Sandless or Regular grout for floor marble tiles?

[cjchaps]

Over the weekend my wife and I bought and installed some 12" polished marble tiles with 1/4 gap between tiles for a hallway. The place where we bought them from said to use a sandless grout because the stuff with sand would scratch the tiles. I was reading about this online, and saw that sandless grout was recommended mostly for wall installations and tiles with a gap smaller than 1/4 inch, and sanded grout is recommeded for floors. Any advice on what to use?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: cjchaps
Over the weekend my wife and I bought and installed some 12" polished marble tiles with 1/4 gap between tiles for a hallway. The place where we bought them from said to use a sandless grout because the stuff with sand would scratch the tiles. I was reading about this online, and saw that sandless grout was recommended mostly for wall installations and tiles with a gap smaller than 1/4 inch, and sanded grout is recommeded for floors. Any advice on what to use?

Once the grout dries, just seal it with a grout sealer 18-24 hours after you grout. It shouldn't scratch the tiles as long as you keep it wet while you're working with it. You can clean the tiles as you go and have no worries.

 

[cjchaps]

Cool, thanks for the advice.

 

[allisolm]

from Lowes
"Never use sanded grout with marble tiles. The sand will scratch the marble. Instead, use an unsanded or acrylic latex tile grout."

from DIY
"For marble or shiny tile, don't use sanded -- it's just like using sandpaper, and the rough texture can damage shiny tiles. "

 

[Armitage]

Yep - unsanded. While 1/4" grout lines aren't reccomended for unsanded grout, you generally you use much thinner grout lines with marble. Not sure what I'd do now since you've already set them.

 

[rahvin]

Use sanded if you want to sit there for a few days with a grinder and polishing hood.

 

[Bryophyte]

Normally you will use unsanded for groutlines up to 1/8" wide only, and sanded for everything wider than that. You normally use a thin groutline for polished marble, but now you don't really have much choice. Unsanded is the best choice.