So the walls are painted the sink base has been built, the serving bowl has been turned into a sink, the plumbing is ready to be finished and we laid the marble hexagon tile.
It looked absolutely beautiful.
But then we grouted. And now our beautiful tile looks like this:
Not beautiful at all. In fact, in person, it might as well be vinyl.
Apparently, this issue is called “grout haze.” I did a lot of Googling last night and couldn’t really find anything useful. However, I did learn this morning after another hour or so Googling, that this occurs when the grout settles into miniscule grooves in the surface of the marble.
Unfortunately, most “experts” that offered advice online blamed two things: not wiping up properly after grouting and/or using sanded grout as opposed to non-sanded. Well, no amount of wiping was getting that haze up and we used non-sanded grout. So don’t believe ‘em!
There are products out there to take care of grout haze, but only one is suitable for marble, so this week, we’ll be seeing if we can get our hands on a bottle.
In case you ever plan on laying your own marble tile, they say the only way to prevent the haze is to seal the before grouting. It would definitely be worth the extra step.
UPDATE: we found an easy and natural solution to the problem, read here.
onshore
February 20, 2013 at 4:07 pmOn the pictures it does not look too bad, just lighter in colour. But that is horrible if it is like vinyl now. Hope you find the product and it works!
Linda
February 20, 2013 at 5:37 pmI think they both look great in the pics. I like the lighter color. But, it’s hard to tell from the pics if the grout is visible on top of the tiles. And, I know that if you expected it to retain its color, you could be mucho frustrado ahora. Good luck with the haze remover. Who knew such products existed?
Christina
February 22, 2013 at 3:16 pmI guess in the photos it does just look lighter. But in person, it looks really dull, dirty even. We’ll be working on it this weekend.
Jennifer Rose
May 2, 2013 at 6:54 pmThis comment has been removed by the author.
Caroline
May 30, 2016 at 11:06 pmDid you use polished or honed marble tiles? I’m having the same effect with the haze and I’m wondering if the grout cleaner you used would dull the polished finish. Thanks for your help.
Christina
May 31, 2016 at 4:28 pmWe purchased honed tiles, and ours seemed unaffected by the cleaning. I ended up using Method’s tub cleaner, applied with a plastic scrubbing brush instead of the grout haze cleaner. But with polished tiles, there is a chance that it would dull your finish.
It might be safer for you to just go with the grout haze remover. Our local Lowes sold it in store!