Baird,

If you go down to a 50 grit diamond plan on opening holes in the floor and
you will probably need to fill all the holes. I would recommend staying away
from that.

I would approach the job by going in and cutting the grout down the
approximately 1/8 of an inch then using a fine tool or other methods you may
prefer to remove the grout. Then I would re-grout the floor  using a non
sanded grout but would use a latex additive to the grout. I would use at
least 50 to 70 % latex and the remainder water when mixing the grout. The
latex will improve the bonding of the new grout to the old grout. When using
the latex additive the grout will cure much faster so your pot life will be
short. Mix up small batches of grout.

 Even though most grout have latex already added you will need to add more.
The latex additive can be purchased in Home Depot and other tile supplier.
It's usually in the tile section by the setting materials and grouts.

John E. Freitag
President/Director
The Stone and Tile School
Office 407-567-7652
Cell 407-615-0134
jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com

www.thestoneandtileschool.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Baird Standish [mailto:bairdstandish@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 7:56 PM
To: Restoration and Maintenance
Subject: [sccpartners] Travertine with bad grouting job

Hi,
I just inspected a newley installed travertine floor that the owners
would like us to bring to a consistent polish and seal. The tiles are
not finished well, with much irregularity to the polish. The key point
is that the grouting (traverfill or maybe just plain unsanded grout,
probably the latter), is not well done. Some of the grout is flush
with the surface but much of it is below the level of the travertine
surface. The surface itself is smooth and scratch free, so I could
otherwise finish it with one 400 grit hone and polish, but it looks
like I will need to use a 50 grit diamond to grind down the floor to
even out the grout, then work up from there. I'm wondering if it is
possible to grout over the existing grout effectively (without it
coming loose) and cut back on the number of hones?
Thanks
Baird

--
________________________________________
>From the desk of
Baird Standish
Managing Partner
Facility Specialists, LLC
1616 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-732-7505
Fax: 215-546-9160

--
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