Grout Choice in a Wet Room
Grout is not waterproof and never has been, whatever the bag says. That is the reason walk in shower installation lakewood ca nexusphiladelphia chooses it on maintenance rather than on performance, because in a Lakewood shower the membrane behind the tile keeps the water in and the joint between two pieces of porcelain does not.
What Grout Is Actually For
It fills the joint, spaces the tile, and takes the small movement between pieces. Water passes through it slowly and reaches the waterproofing behind, which is exactly what the assembly is designed for. Anybody selling a grout on the basis that it will stop a leak has misunderstood the system they are selling into.
Cementitious
Standard, cheap, easy to work and easy to repair. It absorbs, so it stains and it darkens in the wettest areas, and it wants sealing once a year in a shower that gets daily use. Modern high performance cement grouts close much of that gap and remain the sensible default for most walls.
Epoxy
Non porous, stain resistant, and effectively permanent. It costs several times as much, sets fast, and is genuinely difficult to work with, so it is only as good as the person spreading it. On a shower floor with heavy use and a light colour it earns the money. On a whole bathroom it usually does not.
Joint Width and Colour
Rectified large format wants a narrow joint of about an eighth of an inch, and pressed tile needs more. Follow the tile maker rather than preference. For colour, mid tones age best: white shows everything and very dark shows efflorescence, and both problems appear in the first year on a shower floor.
Where Grout Never Goes
Every internal corner, the wall to floor junction, around the drain flange and at the curb ends take flexible caulk instead. Those are changes of plane that move independently, and rigid material there cracks within a season. A shower grouted into its corners is one that will be recaulked twice before anybody works out why. Cut the old material out completely rather than running a fresh bead over it, and let the grout cure before the silicone goes in, since caulk applied onto damp grout releases within months.