the.com/grouting
the unsung mortar between your tiles, quietly losing a slow war with mildew
means Grouting is the act or material of filling the joints between tiles, bricks, or stones with a paste-like mortar that sets to seal and bind them.
from From "grout," which traces back to Old English "grut," meaning coarse meal or the dregs left after brewing — the same family as "grits" and "groats." The thread that ties them together is the sense of a thick, gritty sediment; over time the word slid from porridge-leavings to the gritty, lime-and-sand slurry masons smear into the cracks. The "-ing" simply turns the substance into the ongoing labor of applying it.
- ancient roots
- Romans grouted with volcanic ash and lime
- two types
- sanded for wide gaps, unsanded for fine
- weak link
- it cracks before tiles ever do
- epoxy upgrade
- newer grouts resist stains and water entirely
- verb origin
- from 'grout,' Old English for coarse meal
burj khalifa foundation — 330,000 cubic meters of grout injected into bedrock at 828m-tall dubai tower, 2004-2010
channel tunnel grouting — massive grout sealing operation under english channel after water breakthrough during 1988 excavation
three gorges dam — continuous grouting of dam foundation in hubei, china to prevent seepage through rock, 1997-2006