Question on tile/regrouting

[Richard]

The wife tiled the bathtub/shower a number of years ago. In the corners, instead of caulking them, she grouted them.

Of course, the house has settled and most of the corners are cracked a bit.

Question... in some places it's a hairline crack with good adheasion on both surfaces (other than the small crack down the line)

In other places, it's bad.

In the "other" places, where it's bad, we've been scraping it out, REMOVING all the grout we possibly can.

My question is... on the places where it's only a seperation line, with good adhesion otherwise... should we scratch/claw/grind or do what ever we can to forceably remove the grout OR can we take that grout scraper tool (with a point on one end) and essentially scrape the length of that area, removing any/most loose stuff and then apply caulk over it??



We want to do it "right" but right now, she's got this craping part turning into a weeks job of constant digging/scraping "solid" stuff out (although it's cracked) and I'm thinking we should be able to clean it, caulk it and forget it.

Thoughts???

(I'm going to hate it if she's right!!!)

 

[fountain42]

Roto zip makes a cutter that will remove the old grout. If you have some of the old grout letover mix it with clear silicon caulk and reapply. it will last avery long time.