Using SpectraLock 1 for the first time
Your friendly neighborhood tile guy with another video to share. This is the hardest video I’ve shared to my channel. Things didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked and I worked hard to save the job and not have a total disaster on my hands. Thankfully I knew a great resource to reach out to when I realized I needed help. I’m also thankful for their quick response and assistance. Ron Nash, the president of Laticrete North America, was my help. Thank you Ron for all you do, I am truly grateful for all your assistance.
Prior to grouting with SpectraLock 1 I read the directions and developed a plan. For better or worse I stuck to my plan. I should have realized sooner that I needed to audible, but I didn’t. Thankfully everything worked out great in the end.
Reading the directions I had 5-15 minutes to spread then clean the grout off the tile. Knowing that I could spread the whole floor in approximately 15 minutes my plan was to do just that. I dampened the floor with a sponge as the directions said, then I began grouting.
I should have realized that I needed to start cleaning the grout once I had to re wet the floor. I didn’t think about that and just continued with my original plan. Once I started trying to remove the grout I realized it was cleaning off the tile as it should and I needed help.
Late in the evening on a Friday night I reached out to the person I felt would be the most likely to respond. That person was Ron Nash. While I waited for his response I kept going with cleaning the tile. The best advice I can give on grouting is to keep working it as long as you can. It’s far easier to clean it while it’s still fresh than to clean it after it hardens.
In barely more than 30 minutes Ron responded to my cry for help. He told me what to do and I was happy to see I was already doing it. He also told me what to use the following day if there was any haze left behind, there was.
I cleaned the tile as best I could on the Friday night and then Saturday morning I went back for final inspection. A Magic Eraser and clean water proved all I needed to get the remaining haze off the tile. Unfortunately I did not video this step, but rest assured it wasn’t a difficult thing to do.
While my experience with SpectraLock 1 didn’t go as planned, I think it’s still a great grout. My joints are full and the tile looks great. I will be using this grout again, I will just work in much smaller areas at a time. Much like I would with most other premixed grouts.
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