Grout

Grouting is a messy job. I got a grout float to smear grout everywhere because a man in a video said I should. The video of a man demonstrating how to grout I watched just before I started grouting to remind myself how to grout said I’d only need a grout float if I was doing a large area. I found the spreader plenty good enough for smearing grout across the area taken by my tiles.

The man in the video who told me to get the grout float also told me to get a special tiling sponge to wipe off excess grout from the tiles after smearing grout everywhere, so I did. It worked well enough. The man had said to have a bucket of water nearby to rinse the sponge in, and to replace the dirty water with clean water frequently. I didn’t bother with this because the kitchen sink was right there having a splashback tiled around it.

Another man had used a special cheesecloth to wipe off the grout haze. Grout haze is a powdery residue left on the tiles from having the grout smeared all over them and wiped off with the damp sponge.

During one of my B&Q trips, I happened to pass a container of tiling cheesecloths, so I got one. I hadn’t known what I’d use instead. It turns out that the cheesecloth, shown in a heap in the photo, is excellent at wiping off grout haze.