest instructions I have found. I too would be very happy to pay for the last 2 videos, but I'm afraid that my faith in human nature tells me that asking for contributions might not bring you very much. Well done! 444PB Lincoln UK
@AsktheBuilder The lessons are worth the money since it is professional advice.They gave me the confidence to do it myself and save a bundle. It isn't the labor most people shy away from, it's not having the confidence that they won't screw it up. That is worth a few dollars to me. Further, television shows have never given me the confidence to try anything they do because they leave to much information out, seemingly on purpose, IMHO.
Boy I wish I'd discovered you about 36 hours ago. You video series would have made my experience I lot more positive. Thank you for the video, it really helped me understand where I can make improvements the next time I do a tile floor (or redo the current one as it didn't come out like I had hoped).
What is your takeaway now? Before you start any new project you've never done, go RESEARCH it first extensively. There's lots of VERY BAD information here on RU-vid so you need to make sure the advice you follow is correct.
Very nice ATB, I've done some grouting in the past but was skeptical about this go round since I spent over a grand on some really nice Italian tile for my new 13X15 den. I must say I feel alot better and thank you very much for the videos!
Wow you make it very clear on how to do this. Thank you. All the other videos just tell you to wipe. I was confused on how to and what to do if there was grout left on the tiles. You definitely clarified that for me! Thanks again!
Hey Tim.. Congrats from Brazil and thanks for the lessons! I´ve been working tiling my bathroom´s house in last two weekends and tomorow I´do the grouting. Thanks for the help!
Enjoyed the video series, there is more to tiling floors then I ever imagined. My poor knees!!! Well, guess it's time to get to work and apply this new found knowledge. Thanks!
Tim, Thank you very much for sharing these tiling videos! I am not afraid to grout my own tile job any longer. Keep up the great work. Subscribed. - Mike
You're the only one that actually squeezes all the water out. So many videos out there where they leave a lot of water on the tiles after wiping. I believe that you never had a failed grout installation in your 35 years like u said in part 2. You're doing everything 100% technically sound
@freemandrf I'm going to take down the last two videos next week and start to test this. I'm going to spend lots of time in 2012 making a huge library of similar videos of step-by-step instructions. If you want to know about them as they happen, be sure to subscribe to my FREE AsktheBuilder newsletter. Thanks for your feedback and very kind words.
@Bensonisdead Schaweeeeet! That's what I love to hear. You can help me now. Subscribe to my AsktheBuilder newsletter at my website. Tell your friends to do the same. Tell others about these videos. I need that traffic to continue to be able to offer all this up for free.
@elghian I've never had a alkaline burn from grouting in 40 years. Perhaps because the water is changed so frequently. I did have a horrible second-degree burn from concrete that got on my jeans during a pour and I didn't get it off my skin for about 3 hours until the pain was so intense I could think of nothing else. But if you rinse the cement from your hands constantly and change the water every 5 minutes or so, which is Necessary, then no issues.
@DKPAIN Thanks for the comment. You don't say why. I would agree with you if the grout is very wet and you push hard on the sponge. You'd then dig out the grout. But when the grout is stiff and you're in the final stages of film removal, it doesn't matter. I went to your channel and there are no tile videos there. Just a video about cars racing on ice. How about you investing your time making some videos about what you know about tile and grouting? Surely the ice has melted off the lakes by now.
Thanks Tim! I'm a first time tile installer and followed your instructions all the way through & did my bathroom first & then onto the big kitchen. I'm no pro... but everyone loves the tile & thinks it looks excellent! Thanks for the help :-) no can you tell me how to recover from a tile job & not have aching knees & back? Chris (Hudsonville, MI)
Tim,I don't know if you'll get this or not but last night I just finished grouting some new tile I laid in my house. Followed your steps and everything looked great. This morning though, there seems to be a few imperfections in some of my grout lines. Don't know if it's from removing too much or not having enough in certain spots. Can I just touch up these spots with new grout or do I have to remove the grout I laid yesterday and completely redo these lines? Thanks
Thanks! You can help by telling all you know about the videos. I need massive traffic so I can continue to invest all the resources required to tape and edit them. That goes for all my videos as well as my website. Without traffic, they will disappear.
I do a variation of this. 3 buckets. I soak the sponge in one, squeeze it out in an empty second and rinse the sponge in a third and squeeze it out again before resoaking it and wiping again. I find it reduces my return cleaning by half to three quarters the time. It seems like it would take longer, but you only have to do it once this way. Almost no need to buff it out.
@SusanTheScribe Susan, I appreciate the suggestion. As I said to 923 man, they're labeled the way they are for a reason. You found them, didn't you? And the annotations in the video help guide you through the series.
@electrakitty I believe I mention the time lapse in the videos. Bottom Line: minutes - it depends on many factors where you are: relative humidity, temperature, wind, porosity of the tile, etc.
Sure make it look easy! I wiped and wiped and wiped. used vinagar to removed the film which worked great, however the surface irregularities have trapped grout on the surface of the tile. Now before sealing I am to carefully pick it out? Phooey?! Any ideas?
@AsktheBuilder I would have paid the $3.00, I think it is worth it, especially after seeing how informative the first 2 were. What you might want to do is ask for donations, I'm sure people wouldn't hesitate to give, especially if they use your advice on a regular basis.
@freemandrf I've got a question for you. After watching the first two videos, would you have paid say $3 to watch the last two? I say this because I have a feeling that many would love to get highly detailed instructions on how to do things like this. I'm not making any money from RU-vid - like they promised - so I'm trying to figure out a way to monetize all this effort. Suggestions?
How long is the time elapsed between floating the grout and the rest of the steps? I was planning on grouting my floor over the next couple of nights, but it seems that I might need to wait until I have time this weekend. Insight? Thanks for these videos, they're really quite helpful.
Excellent! Consider supporting my channel. Look for the Thanks text link under the video. It could be behind the three dots. Imagine how much I saved you!
@theBangaloreBoy I agree there's a problem. Here's the bottom line. If you want pro results, you can either hire a pro or hope you'll find pro advice that's correct online. It all comes down to what your time is worth and whether you TRUST me. You get your chance watching the two videos for free. If you then feel I'm the real deal, you can pay a few dollars to watch the other two. It's not at all unreasonable.
Scotch-Brite pad..... and water. Next time install the tile on a half sheet of backer board laying on your garage floor. Practice grouting on this scrap tile until you master the technique.
@AsktheBuilder I wouldn't take down the last 2 videos, I would leave them up and just say that if you feel that you have been helped by these and if you want to contribute something, feel free. I think you will get more response than if you tempt us with the first 2 and then make us pay for the last 2 most important ones.
@bmc7919 AcccK! You can't easily add grout now. While the grout is still relatively soft so to speak - it's not cured yet - I want you to just dig out the areas where you goofed up. Use a small flathead screwdriver in those areas and carefully remove the grout. Then patch them per my video.
@freemandrf I'll test it for sure. But I'm convinced the test will show greater revenue for pay to play. I get this vib here at RU-vid that everyone expects things to be free. They pay for music downloads, they pay for great applications for smart phones, they pay for DVD downloads. it just makes sense that after I've proven in the first two videos that I know what I'm doing - that you and others would pay a very small fee not to mess up the grout. We'll see which method works best.
Hi Tim, I'm afraid I found your grouting videos a bit too late! I grouted my first bathroom 5 hours ago from writing this comment and my main mistake was to grout the whole floor and then wash everything at once. As you mentioned, it became dry before I could finish properly. I managed to "sand" the grout lines to an acceptable level, but I now realized I have another issue: I noticed a decent amount of efflorescence in the grout lines as they dry (the color of the grout became white-ish). I'd like your input as to what I can do to fix this. I tried to use a hard tooth brush with a bit of clean water that I then dry right away. While it helps, the color still looks uneven across the floor. Any suggestions? Should I use a cement stain on the grout lines? Thanks and subscribed!
It sounds like your thinset may be poking through your grout joints. Before you grout you have to clean out the grout joints with a razor blade to make sure this doesn't happen. The only way I know to fix it is to remove the grout (PITA) than start over.
Jerry, that's a great question. RU-vid promised that I'd make lots of money spending thousands of hours taping videos. I make one penny a view. In the five years this video has been up, I've still not made back the money I paid to the videographer. So the only way to try to make it worth it to tape videos is to charge to watch some of them. If you have a better idea, I'm open to your suggestions.
+Ask the Builder The way you have your videos cut into 3-4 minute sections is very annoying. Your content is top notch and it's clear you know what you're doing, but forcing me off youtube to purchase videos halfway through leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I agree you should be paid for your knowledge and work, but as +unpluggedtasha1 said, you have to make it easy for people to give you money and view your content. Currently your content is not curated in an intuitive easy to consume / pay for manner. Awesome series, and I hope you end up making back your money.
support.google.com/youtube/answer/3249127?hl=en I'm not sure how much the fees are for this service, but you could offer basic videos for free chopped up with the intros and re-directs to your website. Then offer uncut ad-free versions of the videos to paid subscribers. So instead of cutting them up into 3-6 videos, one intro one video for each of your series for subscribers. Something like that may be a better way of going about it. Also I would promote your content on DIY / Builder blogs / Reddit. Maybe a guest article or guest video for the blogs, try to drive traffic to your website that way. If you can get enough traffic to your youtube / website, you would make more ad revenue and possibly not have to charge for the content, but as you've outlined in different comments, it would take a lot more traffic for that to be a reality.
I am not a fan of sealers. They can interfere with cleaning in the future. Just get some of my Stain Solver to deal with dirty grout. Go to my StainSolver website.
Thanks! You might want to do two things: 1. Subscribe to my FREE newsletter at www.AsktheBuilder.com 2. Start watching my LIVE streaming videos! Lots of fun and you get to ask me questions in real time. Be sure to turn on NOTIFICATIONS about when I go LIVE.
@anniemcu Annie, you're very lucky young lady. Next week the last two videos in this series are being taken off RU-vid. I tried to make some money giving them away for free. But it's never happened. People are going to have to pay to watch the last two videos in the series.
Sure it wasn't a pesky leprechaun? I have a *very* tough time believing dry sawdust will remove wet grout film. How about you do a video showing all of us this method. I'll post it here as a video response.
@theBangaloreBoy So far this video series has made me about $10 in two years. Are you telling me that it would not be worth it to you to spend $5 to watch the last two videos in the series? You'd rather take a chance at messing up the floor? Are you serious? And what about me? How am I supposed to make a living? I can't keep giving content away for free. Do you have cable TV? You pay for content there, PLUS you have to watch commercials unless you have a DVR and can skip them.
The only problem with your method is the four days going at it. I have to check with my wife to see if she can wait 4 more days to get her kitchen back. Thans
Uh, using my method I can easily grout 800 square feet a day by myself. How BIG is your kitchen? Bigger than a giant restaurant???? You must be going way too slow. Join my Discord: discord.gg/u89GyDjBdr
I forgot to mention in the video I had pads surgically attached about a year before. Get unlimited tips like that when you subscribe to my FREE newsletter at www.AsktheBuilder.com! :-)
Don't seal grout. It gets in the way of CLEANING it. Go to www.StainSolver.com and type *GROUT* into the search engine to see remarkable before/after photos. Sealer will BLOCK the ability of the cleaner to get under it. Keep in mind grout can be STAINED by a liquid seeping UNDER the grout where the grout touches the tile.