Pro Handyman Blog

At some point, you will have grout lines in your floor that need to be repaired. You will notice voids in the grout. More commonly, you will see cracks in between the grout and the wood baseboards. This may be due to seasonal movement or impact damage.

Grout can be sloppy to install. So the trick is to minimize getting grout where you don’t want it to go. Where the baseboard meets the tile, you can minimize this mess by using wide painters tape. Before you start taping, remove any loose grout and vacuum out the area.

Place the roll of tape flat on the floor and tape along the baseboard. This will make it so that the finished grout line is at the same level as the floor. I also tape along the edge of the tile so that the new grout won’t get on the old grout and tile. It’s okay if this happens, but they you will have two colors if the color of the new grout doesn’t perfectly match the color of the old grout.

So when you are done taping, you will have two pieces of tape with a small gap in between them. Now it’s time to start grouting. Use a grout float and fill the gap in between the tape. Use the corner of the float and push the grout into the gap. Try to remove as much of the grout as possible leaving a near finished surface.

Wait until the grout starts to dry on the tape. It will look much lighter than the grout in the gap. Gently pull the tape and it will leave a perfect grout line level with the floor. At this point you may choose to leave it alone or use a damp sponge to wipe the surface of the grout line.