What grout to use for tiled shower floor to wall joint?

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Kamisn

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Hi all, I have a tiled floor standing shower that had cracked grout at the corners where floor meets the walls so I decided to remove the grout and install new grout in the mentioned areas. going to home depot and seeing all options and reading online articles now I am confused what to use to prevent future cracking. I have been told use caulking, but I know caulk needs a lot of maintenance and has tendency of mold growth.

In addition to this in the process of removing the grout my oscillating tool made one of the mosaic pieces loose and I wonder what is the easiest/best ways to fix it before re-grout.

I have inconsistence tile joints from less than 1/32 joints up to slightly over 1/8 inch.

Here is picture of grout joint with wider gap and also the one with loose tile (its the one at the corner).

Thanks for your help!
IMG_1514.jpg
IMG_1518.jpg
 

Jadnashua

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If you want to follow industry guidelines, you would NOT use ANY grout on any change of plane or materials. The reason is, as things expand and contract, rigid things like grout will break down. The guidelines call for a 'soft' joint. As a repair, about the only thing what works is caulk. 100% silicon tends to last longer, but is more of a pain to install. If there's a deep hole, you can improve the life by using backer rods (foam that comes in various diameters). This causes the caulk joint to look more like an hourglass verses a rectangular block, meaning the thinner point tends to stretch and not put a lot of stress on the edges such that they can pull away from the tile.

The grout manufacturers tend to have grout colored caulks available in both sanded and unsanded looks.

On a new install, there are engineered joints you can install that would last a lifetime. Caulk can last a long time, but rarely lifetime.
 

Kamisn

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If you want to follow industry guidelines, you would NOT use ANY grout on any change of plane or materials. The reason is, as things expand and contract, rigid things like grout will break down. The guidelines call for a 'soft' joint. As a repair, about the only thing what works is caulk. 100% silicon tends to last longer, but is more of a pain to install. If there's a deep hole, you can improve the life by using backer rods (foam that comes in various diameters). This causes the caulk joint to look more like an hourglass verses a rectangular block, meaning the thinner point tends to stretch and not put a lot of stress on the edges such that they can pull away from the tile.

The grout manufacturers tend to have grout colored caulks available in both sanded and unsanded looks.

On a new install, there are engineered joints you can install that would last a lifetime. Caulk can last a long time, but rarely lifetime.
Thank you for your reply.

Since then I spoke with another guy in HD and also had Grouthsmith visit my house, they both indicated the same thing you said however they were very specific to use non sanded caulk as they indicated has better water proofing criteria. I was concerned that I may have removed too much grout as you can see in the picture the hollow spot between the joints but apparently that is how the floors and walls join and needs to be filled with a filler. On the loose mosaic also he recommended that they will inject some sort of adhesive under.
 

Jadnashua

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Neither tile nor grout is the waterproofing in a shower! The shower should be water tight before the tile is installed. That assumes it was built to industry standards. Caulking the changes of plane helps to keep things cleaner - you don't really want hidden recesses for stuff to accumulate, but technically, that gap should not affect how waterproof the shower is now.

www.johnbridge.com is dedicated to tiling things if you want a second opinion. I'd just caulk it, and if the recess is deep, use some backer rod stuffed in there first.
 
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