How to Re-Grout Bathroom Tiles

This month we’re back in the bathroom to re-grout the shower cubicle. When we moved into this flat it had already been modernised a few years previously and the bathroom is in pretty good order. The only thing which lets it down is that the grouting between the mosaic tiles in shower cubicle was in a pretty bad way. Large sections of the grouting were missing and what remained was pretty well yellowed. Fixing this up is a quick and easy job which will give the bathroom a new lease of life.




Step One – Surface Preperation

The first step is to remove the loose / ageing grout. To do this we first spray the grouting liberally with a lime scale removing cleaning product (In this case Cilit Bang) and leave it to sit for about 15 minutes  (about 3 times the time recommended for the normal use of this product)



Now we scrub the grouting vigorously with a large scrubbing brush and rinse down thoroughly with clean water. This removes any loose grout and cleans up what remains. At this point it becomes clear that the mosaic tiling of the bathroom ids actually large tiles with grooves moulded in them which are then filled with grout to give the appearance of a mosaic. This is obviously a lot easier to install than a real mosaic and looks really good once the grout is in place.



Next we let the wetted surfaces dry thoroughly overnight.

Step Two – Apply Grout

Now we are going to apply the new grout. This needs to be mixed thoroughly with water in a suitable recipient following the maker’s instructions. Typically 3 parts grout (or white cement) to one part water. You will probably need somewhere between 1 and 2 kg to re-grout a shower booth.



We apply the grout generously to the tiles making sure we more than fill all the grooves with grout. You should only apply grout to about 1 square metre at a time. Then we remove the excess with the rubber float. Note: The float should always be moved in a diagonal direction in order to leave the channels between the mosaic tiles filled by grout. Repeat this process until the entire shower booth has been grouted.



Next we take a dampened sponge or cloth and gently wipe along the lines of grout to give a nice u shape profile between the tiles. We now leave everything to fully dry for about 8 hours,



As the grout dries it will leave a slight haze on the tiles. This haze can be removed by buffing the tiles with a rough, clean rag once it is dry (minimum eight hours – according to manufacturer’s instructions). Don’t worry if there is areas where excess grout has remained stuck to the tiles, this is a pretty common occurrence – especially if it’s your first attempt at grouting and can be easily remedied.



Step 3 – Remove any excess grout and polish the tiles



How to remove any excess grout from porcelain tiles



The next day we can proceed to remove any excess grout which was inadvertently left stuck to the tiles (don’t worry there always seems to be some that you overlook and it’s easy to fix).



I’ve heard of people using mild acids or vinegar solutions to do this. Personally I’ve had great success using a scotchbrite green plastic scourers backed by an off cut of plywood to clean the grout off using the same lime scale cleaner that I used at the start of this process. Just apply a little of the cleaner to the tiles than scrub gently in a circular motion till the excess grout is removed and rinse thoroughly with water. Hey presto a total of about 4 hours work (spread over 3 days) and the shower room looks like new !

Fixing up a cheap electric guitar so it plays like a more expensive one !

A friend of mine called me up last week to ask if I’d take a look at a guitar for him. Apparently his girlfriend had bought him a cheap Stratocaster copy online for his birthday but the guitar was totally unplayable. He was pretty stressed because he didn’t want to tell his girlfriend that she’d wasted her money!!

To be honest I was surprised how bad the guitar was! I understand that it was very cheap, but it was truly unplayable. I was especially surprised since it is a Yamaha guitar, albeit their most budget model. I’ve played several Yamaha guitars over the years and they’ve always been good instruments. In fact I have an old Yamaha Pacifica as a reserve electric guitar. Actually this guitar was so bad that I suspect that is probably a factory second or a knock –off copy or such being sold online by an unscrupulous dealer.

Whatever, in the end it only took a couple of hours work to get it playing pretty well (in fact once I’d finished with it I had it pretty much set up to the same specs that Fender set their guitars up to when they leave their factory !) Anyway, here’s how we fixed her up.

First of all I tuned the guitar to pitch and tried to play her. Terrible, even with the strings set pretty high from the fret-board it buzzed and rattled and at some frets totally fretted out.

My first step was to try and straighten the neck using the truss-rod. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the truss-rod worked and that I could get the neck almost totaly straight under string tension. In fact you never really want a totally straight neck on a guitar, a slight relief is necessary to allow for the curve of the vibrating string. Most importantly, the neck wasn't twisted ( a twisted neck can often be fixed , but its a lot more work).

So now with the neck acceptably straight I proceeded to check the frets to see if they were level. A quick check with my Stew Mac fret gauge showed that the frets had never been levelled or dressed in the factory. (Note: This is hardly a surprise with such a cheap guitar; even fairly expensive guitars need to be taken to a Luthier to have the frets dressed if they are to play at their best.) It also showed up the reason why the guitar was unplayable: Frets 2 and 19 where ridiculously high, to the extent that I thought that maybe they weren’t correctly seated, they where. Actually I suspect that the other frets had been inserted with too much pressure and for some reason these 2 frets had stayed high.

This photo shows how we check the frets for level, we test 3 frets at a time - if the middle fret is high then the guage rocks, if not it stays firm. Please note that this photo is taken on a different guitar and with the strings removed.

Step 1 – Level the frets.



Since this guitar ( as is the case with most Stratocaster copies) has a screw on neck. The first thing to do is remove the neck (actually the first step is to remove the strings then the neck). Next we remove the plastic nut and re-straighten the neck sighting down the fingerboard with a straight edge. (Note: we want the neck as straight as possible at this stage). Guitar fret-boards are normally made of a hardwood like maple, rosewood or ebony. In this case I noticed that the fret-board was made of a softer wood dyed black to look like ebony. This is probably why the frets were so bad.

Once the neck is removed and straight I tape off the fingerboard with masking tape to protect it while I level the frets. Many luthiers use a metal file mounted on a wooden handle like the one in the photo below to do this. I find I get better results more quickly using a metal spirit level with sandpaper stuck to it. This has the advantage that it is almost as long as the guitar neck so it helps prevent you from sanding more in one place.

First I concentrate on numbers 2 and 19 (always working in the direction of the strings line and checking for level and profile) to quickly bring the two high frets down. Once the 2 rogue frets are about the right height I ink up all the frets with a marker pen and then work very carefully to maintain the correct profile. If you work carefully you should just need to keep sanding until the ink has just started to be removed from the lowest fret . At this point all the frets should be at the same height. We check with the straight edge, until we are totally happy that the frets are levelled.



Step 2 – Re profile the frets



Guitar frets are a half moon section. But the levelling process will have caused them to be flattened off. Flat frets rattle and play out of tune. So the next step is to round the frets off using a special small file with a rounded face (see photo). Whilst doing this you should keep checking that you maintain the correct fret-board radius using the plastic radius gauges (mine came off e-bay). Once the frets have been rounded off you should polish them up using different grades of emery cloth, wire wool and finally metal polish.





Step 3 – Neck back on



Once we’re happy with the fret job, we remove the masking tape, replace the nut and bolt the neck back on to the guitar. At this step I check the neck angle using the straight edge and find that it’s not as it should be. This is easy to fix on this type of guitar using card shims in the neck joint.



Step 4 – Final setup



Next we string the guitar up with a new set of strings ( I prefer ernie ball 10 guage) and bring them up to pitch. She’s already starting to play better, no buzzing or choking strings. But the action is still high, so we adjust the neck relief with the truss rod and the individual saddle heights using Allen keys.



Step 5 – Play and enjoy



Considering how cheap this guitar was, I was very pleased with how it played once we’d fixed it up. If the guitar were mine I’d probably have made a new nut for it too which would have seen yet more improvement.

Fixing a Tabou Freestyle Windsurf fin

Last week I bought a new (to me) windsurf board - A 2007 Tabou Freestyle 100

Its a great board and in good condition with just a few of the cosmetic scuffs which are typical of boards that have been used a bit.

The fin with its old rusty lug

The fin (which has been cut down to 21cm) is missing its retaining screw and also the lug which runs in the finbox must have been lost at some point and the previous owner had replaced it with a bit of steel tube which has all but rusted away !

The retaining nut and bolt can be easily bought at either the local windsurf shop for €5 or at Decathlon for €1.99 - no prizes for guessing where I bought mine !!

Unfortunatley the stainless steel lug which goes at the other side of the fin seem to be unobtainable - at leat I couldn't find any. So a trip to the hardware shop was in order. The options here were either buy a length of stainless steel rod - which they would have to order and which would cost a few €uros or buy the longest 5mm diameter stainless steel bolt that they had, which had a long enough unthreaded section to make 2 replacement stainless steel lugs. Total cost 30 cents and a few minutes work to cut the screw down, file the lugs to size and round off the sharp edges - 15 cents each , not bad.

Cut the stainless steel screw into 3 pieces

Then File smooth and check for length

It was then necessary to carefully drill out the reusted in remains of the previous replacement, insert the shiny new lug in the fin , add a drop of superglue to stop it from slipping back out again and hey presto ready to go windsurfing !

The finished article

Some windsurf fins ( wave and custom freestyle)

Now we just need a bit of wind to try this thing out !