Exact Answer: After 48 to 72 hours
The process of injecting the solid material into the open cavities or the cracks in the concrete, or a masonry structure, soil, or in any other rock structure to increase the structure’s load handling capacity, is known as grouting. Grouting gives the wall or the floor a finishing crisp appearance and it also helps in keeping the dirt and the debris away from the gaps present in between the tiles.
A polymer made up of siloxane is called silicone. It is a typical colorless oil or rubber-like material used for sealants, adhesives, lubricants, meditative, cooking utensils, or thermal and electrical insulations. And likely it is after 48 to 72 hours after grouting one can apply silicone on it.
How Long After Grouting Can You Silicone?
| After Grout cure time | 48 hrs. |
| After sealing | 72 hrs. |
Although every time it’s not an airtight concept to wait for at least 24 hours for silicon after grouting. Sometimes the time may get stretched a little longer up to 48 to 72 hours. It depends on which type of product one has used while grouting. According to some products, they also recommend waiting for three days, which is 72 hours instead.
However, if one is trying to replace the grout, which is connecting to the nearby bathtub or filling the space between a gap in the floor, then one must re-grout it. This would help in getting a better result. It might take a little longer after that to apply silicone, but it will be effective.
With that, after applying the grout, it is really necessary to seal it with something airtight. It is because the grout is naturally porous. Hence, if it is left without being sealed, it would result in getting stained easily. But most people do not prefer to sell them, as the grout has to get cured first. It is something that some installers keep for the grout to look its best. But it helps the grout to dry faster and it can be within 24 hours.
One can wipe down the haze left on the tiles after almost 24 hours, once the grout dries up. But it must be done within 10 days because, after that period, it would make the job much harder. Hence, after the minimum time limit, one can wipe down the unnecessary grout with a soft grout sponge soaked with water.
Why Can You Silicone So Long After Grouting?
Although the grout is a hardening material, and should only be used for filling up the joints of the same plane, still it needs some time to get hardened. One of the main reason which plays a pivotal role while hardening the grout is moisture. It helps in drying up the grout a little faster and one can apply the silicone easily.
Once this whole process of drying up is over, we can apply silicone over it. After tiles have been properly cleaned, silicone sticks better to grout than grout could ever stick to the former one. However, this technique may not fit well if one is trying to replace the connecting bathtub with the floor.
This process of drying up of the grout is a little hectic process as the time for waiting to apply silicone gets a little varied from product to product. As mentioned before, different grouting products provide different time limits to wait until further disturbance with the grout. With some products, it is quite less or normal like 24 hours, and with some products, it may reach from 48 to 72 hours. Hence this is also a variant for the delay in the time of waiting.
Hence, it is more likely important to wait and have patience for at least 24 hours and then only go for applying silicone. After applying silicone also, it takes more than a day to cure completely. But at this time, the place can safely be exposed to water, moisture, or for any kind of normal use.
Conclusion
This grout comes in a variety, which includes flooring grout, tiling grout, non-shrink grout, and resin grout. Although they all are cement-based materials and all work as adhesive products, all these have different works at different places and different time structures to get cured. Therefore, there is a huge difference between universalizing the period one needs to wait for, to apply silicone after grout.
Hence, regardless of every substantial situation, it will be a wise and clear decision for giving a sufficient amount of time for the tiles to get bonded by the grout. Then only one can go without having any hesitance in the mind, to apply silicone over it.