To Seal or Not to Seal (Tile, that is)

[wkogto]

I am fairly sure I will be having my tile/grout sealed after we close on our Pennecamp home in August and have already talked with Pat More of Professional Carpet & Tile who came highly recommended on TOTV. Yesterday, I was talking with the lead tile guy on our house (as they were laying the tile) and told him I was probably going to seal and he told me not to do it because it yellows over time. Has anyone had any problems with yellowing. It makes me nervous NOT to seal as I'm a klutz who makes lots of messes and also have a feline baby who vomits all the time and I could see that working it's way into the grout. Would love to hear your tile and grout comments .... thanks!

Gail
Alpharetta, GA
Village of Pennecamp

[Linwood]

We failed to seal our tile and just paid Pat last week to come clean and seal it - once dirt gets in the grout, it looks awful,
and I got tired on scrubbing it on my hands and knees,
My dear wife took pictures of me scrubbing and shared them, now my mom is wanting me to come scrub her floors,
sheeze,,,,
So seal them! while the space is empty!
Pat did an outstanding job for me,
cheers

[redwitch]

Pluses to sealing: keeps it cleaner, less yellowing of the grout.

Minuses: probably voids your tile warranty (check); has to be redone every few years; doesn't keep out all dirt (kitty barf can soak through pretty easily).

That being said, I'd say go for it. BTW, to clean the grout, I've found the Clorox bleach pens do a marvelous job. Tedious, but works like a charm.

[Shirleevee]

Pluses to sealing: keeps it cleaner, less yellowing of the grout.

Minuses: probably voids your tile warranty (check); has to be redone every few years; doesn't keep out all dirt (kitty barf can soak through pretty easily).

That being said, I'd say go for it. BTW, to clean the grout, I've found the Clorox bleach pens do a marvelous job. Tedious, but works like a charm.

Many years ago a wise sage shared this with me, never use white or beige grout. Impossible to keep clean with or without sealer.

[K9-Lovers]

I would seal the grout. If it does yellow, it will be uniform in color, and will be better than those stained dark areas due to your kitty.

You can always remove the product and reseal it if it yellows.

[Mikitv]

This is house number six and am so happy I sealed the grout this time. Once that grout gets dirty it is so hard to get it clean. I can tell you we use the cleaner we got from Pat and it is so easy and now after three months, movers, contractors etc in here it still looks great. I will never again have tile that is not sealed. Learned my lesson from past five houses we built.

[zummy]

I recently tiled my kitchen counter and table and used a new grout that has the sealer in it. In 6 months no problem with staining including fruit juices.

[getdul981]

I don't know if this is an option in TV construction, but we had our kitchen floor tiled almost 4 years ago and we had them put in the epoxy type of grout. It dries non porous and does not need to be sealed. We like it very well. It does appear to be darkening after several years, but I'm hoping a good cleaning will correct that.