Okay finally did my very first color seal job today. 

Client wanted bathroom walls above tub, shower, and floors, cleaned both walls/showers, and cleaned/color sealed floors.

12 inch tiles on floors, 4-6 inch on walls.

Went with white color sealer, Alkaline used was Anamoly, no Acid on this job, didn't have any.

Overall i'm pretty happy w/ the results and so was client.

Let me know what you think.

Questions below pictures.

Before cleaned...

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After cleand and color sealed...

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Questions:

I've seen videos where after the person applies the color sealer onto the floor they use their finger onto the grout lines.  Is that necessary or do you only use your fingers across the grout where you can't reach w/ your sealer bottle?

Is it possible to get color sealer even more brighter, in this case whiter? If so, once i apply the sealer onto grout should i not use a towel over the tile to wipe any residue that did not go onto the grout lines? I've done this the whole way thru on this job, because there was quite a bit of residue on the ceramic tile itself.  Whenever i move the towel over the grout lines/tiles it would absord a bit of the sealer making it a bit lighter than if it was just sitting there by itself.  Hope this makes sense.

How do i get the haze from the color sealer out of the ceramic tile itself, for instance if i use a towel to remove residue, but than put my hand on the tile itself, my hand will get a bit white, what's the secret of removing that residue, should i change the towels more often?

Thanks again and thanks all you guys that helped me out thus far.

Bill

Bill-
Looks good. You might find it better to do a larger area with color seal before wiping up, giving it a chance to haze like car wax. I'm not familiar with all he brands but most can then be removed from tile with rubbing or white pad also light mist on towel of 50/50 Mr. Clean. I beleive the reason your removing so much product is due to not letting it have time to absorb into the grout.
 
Using the finger helps distribute the sealer along bottom and sides in one step, depending on how rough the grout you can use latex gloves , though I'd rather use my finger.

It gets easier. Main thing is you satisfied the customer.

Phil,

I do have more pics but mostly from the floor.  The walls were just cleaned not sealed.

Jeff,

I didnt know how long to wait for the sealer to sit for before wiping, so i was doing maybe 4 feet of an area than wiping.  I wonder if the shamwow towels are much better for the wiping.  I might be over using the terry towels because i was wiping white sealer and it wasnt showing much on the towel till i washed it.

Juan,

thanks, i'd like to get grout perfect's sample kit along w/ their new video as well.  They just came out w/ the 3.1-3.2 video version i believe which is suppose to be better than the first one. 

I'm also in the process of putting a demo board together, went to home depot and got a medium size plywood, about 20 or so 4 in tiles, pre-mixed grout, liquid nails adhevises, and 1/4 in spacers.  The tiles are beige in color so it should look nice once i can apply the before/after looks on it.  This will help me demonstrate what color sealing is, and i shall sell more jobs.  Also looking to do a small area for client if possible to show color sealing on their own tiles. 

Hey Bill,

Some who use color seal wipe diagonally across grout lines. I work it this way some times. If this is the way I feel like going, then I do all the lines one way, then all the lines the other way. I think this uses more product and creates more of a haze. Another way to do it is wipe excess off by running a small bit of your towel along the grout line on either side. More tedious, but less use of product and less haze. Either way, the more often you change/refold your towel and rinse water, unless you are rinsing in the sink, the less haze you get. I remove haze with a white pad on my op and some dilute TOG Maintain.  Apply it with a trigger sprayer. Works great. Unless I'm going a real long way, I don't try to remove haze until I have let the color seal job sit for a day or two.

You can save a lot of effort by trimming your application toothbrush to slightly smaller than the width of the grout line. I either just pull bunches of bristles with needle nose pliar, or I cut them with a serrated blade on my leatherman. This has the effect of pushing less product out of the lines.

I have found my product use per job has gone up since I started acid etching. Makes sense, acid etching opens the porous structure of the grout. This also has the effect of chewing up more bottle tips and tooth brushes.

One more thing regarding product consumption. I'm always amazed how little cs product is needed to color the grout. Also, no doubt in my mind, two thin coats are better than one thicker coat. You can legitimatly turn this into added dollars. I tell all customers that proposal are for one coat of color seal only. Most people are VERY happy with one coat. However, a couple have asked for a second coat. I charge less per sq. ft. for second coat.

Eric

I didn't know you had to "wipe" most grout seal? I thought you just put it down like paint? (this is assuming you are neat and not making a big mess with your sealant)

With penetrating sealer you do want to wipe up excess because it can dry to a haze.

Just remember to discuss the specific type of color sealer you are using when giving or taking advice. Bill's sealer is a specific one like a clear sealer, where you add dyes to get the desired color. There are other sealers like This Old Grout, Grout Stains, and epoxy grout that have different application techniques.

With this specific grout color sealer, we always apply 2 light coats, dried with a fan in between coats.

You have to shake the bottles from time to time to keep the dye mixed. I didn't shake it for like 2-3 minutes before using like you are supposed to do to mix it properly, so shaking every couple of minutes is required as you found out.

We use the little round wheeled bottles to apply the clear sealer. I will not comment on one's ability to either walk or apply sealer to a straight line. We have used the little bottle with the brush to get into the corners and nooks and crannies with the clear sealer.

I use plastic bottles from Wally World (50 cents ea.) to apply the color grout. They are the ones that you see in restaurants that have Ketchup and Mustard in them for Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. They have tops attached to the lids so that you can seal them back up.  Guests can't see images. Please login or login


My wife has a different opinion (imagine that!). She thinks that I am too sloppy with the above mentioned bottles, so she mixes it in the bottles, and then draws it out into a 12 CC syringe with no needle, and applies it that way. I think that she takes too long to do it this way, but I'm always wrong anyway, so just ignore me.

Just do it her way, and we'll all be happy....

And she says if you have larger hands, you can use a 20 CC syringe to apply it. You must be able to hold the syringe, guide it straight down the grout line, and push the plunger with the correct amount of pressure to get just the right amount of sealer into the grout line..(Turkey seasoning injectors from Home Depot might work too, but she has gobs of syringes, so she just uses them).

I told her that all of that was way beyond most on here, but she holds out hope for you all...

If you need further instructions, call her at 336-499-1974 and she will be glad to tell you how to do it, too.


She thinks that your results look good....

Thanks Mike and his wife and Mike below the Mike. 

I will look into those bottles and syringes, start practicing at home.

I don't know what her rates are for her "consulting"...

I get it for free....

Hey Bill

Mike, thanks for the reminder about product details. I use pre-colored sealant from This Old Grout. It's expensive, so I pass the cost on the customer as a materials fee. Can't apply the colored sealants with a wheel. It would use way too much product and TOG sealant dries so fast there is now way I could go back and clean up from over application from a wheel. Most of the time I'm applying a contrasting color compared to the tile, so over application is a big no-no. That's why apply with a toothbrush. I work with 2 to 4 linear feet at a time, then wipe up the excess. That about the length of line I can reach on my **** or on my knees and taking a longer line than that and the stuff is already setting up.

Eric

I got the demo board back yesterday, went to home depot to watch a tile installation class and the instructor did it for me, i just payed for all the materials and gave him a tip.

Came out looking much better than what i thought, looks great i think.

I'm giving it a couple days for the grout to dry before i color seal it, i will post pics when its all ready.

Great thread! Thanks everyone.