diy888

Anyone tried this new premixed TruColor grout from Bostik?

Just Bill

I am not familiar with the product, but I don't like premixed grouts in general. They just don't seem as durable. I have used them for minor repairs, and often end up redoing them in less than a year.

diy888

It may not be fair to reach a conclusion if your experience is based on how well these premixed grouts have done when repairing standard grout that has already failed. There could be a substrate issue that caused the original grout to fail in the first place. You could have ended up redoing the repair in less than a year had you used standard cementitious grout too.

Just Bill

Never had a problem using standard grout.

diy888

I'm not quite following you, Bill. I thought you said you had to make repairs? Was it standard grout that needed the repairing in the first place?

mauitutu

I had it installed in my kitchen and it was not satisfactory. Professional, well experienced installers used Tru Color grout, which shrunk to half while drying. Installers had not used Tru Color before but had used other synthetic grouts. It's $70+ for a 9 pound can. Coverage is way less than stated on the can. Shrinkage is not discussed on the can. We contacted Bostik and they told us that the wiping after installation must be done with an almost dry sponge. It was. Bostik now will not answer my phone messages(2) or emails(2) as I have asked them to stand behind their product.
The floor will have to be regrouted.
I don't know if it will live up to the claims about staining, etc but I have little expectation since their customer service is lousy!
Bottom line: expensive and not as advertised in my experience. Use at your own peril.
BTW, the blog about this product sponsored by Bostik wouldn't post my review.

diy888

Since my original posting, I've used both the Bostik (the new formulation) with 1/8" grout joints on my walls and the Starquartz (still shipping the old formulation but will switch over to the new formulation soon) with a 1/4" grout joint on my floor.

I agree that coverage is less than advertised. Perhaps they're assuming grout channels partially filled with mortar?

No distributor stocks either company's product so it's a special order; with ground shipping and sales tax, the $56 nine-pound container can reach $70+

But I've not experienced any shrinkage with the Bostik or the Starquartz. My tentative explanations for significant shrinkage mentioned above would be:

a) drill-mixing at too high a speed which could entrain air causing the grout to sag/collapse when the air eventually escaped; or
b) not sufficiently compacting the grout into the channel, so that there was space below the grout into which it settled; you can't just smear the grout across the face of the tile; or
c) possibly using a standard grout float when a stiffer epoxy float is called for; or
d) all of the above

I will run a stain test on a test panel I created a couple of months ago and report back.

I spilled some blackberry juice, and put a squirt of mustard and ketchup on Bostik Bone and let it set for couple of minutes, and then wiped it off. Results: no staining. I don't have a test panel of the Starquartz.

4Sunshine

I just recently had a chance to use TruColor grout. We laid a 352[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG]sq' floor with a 3/16 grout joint. First we stirred it the old fashion way (the way my father taught me) with a margin trowel...NO DRILL. WE rung the sponge dry and had no problems...NONE. Better than SpectraLock by far. Time will tell how it holds up, but it went down great. No residue.
Epoxy ~ hot water
Epoxy ~ cold water
SpectraLock ~ chemical added water
TruColor ~ Sqeeze the sponge dry
Da....let me see ....
As far as no problems with any grout....Apparently you haven't been at this long...I've got some 40 some years in the business and problems happen. Experience and product knowledge will help you get through them.

diy888

I will add a couple of comments to my general praise of these urethane grouts for ease of use.

These urethane grouts might not be suitable for a shower floor, or a mosaic-tile tub, anywhere where the user might turn on the hot water and let it run and then add cold water later. In these scenarios the temps could reach 140-150F. I haven't gotten any answer about the softening/melting point of the urethane.

There's a new version for glass tile, btw, which uses glass microbeads instead of quartz sand. The quartz-sanded version can cause very faint scratches on a smooth, high-gloss glazed tile or glass.