LESLIE: Robert in New Jersey wants to talk cement.
Robert, how can we help you?
ROBERT: Well, I’m laying a porcelain tile in the living room and there are areas around the perimeter that the grout seems to be cracking, so I was wondering if there’s some kind of caulking that would be more expansive.
TOM: Yeah, definitely. I mean all forms of caulking are more expansive than grout. That’s the problem with grout. Whenever you have a place that expands and contracts like that, you are not going to be able to keep it in place. So one of the options you have, of course, is to caulk it and the best caulk for a floor situation like that would probably be silicone caulk. I would tell you to be careful where you apply that caulk so that it doesn’t get on the tile or it doesn’t get in the area where you don’t want because it’s really hard to clean up. And also remember that you can’t paint over it; not that you would want to. But if you get it on the wall, the paint’s not going to stick.
So I would use a good-quality silicone caulk. That is available in clear as well as in several colors, Robert, so go ahead and caulk that up and I think that that’s going to expand and contract and give you a much better-looking joint than you had with the grout itself.
LESLIE: And you know what, Robert? If you do happen to get that silicone caulk on something and you’re having a hard time cleaning it up, this product called Rock Miracle, it does really well at getting that off as well. It might take a little bit of the paint off as well but you can fix that pretty easily.
TOM: Robert, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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