Having your shower stall regrouted is a great maintenance idea. It can help prevent costly damage to your shower walls in the long run. Years of showering and cleaning your shower wears away your grout, which can leave unsightly holes in your grout. Worse yet, these holes could allow water to seep in behind the tiles, softening the green board. Green board is what the builders use in most shower areas. To be honest, I don’t believe it’s the best material to use, but builders use it because it is inexpensive.

When water penetrates the tile and hits the green board, the walls get spongy. Eventually, the wall will fall in, which could turn out to be a  very costly repair job. So regrouting your shower about every five years helps prevent a much bigger problem later on. In my many years of repairing and cleaning tile and grout, I have seen time after time that most homeowners use caulking to fill in the missing grout. This is not a good idea. Caulking and grout are not the same substances. Caulking is a latex material, which can cause mildew to grow very quickly. On the other hand, grout is a form of cement that holds its color for years and will seal up your shower much better. Caulk should be used only where there is movement such as on windows and shower doors.

I hope this piece of information can help you…and maybe save you the expense of replacing your shower tiles and walls.