Grout Wisdom
So yesterday I was fixing the grout in my bathroom. I didn't have gloves, and I was barefoot. I know the box warned that grout can irritate your skin, but almost everything says that nowadays, so I didn't pay much attention. I figured that at worst it would dry my skin a bit. And I had to do it barefoot because shoes would scuff up the tub. (This wasn't the doing projects naked thing. Really) While working, little blobs of grout fell on my feet and got squished between my toes. Felt kinda nice actually. And when I rinsed the sponge the tub filled with grout water.
When I was all done working, my hands were bright red and so were my feet. I thought it was partially the soaking my hands in cold water, and partially the irritation they warned about. Didn't think much of it.
Then my husband and I had to do some shopping at Mall of America (aka MOA and Hugedale). Without thinking of how much walking would be involved I put on my boots instead of tennis shoes. Big mistake. After walking the multiple miles involved in making two full circuits of the mall, my feet were so swollen that my toes were a little numb from the pressure. But not so numb that I couldn't feel the blisters forming between my toes, and then bursting. Fun.
When I got home I found that not only had my feet swelled up and gotten all blistery, a couple of my fingers and toes had cracked too. Reading the box revealed that grout contains a fair amount of lye. Perhaps instead of "may cause irritation" they should have said "caustic" or "will digest you skin and make you into Lutfisk". Just a thought.
It is possible that I reacted to it more than the average person would. I used to clean houses for a living, and in that time I developed chemical sensitivity to any number of cleaning products, so this may be an off shoot of this.
Moral of the story, Don't Stand In Grout!
When I was all done working, my hands were bright red and so were my feet. I thought it was partially the soaking my hands in cold water, and partially the irritation they warned about. Didn't think much of it.
Then my husband and I had to do some shopping at Mall of America (aka MOA and Hugedale). Without thinking of how much walking would be involved I put on my boots instead of tennis shoes. Big mistake. After walking the multiple miles involved in making two full circuits of the mall, my feet were so swollen that my toes were a little numb from the pressure. But not so numb that I couldn't feel the blisters forming between my toes, and then bursting. Fun.
When I got home I found that not only had my feet swelled up and gotten all blistery, a couple of my fingers and toes had cracked too. Reading the box revealed that grout contains a fair amount of lye. Perhaps instead of "may cause irritation" they should have said "caustic" or "will digest you skin and make you into Lutfisk". Just a thought.
It is possible that I reacted to it more than the average person would. I used to clean houses for a living, and in that time I developed chemical sensitivity to any number of cleaning products, so this may be an off shoot of this.
Moral of the story, Don't Stand In Grout!