Queenstown · Wānaka · Central Otago
Epoxy grout
Epoxy grout does not stain and never needs sealing. It also does not forgive a slow tiler.
What is included
Mixed in small batches and worked to the clock. Epoxy has a working time measured in minutes, and a batch that stiffens in the bucket is thrown away.
Cleaned as the work goes rather than at the end — epoxy left to cure on the face of a tile does not come off afterwards.
Tile surface checked first: a textured, unglazed or heavily structured face holds epoxy and changes how it has to be worked, and sometimes rules it out.
Cement grout specified instead where epoxy is the wrong answer, rather than selling you the dearer option because it is the dearer option.
Why this costs what it costs
The cost is labour, not material
Epoxy costs more per bag, but that is the small part. What it really costs is that it cannot be rushed, cannot be left, and cannot be cleaned up tomorrow. It is priced as the slower job it is.
It removes a maintenance schedule instead of adding one
No sealing, no resealing, no grey line creeping across a shower floor. You pay once at installation instead of every year or two for the life of the room.
Fewer installers will take it on
The working window is unforgiving and mistakes are permanent, so a lot of tilers quote cement grout and leave it at that. That is a fair reason to charge for it, and an honest reason it is not on every quote you receive.
Questions
- Is epoxy grout worth the extra?
- In a shower, a kitchen splashback or anywhere that meets oil, wine or coffee, usually yes — it is the difference between grout that stays the colour it was and grout you learn to live with. In a low-traffic floor it can be money better spent elsewhere, and we will say so.
- Can epoxy grout be used with any tile?
- Not always. A porous, unglazed or heavily textured surface can hold the residue, and some natural stone reacts badly to the cleaning that epoxy needs. The material gets checked before it is specified, not after it is on the wall.