Some of you may recall that back in the summer we had some renovations done. It was a big job to have all of the flooring and carpeting removed and replaced with porcelain tile in the kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and hallway. All of the furniture had to be removed and stored, much of it into my studio space. The job that was to take a few days dragged on much longer. Displaced dogs and husband paced, but it was summer then and they could go outside.
The workers did not do a very good job. They wiped out so much of the grout that deep troughs were left between the tiles and since I had already mentioned that I didn’t like that early in the job and the foreman assured me that they would fix it, I did complain, so they came back and added more grout, extending our exile that much longer.
There is an additive you can get to mix into the grout so that it dries harder and is stain resistant. We thought that with the big dogs, that would be worth the considerable extra price, and I was really not happy that they had wiped so much of it away and down the drain. The grout that I chose was a shade darker than the tile and the color set them off nicely.
I noticed right away that the new grout was lighter in color, almost white, but the decorator said it would darken. Long story short, it did not darken. Even worse, it was not hard, and by December, it began to chip out and I discovered that it was so soft that I could scrape it into dust with just my fingernail and the the places that had been cleaned more like the kitchen and bathroom had areas where the light grout had worn away exposing the dark grout below making the floor look constantly dirty.
We asked that the decorator come and have a look at it. She brought the owner of the tile/carpet center with her and they agreed that it was not right, but no one seems to know why. We agreed that we would wait til after Christmas, they would order new grout and they would remove all of the old and replace it. It would only take one day. Yesterday was the big day!
We spent Sunday moving everything again. We had been told “just” to empty the shelves and drawers and leave the big stuff for the workers to move. Still, it’s a lot of stuff and took half the day.
By noon they had removed the grout from the kitchen and were working in the dining room, right up to the edge of the large corner cabinet, my husband said, you are going to move that, right? The guy said yes. I should say that only the foreman speaks English and by 5 o’clock when they were quitting, I asked if they had done under the corner cabinet and the foreman said no, he was not moving the big furniture. I said – but the owner told us you would move the big stuff. He said I was so picky I would say he scratched it and he would have to pay, so he didn’t want to touch it. We argued the point and he called his boss who told him to move it, and my husband said he would help so he agreed.
In the meantime I was looking at the completed grout in the kitchen and dining room. It was the same light color they had used the last time!!!! I called the decorator and she said it would darken. I reminded her that was what she said the last time and it did not darken. She checked the original order and it was not the right color at all, not even the same company- not even close. They stayed two more hours and tried to remove the wrong grout, but it has that hardener in it and they couldn’t get all of it out. I just hope that they will be able to get the right stuff in there and that it will be able to bond.
They are not half done yet, so the one day job drags on, who knows how long and what the outcome will be. I am so disappointed.
