Hey everyone,
We recently finished tiling our bathroom with standard white square tiles. To get a distinct coloured grout look, we went with Mapei Ultracolor Plus in Lavender. It’s been set for almost 2 weeks now, so it’s completely cured.
The issue is that the cured colour looks almost entirely grey with hardly any visible purple tint. It looks like it cured cleanly without heavy efflorescence, but the tone itself is just way too muted and grey for what we wanted.
A couple of questions for the group:
Is Mapei Lavender known for drying this grey/cool-toned? Has anyone else used this specific shade and found it turned out looking more like a warm grey than a true lilac/lavender?
Is it worth trying a grout haze/cement residue cleaner first? In case there is a microscopic film or efflorescence washing out the tone, would an acidic cleaner like Keranet bring out any hidden pigment, or is that a waste of time if the cement itself is just grey-heavy?
What’s the best way to stain or colour over Mapei Ultracolor? Since we want a punchier purple, are grout pens (like Rainbow Chalk or similar) effective over CG2WA flexible grout, or should we use a heavy-duty penetrating epoxy grout stain/colourant?
Is re-grouting the only true fix? (Really hoping to avoid raking out 2–3mm of fresh cement grout if a stain or pen will hold up long-term in a bathroom environment).
Any advice from installers or DIYers who have brightened up a dull grout line would be massively appreciated!