b'Mortars and groutsGROUTEpoxy grouts follow ANSI A118.3 standard specification. David Mowery They are considered the most robust grout category and MAPEI Tile & Stone Installation Systems Businessprovide excellent stain- and chemical-resistance. Manager for Color Products and UltraCareThere are four primary grout cat- Tom Carrollegories:Senior Product Manager Standard cement grouts PAREX USA High-performance cement grouts Advancesingrouttechnologycontinuetoemerge.Ready-to-use (RTU) grouts Understanding the performance characteristics and limi- Epoxy grouts tations of each type of grout is important. Most grouts The industry trend over the pastare produced to meet the requirements of a particular few years has been to upgrade theANSIstandard,butthereareadditionalrequirements David Mowery tileinstallationandmoveawaydemandedbyinstallersorend-users.Contractorstypi-fromstandardcementgrouts,cally want a grout product that has enough working time, which have their issues. The narrowing of the gap widthspreads easily, completely fills joints, dries quickly, and is has made this upgrade more achievable from a cost per- easy to clean. As important, they want to avoid call-backs spective. With todays grout joints averaging betweento clean grout haze, seal joints and address other chal-1/8and1/4(3/16isprobablythemostcommonlenges associated with standard cement grouts.gap), it is now possible to buy the superior grout tech- As a result, installers are opting to upgrade grouts to nology and pay about what you paid in the past whenhigher-performing ANSI A118.7 grouts or RTU (ready-to-installing a standard cement grout at a typically wideruse)grouts.Costsofthesehigh-performanceandRTU gap width.grouts versus traditional cement grouts are higher, but Standard cement grouts are governed by ANSI A 118.6whenfactoringinlaborsavingsforfasterinstallations, andhigh-performancecementgroutsadheretoANSIno sealing and reduced call-backs, these grout products A118.7.Thehigh-performancecementgroutsoffermay actually be cost effective. Since the increased trend improved color consistency, no efflorescence, and over- is to larger-format tile and planks as well as smaller joint all higher performance properties. The RTU grouts havewidths, less grout is required for each installation. This been compared to epoxy grouts in terms of their chemi- allowsthecontractortojustifyusingahigher-priced, cal- and stain-resistance. Yet, RTU grouts are much easierhigher-performing grout because the overall square foot to install. And finally, there is the epoxy grout category.cost is negligible.Photo courtesy of Custom Building Products.562020|TECH'