For the small amount of space they take up, bathrooms require extensive time to upkeep. You need to clean them more often and more deeply than most other rooms of the house. They also tend to require repairs and upgrades more often.
Of all the parts of your bathroom, is any more frustrating and time-consuming than your shower tile grout? Everyone who’s ever taken a toothbrush to those tiny lines has felt that pain.
Cleaning alone won’t keep your grout in tip-top shape though. Why is it so important to regrout your shower on a regular basis? Here are the benefits you stand to gain.
Why You Need to Regrout Your Shower
Grout serves a variety of purposes in a tile shower, and keeping that grout intact is crucial. Check out the key reasons you may want to regrout your shower.
1. Fix Cracked Grout
Over the years your home shifts. Water can wear away at shower grout as well. Both of these factors combined can cause the grout to crack.
Cracked grout doesn’t just look unkempt and old. It also opens a pathway for water to get into your substrate and wall behind the shower. If you spot cracks in your grout, it’s time to regrout as soon as possible.
2. Get a Fresher Look
In addition to the protection it offers your home, your shower tile’s grout is cosmetic too. Over time, grout gets dingy and discoloured, making your bathroom look dated and dirty.
Regrouting is one of the fastest ways to make your shower look bright and new. You can also use grout to change your shower’s look.
For instance, the same tiles that look dark and dull surrounded by grey grout will look brighter surrounded by white grout. If you want to tweak your shower’s look but don’t have the time or budget to retile, regrouting can be the way to go.
3. Prevent MoUld Growth in Your Walls
Showers offer the perfect environment for mould: they’re damp, dark, warm, and enclosed. If your aging grout lets water seep behind it, you can get mould in your walls in a hurry.
Regrouting your shower on a regular basis is crucial to keeping moisture out. With the amount of damage mould does to your home and your health alike, preventing it by regrouting is well worth the effort.
4. Protect Your Tile
On top of keeping moisture out of the substrate and the walls, grout keeps the tile in place. It helps to lock the tile in place and offer extra support to the adhesive behind it.
As your grout degrades with age, you start to lose that protection. Before you know it, your tile is falling off and you can’t find replacement tiles. Your only option is to re-tile the entire shower.
Instead, regrouting your shower when necessary will keep your tiles in place and keep your maintenance costs low.
5. Get Rid of Existing MoUld Growth
Every homemaker has seen it at least once or twice. Despite all the time and effort you spend cleaning your shower, the grout starts to develop those telltale mould spots.
Yes, there are mould cleaners out there. They don’t always work, though, so it’s often one more frustrating step in your cleaning routine.
When you reach this point, the only way to get rid of the mould is to regrout.
Tips for Your Shower Tile Regrouting Project
Whether your reasons are cosmetic or constructive, you’ve reached the decision to regrout your shower. Before the project starts, take these steps to make sure it’s as successful as possible.
Skip the DIY and Hire a Professional
Regrouting is one of those jobs many homeowners expect to be simple. They think, “Why hire a professional when I can do it myself?”
That might work in a tiled area where the grout’s seal is less important like a hallway floor. In a shower, though, your grout is in a constant battle against moisture and mould.
If you don’t regrout your shower tile right and you get mould in your walls, a cheap DIY project turns into thousands of dollars in remediation. It’s better to hire a professional from the start.
Discuss Removing the Old Grout
The term “regrouting” means different things to different people. Some homeowners expect that they can put new grout on top of their old grout and call it a day. In fact, some professionals will do this if you don’t pay extra for them to remove the old grout.
Even if your reasons for regrouting are cosmetic, why pass up the opportunity to keep your home in great shape? If you’re hiring a professional, request specifically that they remove your old grout before placing new grout.
Get a Shower Tile Specialist
Tile is tile and grout is grout, so all tiling and grouting jobs are the same, right? Wrong.
Regrouting a shower is different than regrouting a laundry room floor, for instance. A shower regrouter needs to use special caution to make sure the grout is placed and sealed properly. They have a far larger moisture challenge than someone regrouting a floor.
It’s also important to realize that shower grout is different from grout for tile in other settings. It’s specifically designed to stand up better against water and humidity.
To make sure your job gets done right, hire someone who specializes in working with shower tiles.
Getting Your Shower Back Into Shape
If there’s any part of your home you want to feel clean, it’s your shower. After all, how can you enjoy a refreshing shower if you’re surrounded by mould on your grout?
If you notice cracks or mould in your grout, you can reap the benefits above when you regrout your shower. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a short and inexpensive project that could save you thousands down the line.
If you’d like to give your tile shower a fresh look and a better seal, contact our shower care professionals.