We Grouted this SHOWER and IT LOOKS BAD!!! --- Inconsistent DARK and LIGHT Spots 

It's because the ceramic tiles absorb water really well. If you notice it's mainly on tiles that were cut on a wet saw. To prevent it you have to grout almost 48 hours after install to allow the tiles to dry. I used to have the same issues with that grout.

Man, I wish all contractors would be like you. Love your honesty!

Had this happen even with Prism and Ardex grouts on occasion as well. The problem went away 2 years ago after I stopped using sponges for grouting. I get a big pack of yellow microfiber towels from Costco and they are amazing to work with. fold them 2 times and you have 8 clean surfaces to wipe before you need to rinse. they are much cheaper than sponges and they don't wet the grout nearly as much. I think this was the main issue here, since corners and the niche needed to be washed more intensively and the sponge just left too much water on the grout there. Props for bringing this up.

The shirt is very fitting for this video! It’s refreshing to see someone with the integrity you have!

I've seen this on a project years ago, it was advised by the Customs rep to wash the area with Sulfamic Acid Crystals it actually worked. He mentioned it can be caused by washing with hard water and or using too much water to wash areas that may have went off when grouting too large an area at a time which is what we did.

I had a similar issue a year ago. Different brand of grout but all the tiles cut with a wet saw had darker grout around them. The tiles held onto some of the moisture from cutting and caused the grout to dry slower (darker).

honestly love this comment section, so many great tips just reading through, this is what the construction industry as a whole needs more of, this open honest communication with everyone

It's the polyblend and how it was mixed for sure. Polyblend in my experience does this sometimes and the fix for me has always been to use the mapei grout stain and sealer and get it all back to one uniform color. I also only mix grout by hand never with a mixer. Used to have this issue every once in a while, but since switching to mapei FA the problem was resolved.

I’ve always been told to first mix the grout dry to ensure the colorant is spread evenly throughout. Also, was told to wet mix with a slow mixer speed. Too high of a mixer speed could spin the colorant out and cause uneven color

I've had problems with that grout as well. Also little tip with those blades, you can take some pliers and break the end of, it'll give you a "fresh" sharp point

Years ago I had this happen on a massive shower, the rep for the grout company came out, all said and done they determined it was old grout. Also water quality/hard water contributes to this problem as well.

Thanks so much for posting this video! This looks exactly like a problem I had with that same exact grout. But not only did I have dark spots, I had a lot of light spots too. I had probably less than 10% of my grout the true color I was going for and ended up begrudgingly painting over all of the grout with a grout paint to avoid scraping everything out. Incredibly frustrating. For reference, I tiled both my kitchen and bathroom with the same porcelain tiles in each room set on top of Ditra with All-Set. I was using unsanded Polyblend in Platinum. I grouted the kitchen 3 days after the tile went in and the bathroom about 24 hours after the tile went in. I live in the PNW where our municipal water is quite soft. I used a scale to weigh out my grout and water for the mix and followed the mix instructions to the letter. I mixed (thoroughly) by hand since it was a small batch both times. I'm not a professional by any means, but rather a DIY homeowner renovating my house for the last year. I've been following your channel for tiling advice - you're one of the best out there that I could find. I was very frustrated with this discoloration problem and this was the first that I was able to find somebody with the same experience. Thank you again for putting this out there. I finally feel vindicated knowing that this wasn't just my inexperience showing, but a problem with a seemingly a defective product that an experienced professional has encountered too.

I agree, it's an issue with polyblend. When ever I have to use it I always mix with bottled drinking water, it's crazy but it works

First off just want to say you're the man tile coach love the videos! I only use mapai fine aggregate sanded grout now, never get discoloration anymore. I found discoloration happens if you dont pre mix the bag first before adding water, or adding grout to low grouted spots after its starting to set, also if you wipe out the color with to much water. I find it best to quickly wipe lines smooth after grouting, then once more with very little water 10-20 mins or so after, lastly use cheese cloth for final to remove haze. Works like a charm havent had discoloration in years.

Respect how you handle this call backs! Most of the ppl on RU-vid only show off ! Not often to see such an honest person! Respect

A great solution for it is to mix the grout while is still powder specially for unsanded grouts that will pre activate the chemicals in it then add the manufacturer recommended amount of water mix let slake, remix and apply… Good luck with this repair and thank you for all your videos!

A Formica scoring tool works great for grout removal it’s solid carbide. I’ve had this problem a few times and never figured out why

The measure of a business is how they address the job that doesn't turn out as planned. Good on you for putting the customer first. Some times as contractors we just have to own a problem that occurs from issues out of our control.

We aren't perfect! I love that you said this. I hate being told by a customer that something isn't just right for them, but I do love the learning experience, and making my blunders a lesson to be learned. Great content

Had this happen when using gray thinset and fast setting which is also grey. 90% of the time was where it "oozed" close to the surface of the tile but still deep enough for grout to cover. I think the dark color bleeds through the lighter color grout. But have had it happen with white thinset also but only 14-15 hr cure time. Never had spotted grout after a weekend of curing. So now I always skip a full day to allow thinset cure more and never had any more issues in 10+ years. Sucks to delay jobs a day but 100% customer satisfaction and perfect finished tile work and the unlimited amount of word of mouth referrals more than pays for itself.

I've been doing tile for 35 years and I have a feeling when it was wiped out more water was used in the corners to get them cleaner the longer it takes to dry the darker it dries it's a typical poly blend issue I always use a heat gun or a blow dryer to dry the corners and never have that issue because of that exact reason good luck with your final

Yes. Not curing at the same rate. I have had this happen when I didn’t let the tile dry after washing it before grouting. I try to final wash and clean the joints the day before grouting so that everything is dry. Or clean with a damp microfiber with minimal water.

I used to have this problem years ago when I used polyblend grout from home Depot. I think it happens if you use too much water. I haven't experienced the same problem with permacolor, prism or mapei ultracolor plus. A light duty acid can fix that problem in most cases. Epoxy grout is definitely the best quality grout but it's a pain in the ass....I hate grouting with epoxy.

Thank you so much for what you do brother! I just started a tile business and I always learn something new from your videos!

How fitting. I just did some Mapei Sanded grout just this past weekend with similar blotchy results. My theory was that I had my sponge too damp when I was cleaning off the tiles so made the upper layer of grout more 'watery' than the rest. My tiles were set weeks ago so the thinset was totally cured and I used their sealer mix instead of water, so it had nothing to do with what was coming out of my faucet.

Sand a light layer of grout off the top. A drywall sponge. Or go back and wet down the wall until it looks like it has a consistent saturation. Allow time to dry. Check ✔

Only mix polyblend by hand and I use distilled water to mix and rinse. Buy 6 or 7 gallons on grout day on my way to the job. This makes sure you're not dealing with hard water/ mineral deposits on the dry grout. Did that for years then switched to prism grout. Sulfamic acid can help even the color or even a color enhancing sealer.

I' ve had some similar problems with the same grout in my experience it's two possibilities, one is inconsistent mixing of the grout, or two the more likely cause is when you sponged it off, the best way to avoid it is to use a microfiber as your grouting to wipe all excess moisture from the joints, when you have water on top or the cream left behind it leaves some pretty bad color differences once the grout dries.

These are the kinds of videos we need as a community of craftsman and contractors. Transparency and honesty. Good for you for honoring your work and fixing it. I had this issue a few times with polyblend. I was told by a custom rep that color variation is not only common but expected in portland cement based grout. Apparently, the color of that cement is so close to the grout that the added color isn’t strong enough to overpower the natural shade of portland cement. I found in the technical specs a clause that actually confirms this. It’s just a bad product. I did something similar to what you did here to repair it and never used grey polyblend again.

I know that I use to have have this problem if I didn't mix for 5 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes and then mix again. Once I started doing that I never had that problem again. I had this issue on a tile floor that was on a slab and started doing research. And one person said to mix the grout 5-5-5 method

Same thing happened to me with that polyblend NS once. Havnt used it since. I started with using a blade to remove but I switched to a dremel grout removal bit and it was so much faster and did not chip any edges. I did use distilled water on that job. Polyblend is definitely very sensitive to mixing, water, and timing on clean up.

Next level content here. Thanks for uploading this! I think this can happen with some grout colors if they're mixed at high speeds. Sometimes color pigments will pull away from centrifugal force.

Love the saying on your t-shirt. Imagine a world where people lived by that.

It happens when you leave to much moisture on top of the grout when sponging . You just have to make sure to wipe up all “standing water”

I have had a similar experience with that grout on a project afew years ago. I found that mixing all the dry mix together first without water then making batches stopped it from happening. From what I understand it can either be due to the dye settling or inconsistent dispersion in the mixing process, takes time but alot less than cutting out the grout or having to redo the tileing Just my 2 cents. Thanks for the videos and transparency not alot of people who are in the trades are as open and honest! Keep it up

Customers stay happy and are reassured when you can honestly tell them you've experienced this before and can make the professional repair. If you dodge it then you van never call yourself an experienced tile setter. Problems occur time to time and everything is a learning experience. Lobe you too coach, thanks for sharing, it was encouraging

I'm from Toronto. A Mapei rep told me, sometimes the cement has to fully cure before grouting. My black grout went light on me. I tried what they told me, it made a little bit of a difference after I tried to fix the grout. I think it is the grout in my opinion.

A couple of ideas: 1> The lighter (right) parts were the easy areas to grout so they were done first. The fiddly parts were likely left until last when the grout had started to dry off in the bucket as the clock ticks away. 2> Thickness of the tile set behind the tile, exposing the darker backer / membrane colour. 3> bad grout line clean out before applying grout in the fiddly sections. 4> Insufficient time left between tile setting & applying grout...don't rush! Good tile work takes TIME. 5> Inconsistent application of grout sealer or too little set time left for the grout before application of the sealer. Your comment about fixing it sooner is a good one...fresh tile cement or grout i still soft for a few days after application so it is much easier to scrape out...leave it a week or two & it goes REALLY hard making more work.

This just happened on tile we had installed in our kitchen. The tile people came back out and removed grout and redid the parts that were dark. Unfortunately, they chipped a lot of tiles, and it did not work. Some grout was lighter, but other spots are still dark. At this point we're planning to use a grout recolorant.

7:36 For those who don’t know, make sure to vacuum and/or use paint brush to “clean out” the grout line so no “dust/particles” left in there. If there is and you apply the new grout, not gonna go so well for you in the end; as could have some issues; so just make sure clean and even use damp cloth/sponge after vacuum/dusting with paint brush (I like a wood handle chip brush) and wipe down areas gonna grout just be sure not to soak everything….don’t want water dripping or collecting in the grout joints before grouting. Weird though Isaac, this just happened on my last job. We had matte black 15x30 porcelain tile for shower walls and the 10x11 hexagon (mat backing) floor tile and used black grout for entire shower. Afterwards we had areas of black, grey, and whitish grout after 3-4 weeks. Used Laticrete thin set as well, same as you. Would like to know why this happened (grout for this particular job was Mapei UltraColor FA black). So, your not only one this has happened to. Definitely need patience and blades for this kind of work, as you said…..😉; for a my personality…..this WASN’T EASY, AS I LIKE TO KEEO GOING/MOVING/ETC….AND being patient, yeah….had to play music and become mind numb to do🤦🏼 Will say, this is FIRST time has happened to us using this brand/type/color of grout; as we using have great results. Bathroom floor was a blue/grey color and was epoxy grout and TURNED OUT PERFECT. Used Mapei as well and same water as the shower…so we know not the water. Same person mixed both (as usual) with same tools etc always does. APPRECIATE this vid, as it shows “TNINGS” happen, but in most cases able to “fix” and move on. Also tells ppl they ain’t alone and if happened to [you] it’s happened to other as well😊 Have a good one, cheers☺️✌🏻

I like the honesty and integrity keep up the great work!

I wonder if waiting a handful of days to grout would have helped.

I have had this happen to me. Make sure the grout is properly mixed, the couple times it happened to me I had rushed the mix. Go above and beyond mixing recommendations especially when using additives such as stain blockers grout enhancers.

It’s polyblend. Haven’t used that garbage in a long time for this exact reason. Stopped using plolyblend, stopped having shading issues:(.

Thanks for the utility knife tip. Never thought of that, but it works like a charm and it's safe. 👍

I JUST had this happen with polyblend delorean gray on the basement bathroom floor over concrete. I've had efflorescence (sp?) before from using too much water wiping grout but I don't think that was my problem this time. I did a very light "wash" after 4 days of drying with distilled vinegar and a small steel brush and it seemed to even things out a little. Next step is going to be a stronger acid wash and if that doesn't work I'm going to use the grout stain. Not ready to try and get all that grout out without destroying the tile......AS ALWAYS thanks for this great content and insight. Your channel is awesome!!

It happen to me with delorian grey since then I don't use custom grout/ problems as well with pro exel from tile shop/ ardex from tile shop as well.. I always use mapei ultracolor even on subway tile no issues and sometimes tec power grout no problems.. another good grout it's mapei CQ. but don't use it on polished porcelain/marble polished/ and limestone/peebles stone

Ive dealt with this several times with multiple products which is what led me to determine it was likely not the product but something we were doing. Not having any scientific research to back this ive stopped using well water to grout with and the issues have seamed to go away. This is a bit of a pain but not nearly as painful as fitting a regret into an already full schedule. Id love to know for sure if this is why I haven't seen this issue again but until I have some expert opinion Ill continue hauling my water. One thing I noticed was the majority of my issues seemed to come from the premixed products such as flex color cq although that wasn't 100% of the time. Also I only experienced it on jobs such as the one you showed with a tub or on a floor because I always use epoxy on full showers so something about the epoxy curing process seems to make it immune to this issue. Unfortunately my area in Ohio consists of mostly rural sites making about 70% of my job sites have well water and most simply use a water softener to treat it. I did have mapei inspect one and claim this was a mildew issue which I didn't feel was reasonable in 3 weeks of use so I never bothered going through that again. Still what's important is how issues are handled when they arise and thats what keeps us working.

Per a local former Wedi rep, BEFORE pouring dry grout into container to mix, shake/mix the grout well in its bag, to REMIX the colorant that has settled. That has solved my issue with discolored grout.

One solution, “Don’t ever buy polyblend” not to pick on you but it’s worse product out there. It washes color out also, first I though it was me until I switched to a different product, all problems went away.

Thanks for the input and the context behind it. I have always been using Mapei Ultracolour Plus FA, Always turns out nice.

We just did this with a customer/vendor supplied grout it was expensive and we were waiting for it to dry out to be uniform but to no avail, so I will be following this video for sure and make sure to follow up when we know what is happening! great videos as usual. Thank you for all the help!

Love the videos, been following for a couple years now. Been setting tile for about 8 years professionally (or at least on my own and not tending another setter) Just wanted to offer up 2 solutions ive found that have worked for me at least! 1, carrying a knife sharpener, you know cheap ones that have a V groove you drag the blade no through. 2-3. Passes and I’ve got a edge that will cut grout, cut my blade usage 3fold. 2, I personally love using my multi tool except instead of using a grout removing blade I’ll use a normal blade, preferably a half moon shape, that I’ve already worn out smooth (I’ve even taken the blade to the back of a tile to purposely remove the teeth) and run the joints that way. Pulling it back towards me letting the oscillation work its magic. Used this method on both ceramic and glass subway :) Hope these work for you and looking forward to the next one!

It happened to me once as well. My employee pissed in the water that we used to grout. I fired him. And we had to redo it all over again, but with clean water this time and it turned out great.

If you use the the same mixer paddle from the thin-set or even the same bucket it could cross contaminate the grout batch like that or even hard water (which I don’t this is the case ) it will actually change the color by a slight variation. I hope this might help . Looks good 👍🏼

Any colored grout can do this. Its a type of efflouresence and it's caused by too much moisture left in the thinset prior to grouting. Sometimes when the weather is cold or very humid and things dry slow I'll set up a fan overnight in the area to be grouted the next day. Or I'll wait an extra day before I grout. This situation is quite common, actually.

Might be the over glazing on the edges of the tile. But that usually causes it to lighten, not darken. I've had several issues back in the day. Found that mixing the polyblend with super cold bottled water helped. These days use 100% prism. Even on tight joint. Make it a little loose and pay attention to the vertical joints as they tend to "run". Wring your sponge tight and wipe the verticals. Works pretty good.

Props for putting out this video. Sometimes it's just as important to be able to fix an issue than not having one at all. I'd go with laticrete permacolor or mapei ultracolor plus fa grout to avoid the poly blend issues. And I'd make sure to use white thinset for lighter color grout and grey thinset for darker color grout to avoid the thinset inspecting the shade or color of the grout. I know the tile store Floor & Decor carries both mapei and laticrete grout and thinset.

I really enjoy and learn a lot from your videos by the way! I've been tiling for 4 years now! I try to watch all the videos I can to learn

Love your instruction. Really good fine tool to use to remove tight grout joints is a carbide tip cutter for cement board. Easy to detail due to thin profile and strong enough to not dull. Also called a backer board scoring knife.

Well done mate , nice to see someone cares about there work👍

The glazing on the sides of the tiles would be my guess.

I usually use Mapei no problems…last tile job I used Custom for the 1st time & had discolouration. I tried not to mix too fast, thought I followed instructions properly… I’m going back to Mapei. .

Did you use white thinset? I had an issue like that in the past with grey thinset. White thinset should be use to set tile.

Excellent stuff. My belief is that it’s always a combination of factors, but it amounts to inconsistent drying time in different areas. When I must use non-sand grout, I follow the final wash with a dampened microfibre. This will generally produce the darkest form of the colour.

Hi coach,, Fabian Lopez here Owner of Sun Diego Tile Installations in San Diego CA... 22yrs experience. Well, we stopped using Customsgrout years and years ago, Its litterlycomplete garbage! We use Servo Royal Kiesel grout instead of the Non-sand. Kiesel allows down too a 1/16 grout joints... Thanks for sharing, good luck!

Very interesting, i have not seen this when it goes dark and stays dark as if it was wet. I would have probably wet/sponged the entire shower first and put a fan on it to see if that helped the evaporation process. Also maybe you could buy a moister tester and poke the dark areas to see if it actually is more wet than the lighter areas, that would help you figure out if it's wet still or if it's a chemically reaction issue.

I had this happen with Power Grout by TEC also. A Gray SHADE AS WELL.!The Darker grout I scraped out and it was Lighter JUST underneath the surface. Grout scraper used to just etch the bad areas worked.🤷‍♂️

I have had grout dry dark due to what was in the substrate, and I have also had grout dry dark due to an acrylic polymer mixture that I used. My best guess is the thinset wasn't 100% cured. For those that have responded saying that you fixed this with Mapei Grout Refresh, I can't imagine you will be in business very long. That stuff is absolute junk, especially when thick paint chunks begin to "peel" off.

Happens often when restoring showers. I've found it's usually moisture related. If it doesn't cure right in a couple hours it never will.

This happened to me a few times...Try a mild acid wash and it should make it all turn the same,

I love watching your videos. There are 3 possible reasons why grout discolors in my exp. 1. Too much water on your wash. Normally due to it drying before you can wipe properly. 2. Dirty water buckets. Have to keep clean water. 3. If you put sealer on too heavy.

Have you ever tried the safety blades with the carbide grit instead of a sharp edge? Made especially for grout. Also a multi tool with the same type of blade? I would think that they would give good control and speed up the process greatly (plus save many blades).

This has happened to me. I've eliminated the problem by stepping it up to premium grout, such as Custom Prism or Laticrete Permacolor Select. It only happened to me with ceramic tile, and never on porcelain tile. My theory is that the ceramic sucked up the moisture from the grout way to fast.

After applying the tiles, you need to wait a few days, sometimes a week before grouting. This is to make sure the adhesive used to tile is completely dry. If some parts are still wet, once you grout the moisture has no where to go so it makes the grout look wet. There is no fox for this, have to re-grout. I had the exact same problem and this is what I was told by a professional tile guy. I put the tiles then after 20 or so hours I grouted...

I have had this same issue several times on showers with Mapai ultracolor grout

My guess is efflorescence. Caused by excessive water during wipe down. The areas you are seeing it would be areas wiping would be more aggressive. But typically you get the lighter color from the migration of salts to the surface. So if your blended lighter color is correct and the dark color is incorrect.. that is interesting. Either way, it's also consistent with polyblend issues. For whatever reason, well known for inconsistent color. An answer to the efflorescence is have one initial wipe down about 30 minutes after grout install with as little water on the sponge as possible. Then switch to a dry microfiber towel for the remainder of the wipes.

I have the same exact problem with the same grey color. It is definitely the thinset not drying evenly in all spots. 4 of the walls that were done in my bathroom were glued on Monday, while the other two walls on Thursday. The grouting was done on Friday. The walls that were tiled on Monday look perfectly fine, while the ones done on Thursday have darker grouts and look patchy. So the only explanation is that the walls done on Thursday didn't completely dry. The only solution is to wait at least 48 hours before grouting, ensuring the thinset is completely dry.

Had it recently with floor grout, it was grey powder mix, I think it was to do with the adhesive in the joints. I cleaned it rigorously before grouting, but small patches came up darker, luckily not to many, so was an easy fix, but couldn't be left like that. Good job man 👏

Interesting observation i noticed with polyblend is, i grouted the shower, towards the end of the day i remixed that same grout after it started to set and finished grouting, the places that i grouted with remixed grout were way darker. It was unsanded polyblend platinum colour

My first mistake as an installer was grout failure. 13 years ago I did a job using white mortar to set tiles and black grout. The black grout was absorbing the white coloring out the thin set.

In the past i have had issues and now buy efflorescence free grout. Also, on a job once i mixed up some beige grout by hand with a trowel and when putting on the wall red streaks appeared. Upon research these are red colorants thats added into the dry mix to colour the grout. I now mix all grout's with a electric paddle, let it sit for 5 mins and then mix again. Also, when washing off, don't use a very wet sponges as pushing water into the joint also causes problems/

Good t-shirt. Totally agree

DIY'er here. I had this happen with Polyblend as well. The grout was fine when I tiled a shower surround with the new bag; there was some powder left over so I used it a couple years later to grout a small tile tabletop I made for fun and the grout cured in different shades just like yours. Best I can figure is that the dye particles clumped up or it aged somehow despite being stored in a cool, dry basement. Check and see if your bag has an expiration date. I'll be looking at other brands of grout for future projects.

I wish I would have known this. Used polyblend delorean gray. Such inconsistent coloring. Ugh! Two people recommend staining. So I guess that's the way to go. 😒 Never had a problem with Mapei. Thanks for your informative video. 👍

Class act as always solving a problem, love that ! I believe it's the grout product, too many guys won't use it for this reason. I see a lot of comments about this occurring in the gray range as well, perhaps those pigments separate more easily with machine mixing?

I just had this happen but on a shower floor; in my case it's moisture trapped but now may have dried a different color since it took weeks. Tried fanning, heating, dehumidifying . . . nothing. Might use colorant and seal, if it dries that is. Glad it worked for you though!

I think you are right about the moisture not leaving the thinset. I used regular unmodified thinset with sluetter kerdi board and porcelain tile. I let it cure more than a day. Also check grout lines for thinset showing through. Must be clean and deep enough. I think your thinset did not cure all the way, because it's in corners and niche. I use a fan on low overnight.

Super professional. Well done.

In some cases you don’t need to take it out grout. First you need to try to re grout whole dark lines with this some grout one more time. Wait more time to swipe gently. Old grout can make pigment from new layer of the grout. This is working not always but always you can try before take it out old dark spots. I think one of the problem can be color off the mortar behind the tiles. All the time you need to use this some color off the mortar for whole walls. If mortar is not set completely and you grouting you can have this problems too. Some places are dry some not and if you put grout on not completely dry mortar grout you can have discoloration. I never have on the walls this problem but on the floor yes but I was using gray and white mortar sometimes I was mixing both to have closer color to the grout. And the best way to grout is to do all in ones

tile coach you're the best for showing us this kinda stuff

Yea different bags with color. To get the same color mix all together no water and then make a little bit at a time. It's like paint. You might I want gray but the auto matic tinting machine can vary in tint.

i have had this with insulated or cement board i think it is so waterproof the adhesive struggles to dry locked in if you like it does go after a while

Such a great channel. Love how you do business.

I never use the tapwater with my grout. However I don’t think that was the issue your substrate is impervious and the thinset will hold moisture and the grout lines are going to darken when the moisture present and escaping via grout. sealer will help.

I’ve had that same problem using custom unsanded grouts. For some reason it’s only the grey colors that did it. Haven’t had it happen again since I primarily use laticrete unsanded grouts. It could be the thinset still curing because the new grout would dry just fine. All my wall tiles were set over Kerdi with white ditra-set thinset.

Same thing happened to me this year with floor tiles- I ended up using as little amount of moisture as possible but even then there was a variation- I found I had re-do areas, one tip I had was using a multi tool- it saved time and once I took out one element, I was able to remove large areas of grout quickly. Frustrating but in the end I did the best I could and it has a rustic charm. To me its about moisture levels and how well the product is mixed.

I had this happen with A laticrete product and when the rep came out he took samples and it turned out that there was bad mix of grout. The remedy that we used was to stain the grout. I had to stain it twice to get the right consistency. There was something he asked me that was interesting though. He asked about the water that it was mixed with. I did not know this but there city water and there is also some communities that have there own water plant and there is a different purification process. Your hypothesis on the thin set is affecting the grout drying. This is definitely a possibility. It is surprising that this would happen with all set though.

Maybe it was the spacers/spacing that was a little funky in those areas? Is it always exact? Love that you just want your customer to be happy. 🙌🏾 You're so kind! 😉

Great video! Bummer when this happens but it DOES happen.