MY wife saw this on HGTV, and wanted to try it out on our kitchen island. They say it was really easy to do, but I'm not so sure. All they say is sand the countertop and apply the grout. After 24 hrs, sand the countertop again & your done. They don't say what thickness to use, and how to keep it level across the countertop.
2007-01-20 01:09:14 · 2 answers · asked by Hondo 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
This is kind of ironic in a sense. The show that you saw was designed to sell, and the carpenter who applied the epoxy grout is Matt Steele a really close frind of mine. First thing is that you need to create a broder around the counter top that will not allow the gout to run off the sides. This is how you maintain the constant thickness. You also need to dilute the grout more so that it can easily flow. This will cause a self levelling result. Once the grout is dry, you need to remove the border material. For the project that Matt did, they used zinc plated sheet steel since the epoxy grout will not adhere to it well. I would stay away from using anything porous as it will be practically impossible to remove and clean up. Another tip I learned from him, is to apply PAM cooking oil to the border to ease removal. You do not want this to be on any other surface as it will ruin the adhesion properties of the grout. Once the top is dry and the border is removed, you will have a great and long lasting new surface that never needs to be sanded or polished. A good thickness is 3/8 of an inch, however a 1/4 inch surface will last a long time, if nothing heavy is dropped on it. Hope this helps
2007-01-23 06:51:56 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can't imagine what you saw on HGTV, but I sometimes wonder about those guys and gals and where they get their ideas from.
My experience working with epoxy grout is that it is difficult to work with and expensive to experiment with. Once applied it more permanent than most things. It is a mess to mix and apply: even the skilled tile techs here charge almost 30% more to use it, just because it is so difficult to clean up.
Sand it? What a laugh. This stuff basically turns to stone, I don't see what good sanding would do, except slightly roughen the surface after a while.
Like you, I am having trouble picturing how to use grout for a finished surface. Like you said, how to control thickness and evenness would be a guess.
Epoxy grout would be great for a tiled island in the kitchen as it is impervious to nearly everything and extremely wear resistant and it doesn't have to be waterproofed. As a bonus it looks great between the tiles.
Whatever you decide, good luck!!!!!
2007-01-20 02:31:52 · answer #2 · answered by MT C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i don't know what that is but epoxy grout is used to grout tile I've been doing counter tops and tile work for 18 years i never heard of such a thing
2007-01-20 05:34:36 · answer #3 · answered by george e 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋