I’m not an experienced tiler and don’t pretend to be, but I have done a few backsplashes, and the odd floor and shower bit. In my own house the grout in the bathtub tile was quite old and was stained with black stuff that I had bleached once but not very well and it just bugged me. So I decided to try to re-do it. Here is the “before” picture. I think if you zoom in you can see the dirt a bit. The soap dish and the caulking needed help too.
I scraped out the old grout with my two-dollar exacto knife. I went though a few blades and I got tired so I didn’t scrape the back wall (the one that doesn’t get wet). I know, there are other tools that would work better, but it did the job.
Next I mixed up some grout I had laying around from another job – not quite the same colour but close – and squished it in with my float.
Lastly I cleaned off the excess and added a transparent white silicone caulk. Maybe you can’t really see the difference, but it looks a lot better to me!
The only issue I see is that the grout changes colour when it gets wet. Apparently this is normal, but I don’t think the old grout did so much. I did try using some expired sealer on it but it didn’t do much. It looks good when it dries again.
handyandrew.ca 