Changing The Marble Grout

It's been slow and tedious work on the marble. Besides installing the skirting, the workers are also repairing the uneven areas above the skirting.

Again this repair is an area of contention. To Norman, whoever does the flooring will be responsible for the skirting area wall. To Alex's workers, they find that they weren't the ones who drilled so high on the walls and shouldn't have to repair them.

I don't know who is the right party to repair it or the typical industry practice for this. The only thing I'm sure about is that I am on the losing end if both parties refuse to take up the work. With Norman everything is about the money ... he can get anything done but at a price. His quote to level the skirting area properly was $321. Actually ... wait ... sometimes even money isn't enough if he finds that he may have to deal with potential after-sales service or warranty. He is that atas.

So I approach Alex instead, who has been easy to talk with till now. Even though he sounded reluctant initially, he was pretty cool about it and agreed to repair the area without hesitation. And the best part is that he isn't charging any extra for it. Given his easy going ways on the scope of works and never broaching the topic of money, I might just throw in an extra hundred or two when we are done with the renovation simply as goodwill.

The other major work is the refilling of the marble grout lines. They have dug up most of the original grout yesterday and filling up with new off-white ones this morning.

When we returned later in the afternoon, all the grout has been filled and the place looks much better than before.

Again if you compare the original yellow grout and the new off-white ones, you can clearly see that the off-white grout blends in better. Even though the marble we laid is called Vanilla Cream, it is primarily white based coupled with strong greyish tones and touch of beige cream.

Thankfully this is being rectified now. However we don't know for sure till we polish the marble and grout. That's when the true colour of the grout will appear. And this time there is no turning back ... *cross fingers let's hope it is worth all this rework efforts.