Tile Flooring is one of the most common floor material in our homes in America today. It is popular mostly because it's durability and is used primarily in the wet areas or our homes such as kitchen, bathroom, entry, dining and laundry rooms.

When shopping for tile flooring, the selection of grout is often overlooked or not even thought of by the customer. It is funny, a lot of times clients come into our showrooms in Arlington and Burleson, TX and they can find a tile flooring they like within minutes, and then they will become overwhelmed with the grout color selection and take them hours to finally pick one.

There are several things to consider when picking a grout for your tile flooring. For example the type of grout, the grout color, how thick or thin you want your grout lines, and grout maintenance.

The type of grout will vary depending on a few different factors such as where the tile is being installed and how much the tile flooring purchaser intends to properly maintain and care for their grout. If you use a standard grout, then you will want to reseal the grout lines every 9-12 months. If you want to limit the maintenance or are installing tile flooring in an extreme wet area such as a shower, then you might consider utilizing an Epoxy grout.

The grout color will vary depending on the tastes of the homeowner. Most people want the grout lines to blend with the tile flooring and will choose a grout color that achieves that the best. Every so often, you will get a homeowner that prefers a dark grout even if the tile is a light colored.

The thickness of your grout lines can vary depending on the type of tile flooring being installed and also the tastes of the client. Most clients want as thin as possible grout lines and the most common used grout line thickness is 1/8". If you are installing a natural stone tile like travertine or slate and they are not very uniformed in their size, then you might consider going with a grout linke of 3/16".

Grout Maintenance is often overlooked by the homeowner. Unless if you have utilized a product like an epoxy grout, you will need to make sure you reseal your grout lines every year to help them maintain the color and structure. However, most homeowners never reseal the grout lines for the entire time that they live at their home. A large part of our bathroom remodeling projects here at The Floor Barn are because of water damage due to the grout lines eroding due to improper care. Resealing is easy to do, you just have to make sure that you do it..

So next time you are shopping for tile flooring, do not overlook the important aspect of grout selection, it can come back to haunt you if you do not put some thought into it.

by Brian Heltzel

The Floor Barn

817-426-3900

brian@floorbarn.com

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