Gleaming Grout
March 6, 2007
Granite and corian are today's favorite kitchen and bathroom counter tops. You, however, have ceramaic tile, the favored counter top of 20 years ago. Your tile is not chipped or cracked or broken, but the grout is grungy. If you are planning to sell your house, or if you just need to spring clean and you do not want to spend the dollars to replace the counter tops, making the grout gleam can be done. You can call a professional tile contractor to dig out the old grout and totally replace it with new. You can probably find a grout "topping" at Home Depot or Lowe's or you can try this "home remedy".
You may aalready have in your medicine chest some standard household hydrogen peroxide which has a 3% concentration in a water base. Dop a toothbrush directly into the peroxide and then use it to scrub the grout clean. Simple. Sometimes those stains are really tough and the peroxide is not quite strong enough to remove them. At a tile store you can find an industrial-strength grout cleaner - at a tile store not a hardware store. Tha is because specialty stores usually stock the best tile and grout cleaners.
After you clean the grout, you might consider using a grout sealer and really slather it on following the package directions. Once you have that gleaming grout, the sealer should keep it gleaming. Tile counter tops still have a charm that the harder surfaces do not have.
Granite and corian are today's favorite kitchen and bathroom counter tops. You, however, have ceramaic tile, the favored counter top of 20 years ago. Your tile is not chipped or cracked or broken, but the grout is grungy. If you are planning to sell your house, or if you just need to spring clean and you do not want to spend the dollars to replace the counter tops, making the grout gleam can be done. You can call a professional tile contractor to dig out the old grout and totally replace it with new. You can probably find a grout "topping" at Home Depot or Lowe's or you can try this "home remedy".
You may aalready have in your medicine chest some standard household hydrogen peroxide which has a 3% concentration in a water base. Dop a toothbrush directly into the peroxide and then use it to scrub the grout clean. Simple. Sometimes those stains are really tough and the peroxide is not quite strong enough to remove them. At a tile store you can find an industrial-strength grout cleaner - at a tile store not a hardware store. Tha is because specialty stores usually stock the best tile and grout cleaners.
After you clean the grout, you might consider using a grout sealer and really slather it on following the package directions. Once you have that gleaming grout, the sealer should keep it gleaming. Tile counter tops still have a charm that the harder surfaces do not have.
posted by shirley harry at 8:07 AM
1 Comments:
I ran into exactly the problem you describe. The original grout in my kitchen and bathroom tile was old and ugly. I called the Grout Pros and they came to the rescue. They dug out the old grout and replaced it with new and sealed it. They explained to me that the best thing to use to clean it is 100 percent rubbing alcohol. This not only removes soap scum and doesn't harm the sealant they used, but it effectively kills any new mold that might be thinking of starting. They explained that by the time you see mold and mildew, it's too late. Prevention is the way to go. It has been 3 years since we had this done and we only clean the tub tile enclosure with rubbing alcohol. We have sparkling clean tile and absolutely no mold in my white grout.
For the kitchen counters they recommended Soft Scrub with bleach. They said to avoid Ajax and Comet as the colorants they use (blue and green respectively) will stain the grout. So, once every 4 months or so I give it a good scrubbing with Soft Scrub with bleach. But maybe I'll try the hydrogen peroxide now....thanks, Shirley!
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