Grout or Caulk Corners?

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Lakee911

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Hi ... need some advice. Should I grout or caulk the following areas:

Vertical corners between tiles?
Horizontal corners between tiles?
Horizontal seam between acrylic shower pan and tile?

Thanks!

Jason
 

Jadnashua

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Per the tile council of america, caulk, caulk, caulk...i.e., on any change of plane or change of material. Many people have success, but many don't as well. Depends on many factors. Your results may vary...good luck.
 

Jimbo

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caulk. Grout looks good and is convenient for the tilesetter; but in a joint which might have any movement, such as the vertical corners, or materials which expand at different rates: tub/tile .......in all these cases grout will tend to crack.


There are plenty of matching color caulks available if this is an issue.
 

TheZster

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How bout that... I learned something new today.... I've always done grout everywhere but the tub/shower interface with good success.... And obviously, per the tile council, I've been pretty lucky. Getting ready to tile another tub enclosure this weekend - I'll follow your advice.

Thanks for the info guys....
 
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Lakee911

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Thanks for the info. I'll use caulk. I'll have to find some color matching caulk. Good thing I didn't custom mix a color... Unfortunately, I'll need to do a lot of caulking in my recessed shower shelf :( but that's probably the safest thing to do.

Thanks,
Jason
 

Jadnashua

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I don't remember the link, but there is an on-line company that sells color matched sanded and unsanded caulk for pretty much any company's grout. You'll find some of the more common colors at the big boxes like HD or at a tile store. For the more esoteric colors or less common brands, you'll need to seek out the on-line company, or if you can find someplace that is willing, order it for you. By choosing sanded or unsanded, the texture is much the same. On my personal tub surround, I was able to find some silicon that was a pretty close match at HD for my grout. Do a search, or check out www.johnbridge.com and you'll find the reference to the place for color matched caulk.
 
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