In my previous article, I described starting to repair bathroom tile. The original symptom was cracks in the grout near the shower door. This expanded to a problem of water leaking into the tile underlay. So this now became a project of both bathroom tile grout patching and sealing a hole.

The hole near the bottom of the shower door is shown above in the lower left inset. It’s about 1” by 3”. At first, I thought about 3D printing a barrier for this space. But I was not sure how well the silicone sealer would stick to the plastic. Then I found some extra Duradek material left over from when we resurfaced the deck a few years ago. Duradek is some sort of waterproof vinyl flooring meant for withstanding the elements outdoors.

So I cut a piece of Duradek material to fit the space. I ended up cutting a notch in the corner so it flared out over the tile. This is shown in the main picture and upper right inset above. Holding the material in place with some removable painter’s tape, I used silicone sealer all round. Hopefully, this will stand the test of time and prevent any further water leakage into the tile underlay.

After another day of drying time, I mixed the Polyblend grout and followed directions. In a few hours, the grout was replaced and cleaned up well. I used a small trowel to apply the grout. Cleanup was done with a bucket of water and a sponge. The color match is not perfect but close enough. Overall, I found that working with bathroom tile grout patching was not that hard. I just need to reattach the baseboard, and I think I will do that with adhesive rather than create more nail holes.

Bathroom Tile Grout Patching – Will it hold up?

As a rank amateur in these things, it is now time for second guessing my efforts at bathroom tile grout and patching. Specifically:

• Will the “ordinary” tile grout be successful in holding the Duraceramic tiles in place? Will it last?
• Will my hole-patching efforts prevent further leakage, and for how long? The weak point in the system is probably the silicone sealer.
• Should I have had this professionally fixed, and maybe replaced the tiles and some of the underlay? Was the damage too severe in the first place?
• Did I do a good enough job cosmetically? Will people be able to spot my efforts as DIY?

My guess is 50:50. We will see what this bathroom tile grout patching looks like in a few months