Grout discoloration is very common in powdered grout mixtures. This is caused by two main factors. The main contributor is the portland cement mixture in the mortar and in some powdered grouts. Certain minerals dissolve in the moisture of the mortar and/or grout and rise to the surface of the grout as the water evaporates.The second factor is that most powdered grouts are made by coating the small granules with the appropriate color which when not mixed properly or when mixed grout is over wiped can then lose it’s color. The only sure fire way to avoid it is to use a pre-mixed polyurethane grout such as Bostick TruColor. The granules in polyurethane grouts are dyed instead of coated. It is a bit more expensive up front and requires a slightly more advanced grouting method but there is no need to seal the grout afterwards, no grout haze to remove, and provides guaranteed color consistency throughout.

Hi Julia,
I found your site while searching how to remove haze from porcelain wood tile. Thank you for your remedy. We also had light and dark grout issues. I told the contractor about it lightening up in the LR so he must have mixed it different and the DR and kitchen came out a bit darker. I still was not happy with the overall look. The grout was from MAPEI and it was also mocha. I called the company and complained as I saw several dissatisfied customers with the product. They did send me 8 bottles of mocha stain and a rep came out to inspect. Took a sample of grout powder to test and yes they said it was not mixed right by the contractor. (water ratio). The contractor blamed the product and said he sees it all the time. Grout color always dries lighter he says. Everyone points fingers:)
Anyway we have a lot of work to do to stain but it will be worth it. Like you, we wanted a more natural look without obvious seams.
Good luck with you baby(who must be about 1 by now).
Anna

We had hired a contractor to remodel our master bath. After the tiles were grouted I noticed that some of the lines were darker and some lighter gray which is the color of the tiles. My contractor initially insisted that the grout had to dray but 2 months after installation the problem persisted. We went to Home Depot to find out about epoxy grout that comes premixed in many colors like on a paint chart. The contractor said it was much more expensive than the powder but do you care if it means there will not be a unevenly colored grout?? So we bought 1 gal of Stain Pro which is “stain proof and color perfect” according to the label. My contractor had to pay for the tile guy to dig out the bad grout and apply the new which came out great. The other problem that I had pointed out to my contractor after the initial grouting was what you call a haze. It is more of a white powdery material which is distributed all through the bathroom. I will try to do what you suggest with the vinegar and water.

Thank you for the vinegar and water. Worked great. First I did walls and floor with scrubbing sheet dipped in solution. Let it dry and made fresh batch of solution and wiped walls and floor again with terry rag. Totally done and looks great. Again thank you.

USE DAMP SPONGE, NOT WET SPNOGE when removing grout.

We had the exact same problem when installing our new toasted walnut procelain tiles. Our grout color is supposed to be Tabacco Brown from HomeDepot. We mixed the grout with filtered water and it looked like thick fudge but it still turned out all grayish when dried.

Finally I found info on Handyman.com where they say you must use DAMP, NOT WET sponge when wiping off excess grout after 20-30 minutes. This was the only thing we hadn’t tried.

When they applied the grout the second time (yes, the second time bc the first time it was not high enough and we can feel the edge of the tiles with bare foot) I asked them to use DAMP sponge, NOT WET. Although the grout color is still lighter than we hoped, 95% were brown so now our floor does not look like like cement or dust got mixed in the grout! We are much happier now.

We will use vinegar solution to mop everywhere tomorrow. :-)

Good luck to everyone with grout color problems!

JLiu

I had the exact same grout problem with some Polyblend grout from Custom Building Solutions (Home Depot). I thought it might have been mixed wrong, so we carved it all out and mixed a new batch EXACTLY according to the instructions. Same results. SO so so frustrating. After speaking with customer service, they told me it’s called “grout efflorescence” and is very common with unsanded grout. They said I could either clean it with an acid wash or use the grout paint in the same color. I’m going with the grout paint and you bet I returned that almost-empty grout box! Both solutions sound very time consuming, so good luck!

I had the same experience with grout from The Tile Shop. It ended up the correct color is some spots, but quite a bit lighter in others. I really think the problem is the grout, not user error.

I had the same problem when we tiled with the grout drying lighter than what I wanted. We even did different consistencies of grout mix but ended up with the same color each time. I was no happy with the color and looked at the grout recolorants/dyes but my tile was a dark hickory so the options were too still too light. I ended up using acrylic paint and a grout sealer which you can see here. With your tile color I think you will be happy with the grout dye and putting it on should be easy and move so much quicker than laying the tile!

Such a sad feeling to be thisclose to having it all wrapped up and figure out something didn’t quite go to plan. But it looks fantastic! I love your selection!