LATICRETE SPECTRALOCK® 1 Pre-Mixed Grout #18 Sauterne

I love LATICRETE SPECTRALOCK 1. This crumbles a bit when being applied, but overall it is pretty easy to work with. Clean up is also not that bad if you work in small sections and have clean water. Most of all, I like the finished look and strength. I have no reason to ever buy a different product.

A great product. Easy to use and really looks good.

TL;DR: totally worth it to not have to use my own discretion regarding mix ratios. easy enough to work and clean, reasonable work time. just mind the cure time if you plan to *use* your bathroom. 1 day for dry, 14 days for wet ready. Easiest part of the job. I'd love to regrout our whole bathroom, but it's our only functioning shower 😅 so that's off the table for now. Paired the silver grout with Marin 2x2 inch square tile in aloe green. Stripped every tile off the backing to re-space at 1/16.. for my very first tile job. Well, the grout was a cake walk. It crams into gaps easy, and I worked it really hard. It dried grittier than I'd like, and I did have to work somewhat fast. But it's holding its color, despite continued work in the bathroom, trimming tiles with an electric metabo 710 die grinder with diamond rotozip 1/4" bit and making a TON of dust. Takes 14 days to cure fully and handle water.. but I was able to set the vanity in after just 1. I'm not putting this stuff through its paces. I'm just a total novice that finished a project semi-decently and hid most of it under a vanity. I just.. wanted to truly patch the holes in our floor. I was super stressed out about grouting cuz its the last step. It wasn't bad, actually. the premix will give you a decent finish even if you totally suck and are just struggling to interpret the directions how you think a normal person would. They tried so hard to describe how wet your sponge should be...... anyways, totally worth it to not have to use my own discretion regarding mix ratios.

My first issue with this product is that the instructions (including all the toxicity warnings) are printed on a round piece of plastic suspended inside the container, floating in product. It comes completely coated in the product and is therefore unreadable until you wash it off. Of course by then you may have touched it since you didn’t see all the dire warnings yet. The product itself is hard to work with, seeming too crumbly to go easily into the grout lines. It didn’t cure up within the time indicated on the instructions, something I learned the hard way by, using the gentlest touch possible with the sponge, wiping out much of the product from the grout lines on the initial moist wipe-down. It took fully four times longer than indicated to be able to be wiped the first time, and several days for a full cure. Pretty unacceptable in my book. To top it all off, it started growing mold almost immediately, which shouldn’t happen with a product that touts mold resistance. For the record, this was in a fully cleaned and restored shower. Pretty disappointing and expensive product. It’s only been a couple months since I used it and I’m already looking to redo the grout because it’s not holding up, a huge pain and a hundo down the drain, quite literally. Looked great for a minute.

Great grout for a bathroom regrouting project but you need to wipe off the excess in 5 minutes otherwise it dries and gets very hard to remove. We learned this the hard way after we waited 10 mins to cover half the shower floor. We were able to get it off the tile but it took extra time. Pick small areas, apply fast, remove fast. We wanted an epoxy grout but didn't want to measure exact amounts for the area we wanted to cover. This has been a great product from that regard for a small project. It was easy for DIYers like us. In addition, we were able to reapply days later in areas that we missed. After it dries, it is super hard and looks great! Took off 1 star due to the extremely rapid drying time. UPDATE: After a couple of months of using the shower, there is absolutely NO mildew in the new grout with regular bathroom cleaning. The grout appears as solid and bright as it was on day 1. Turned out to be a great product!

The consistency and color of the grout is perfect. It was easy to use with a marshalltown epoxy grout float from Lowes. Epoxy grout floats are stiffer to help move around the grout if you allow it to harden. If you work in small areas it’s easy to work with. The key is to work in small 12” x 12” areas until you get the timing down on how quickly it hardens. I ended up being able to do 3’x3’ sections at a time but you have to move very fast if you want grout more space before wiping off the grout on the surface of the tiles. Shannon @thetilechick has videos on YouTube and Instagram that shows the process too. If you aren’t familiar with epoxy grout I recommend these tips. I just did a shower and bathroom floor in Spectralock 1. I followed these steps to make it easy and eliminate grout haze. 1. Sweep the Tile Floor or wipe off tile area. 2. Dip sponge in a bucket of clean water ring it out a little and wipe down the tile area you want to grout. Ring the sponge out in a separate empty bucket. 3. Grout a small area with an epoxy grout float. 4. Dip sponge slightly in clean water & wipe grout off in a circular motion with just enough pressure to get the grout on the surface of the tile off. Ring out the sponge in the dirty water. 5. Wipe area down with a microfiber cloth. Be careful not to push down into the grout line. 6. After you do the whole floor I would wipe down the entire floor with clean microfiber cloths to minimize grout haze.

I was recommended this grout by a professional bathroom remodeling acquaintance. And I'm sure glad I did. It makes the job a breeze. It's easy to work with and clean up. If it holds up like it's supposed to it will be the perfect grout I've ever used.

Recommendation is to wet the wall and grout lines with a sponge before application. If your Spectraloc 1 is not creamy, add a small amount of water to the bucket and mix, The water on the tiles helps application, and flow of the mixture. Sets up fairly fast, and should be cleaned within 10 minutes, and ends up being really hard. It was easy to work with, and even when hard could be re worked with some water, which is why it raises concerns. Like all grout these days, water application over extended time causes it to break down. I found some clumps on the floor the next day, which I tested for strength. Adding water and working it for 20 to 30 seconds caused it to break down like regular grout. Hoping "epoxy like performance" means that once it sets, and ages, it doesn't break down like the next day sample I tested. Overall, looks good, applies easily, cleans up easy, and is very hard once cured (without water acting on it). Even with that negative, it seems to be better than regular grout, as regular grout breaks down easier. If I had to use a different grout, Prism, or a pure Epoxy grout.