What happened to my grout?

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First Pool Judith

First Pool Judith

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Feb 26, 2014
59
Georgetown, Texas
I went to clean the pool tile today and then noticed that when I wet the grout there are areas that are blue! It looks like the grout is stained.

My grout is a brown color. I tried a pumice stone and it's not coming off. As far as I can tell, this discoloration is ABOVE the water line only.

I noticed that this is not all the way around the pool. It is mostly by the tanning ledge where we have rock on the ledge. Any ideas???

pool tile 2.JPG
 
Hard to say. I would first try spraying some 50;50 clorox/water solution to see if that helps.

If that's a no go, I would try a 3:1 water:muriatic acid solution in an obscure area to see if you have a positive outcome. (rinse it off within 2-3 minutes.

That is STRICTLY guesswork on my part but it is the first two things I would try
 
Yeah, what duraleigh said!

If Clorox kills it, then it's some funky biological like mold. If acid gets rid of it, then perhaps a metal stain of some kind

You said it was near a tanning rock. Anybody been slathering themselves lately with crisco and going out for a bake?

Tanning oils can do all sorts of funky things to natural stone and cements.


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By the way, be careful with the pumice stone. I personally hate those things as I've seen folks completely ruin beautiful glazed tiling with pumice stones. They're good for removing callouses on your feet but not much else in my humble opinion :eek:

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First Pool Judith said:
UPDATE - ok I tried the pumice stone, chlorox and water and 3 parts muriatic acid and 1 part water in different places. Nothing worked. Howvever, when I sprayed on the muriatic acid mix, the grout FIZZED like crazy. Any other thoughts???
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Fizzling is normal for grout in contact with MA. It's the acid reacting with the calcium carbonate forming Calcium chloride and releasing CO2 gas. Grout is just a specially formulated form of cement used to make tile joints look nice. Grout, mortar, concrete, it's all basically the same stuff (quicklime or cement plus additives and aggregates depending on the use).

If the stains aren't going away, then it's some kind of blue staining that has penetrated the grout fully. I could think if lots of possibilities like tanning oil or sun tan lotions that have UV absorbers in them to various copper compounds or even a bad grout mix (the tile guy mixed colorant into the grout unevenly)

Unless you're willing to chip out the grout and redo it, I'm not sure what else to do.

One thought on possibly trying to oxidize the crud, you could try to make a paste of that OxiClean powder with water and apply the paste to the grout. Leave it on overnight. The peroxide released by the OxiClean might bleach out the blue color....it could also bleach out the grout color as well so test it first in an inconspicuous spot.




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easttn said:
What about the magic eraser? Ive never tried it but heard others using on stuff.
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I tried it in some bathroom grout once and that won't work on stone or grout. The grout is harder than the melamine sponge and so all you'll do is grind it up and throw lots of crud into your pool. The pumice stick will do a better job scouring the grout.


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First Pool Judith said:
Awww BUMMER! Oh well. It's so strange that it'a only by the tanning ledge withe the rock. I thought for sure I can fix it. Thank you anyway :(
Click to expand...

I think you've hit on part of the problem. It's only on the tanning ledge with the rock. I really think it has something to do with that. Anyone been tanning lately?

Can you get us a picture of the ledge and rock?


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SunnyOptimism said:
I think you've hit on part of the problem. It's only on the tanning ledge with the rock. I really think it has something to do with that. Anyone been tanning lately?

Can you get us a picture of the ledge and rock?


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Click to expand...
I'm having trouble uploading picture. I've tried internet explorer and google chrome. Once I add the picture the OK button dissappears.
 
You're probably over your upload limit. TFP members who are not financial supporters get a very limited amount of data upload space.

The fix is to use an image hosting service like Photobucket that holds your photos. Then you can click on the uploaded image information and copy&paste the IMG Link information into your TFP posts. The TFP servers can then retrieve the images from photobucket for display.

See this post - http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/64-Attachments

Or you can become a TFP financial supporter ;)


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Hard to tell from the pic but I'm guessing that's a raised beam wall with flagstone on top? Is the discoloration only along that section?

Do you know any details regarding the stones used in the construction? Looks like 3" flagstone to me.

Also, in your original post #1, you say you went out to clean your tiles. Is that something you do often? If so, how would you normally clean them?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a grasp in what's been done.


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You are correct - raised beam wall with flagstone on top
99% of the discoloration is along that wall. There are a few barely noticeable spots in a couple of other places (like the water feature which also has flagstone on it.)
I have not cleaned my tiles since the pool was built (last November) and just now noticed that they were a little grimey. Used recommended 1/4 muriatic acid and 3/4 water. Cleaned the tiles beautifully.
Tried the 50/50 chrolox/water mix. Did nothing.
Tried the pumice stone, did nothing. I don't think this discoloration is something just on top of the grout.... Thank you for considering everything!
 
Makes me think of my pool because my coping is all flagstone (buckskin color). Your FS looks like it has a bit more character to it with some deep iron colors to it (the red color).

Tell me, over the season, has the surface of your flagstone "shed" a little bit along bedding planes? It would look like flat, thin slivers or shards of FS peeling away. Underneath the bedding plane is a white powdery compound that gets all milky when wet. Any of that wash over your tiles and into the pool?

It happens to me a fair bit because the surface of my FS isn't sealed. So until it weathers for a couple of seasons, the FS will continue to "shed".


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