Step one: Protect yourself. Wear gloves. Wear goggles. Wear a face mask if you don’t want to sound like Darth Vader while coughing up grout dust. Trust me—your lungs are not tile.
Step two: Score the grout line with your saw or tool. Go slow. This isn’t a race. If you rush, you’ll chip the tile edge, and then you’ll spend an hour crying into a caulk gun trying to hide the damage. (Don’t ask how I know that, either.)
Step three: Vacuum the dust. You’ll think, “This is fine.” But that dust will follow you into every room of your house for a week. Your cat will sneeze. Your spouse will judge you. Vacuum now. Vacuum hard.
The Big Question: Can You Grout Over Old Grout?
Short answer? No, you absolute rebel. Grouting over old grout is like putting fresh paint on a crumbling wall. It’ll crack, peel, and look worse than before. You must remove the old stuff first. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to remove every single speck. Just get the top layer off, maybe 1/8th of an inch deep. Then new grout will stick like a toddler to a candy wrapper.
Tiling Skills, Tips and Techniques | Family Handyman
