I have a patio with some very nice looking (and feeling) ceramic tiles sitting on top of concrete. A big chunk of the floor is like this, and there is a built in, matching fire pit and bench. The bench has the same sort of ceramic covering. It’s all quite nice and was probably very expensive. Definitely a huge selling point of the place!

Here is an MLS picture

A few weeks after we moved in, we noticed that the grout was cracked pretty bad on one of the seams of the ceramic. In fact, you can see it in the picture between the BBQ and the farthest patio chair. Here’s a “before” picture

After examining this more closely, my guess was that the seam is actually an expansion joint between 2 slabs of concrete. I guess the landscapers figured they could fill the joint with the grout from the ceramic flooring? Grout doesn’t work that way; it’s not flexible.

My strategy for solving this problem was to fill the crack with some flexible concrete sealant so the seam would be impervious to any further settling. I was hoping to get away without putting backer rod or sand in there since it’s a relatively small crack, but I bought some sand just in case. I’d have to paint it eventually since the sealant would be an eye sore next to the grout, but the more urgent need was to protect the foundation. Plus, I hate painting, so I’m procrastinating on that

Enough talk! I dug out a couple pieces by hand first so I could have them handy for color matching paint later, then got the tools ready.

The first order of business was to dig out the loose bits of grout and chisel the rest so I could fill the entire crack instead of taking the risk of the remaining grout cracking. I did this by putting the head of the chisel at a roughly 15 degree angle against the edge of a stable piece of grout, then lightly hammering the back of the chisel. Video would have been a lot more handy for showing this 😕

First photo is right after getting through the whole seam, next photo is after sweeping with the broom.

I wanted to do some measuring after this. First the width of the seam, which was pretty much a consistent measurement across the seam. Then the depth. The depths varied wildly depending on where I measured. It got up to what looked like 3/4 inch.

I used my air duster at this point all along the seam to push out a bunch of the dirt and bugs that had piled up in there. Luckily I had gloves on otherwise I would’ve gotten frost bite. Probably need to get an air compressor or leaf blower for these sorts of tasks!

Dear reader, I’m embarrassed to admit that I got lazy and did not take the time at this moment to fill the deeper pockets with sand. I figured I had enough material in my tube of sealant to overcompensate. More on that in a bit, first prepping the sealant tube.

I actually had to make a cut twice since I wanted to get a really small opening at the tip to fit the small seam, but I had trouble puncturing the inner seal with my caulking gun’s built-in puncture tool because of how long the tip is on this tube.

I’ve since learned that a scrap piece of 14 gauge wire cut to about 8 inches is the best tool to puncture caulk tube seals. Wish I’d figured that out before doing this project!

Anyway, I started applying the sealant and realized pretty quickly that I was going to run out of material if I didn’t apply some sand first, so I paused where you see in the photo below.

I had to work quickly since the sealant was starting to skin, so all I got is a photo of the bag of sand lol.

Now technically I’m not using the sand as intended. This sand is meant to sit between pavers and get “activated” by water, which starts a hardening process, but meh. The sand’s color was the reason I got it lol. It matches the patio and concrete.

Had to work quickly here since, again, the sealant was starting to skin. It just means I didn’t get any photos of applying the sand. Pretty much just poured it into some of the deeper areas of the seam, then used a broom to sweep away loose sand that was sitting outside the seam on top of the flooring.

I went back to applying the sealant after that. Again, no great photos because of timing, so here are some “after” shots.

See how bright that seam is now compared to the surrounding seams? Yeah, I’ll have to color match and paint that SOME day.

Update: Almost 3 weeks later, and I finally got around to paint!

I took those scrap pieces of grout I picked out earlier to my local big box store and luckily it was enough to do a color match exterior paint + primer.

I didn’t get great photos of what it looked like before starting, but it was pretty dirty by this point! Here’s an after photo of me after cleaning the entire joint with alcohol pads.

These little suckers are perfect for really wiping away all the dirt that had adhered to the sealant.

Time for more tool prep. I was pretty excited to bust out the frog tape. I heard good things about it from some YouTube videos and I knew for sure i was going to need to tape this area since I was dealing with a long thin line.

Taping was pretty tedious since the tiles settled so much and weren’t perfectly aligned…part of the reason I procrastinate on paint lol

My right leg is pretty shot from doing so much sealant work as of late, if I squat too long, the nerves in my shin start to have shooting pain (maybe from all the compression?), so I absolutely had to get knee pads. I highly recommend knee pads in general if you’re going to spend any amount of time working on a floor.

Anywho, time to bring the painting tools down. I use the painter’s tool purely for propping open and closing shut the lid, like so

Time to start! I really need to work a lot on how much paint I get on my brush, how many strokes to use, how far to go, etc. Lots of learning was done here.

I was a bit unhappy with one part of the seam where my paint brush bristles really popped, but you have to get pretty close in to see it, so generally not too bad.

Just about done!

Time to pull the tape up!

The frog tape did really well. Left barely any noticeable lip.

Here’s something you won’t see very often. Clean up! Paint’s messy, so here’s some shots of cleaning things up and putting them away.

This was my first time really cleaning a paint brush. I overprepared and tried a few tools to clean. I ended up liking the dedicated brush cleaner over the wire brush or using the painter’s tool to scrape off.

I wasn’t really happy with leaving the brush in the dish rack since there wasn’t a good way to get the bristles faced down without touching a surface, so I improvised and put the brush between the gaps in my Elfa rack in my garage.

I went outside to take another peek at the result, and was mostly happy…

Except some spots where frankly I did a sloppy job applying the sealant. The sealant is so bright that it stuck out like a sore thumb against the color matched grout. See?

Another angle

This might not look like a big deal in the pictures, but these bright spots really catch your eye when you’re walking around out there. Human eyes are really, really good at detecting edges (which is why things like dead pixels in monitors are so bothersome). So…I decided not to get lazy and put in the extra time to deal with it now instead of living with it or dealing with it later.

I busted out an artist brush set since I needed the right tool for very fine detail touch ups.

Painting is a real pain in the butt

Very happy with the result of the touch ups. Edges aren’t clean, but at least the colors blend much better.

I think the final result looks pretty good!

This was a pretty fun project overall. Lots of learning. Lots of experience gained with wet materials including the process of color matching paint. I still am not in love with painting, but I do feel good about having a new skill under my belt.