Grout cleaning question.

[lindapendant]

I have a mosiac ceramic tiled bathroom floor that was laid in the early 1960s, and the grout is stained/dirty to the extreme maximum and I'd like to clean it if not to white, then something that resembles white and not the muddy gross putty colour it is right now. I do not want to retile the floor, I love this old style that you don't see much

Comments

[tudorpot]

Have you tried regular bleach? I leave a weak bleach solution on my tile counter to get the grout back to white. If all else fails, get a grout tool. Scrape out the top1/8 1/4 inch and regrout. It might be a pain, but I did it and in the end it was worth the bother.

[missingkeys]

The name of the product I use changes from place to place; in Australia it was Easy Off Bam (or maybe BAM!) and in Germany it's something else to do with 'Bam'. Either way, that range has a grout cleaner that's magnificent. You open the windows, spray it, run like hell before you're overcome by the incredible fumes, and come back to find the spot you'd managed to spray on is now shiny and white. :) It generally takes me a couple of rounds to do my bathroom because I can't stand the fumes long enough to do the whole thing in one go, but this stuff *works*.

With the floor grout, I also like to take the fifties housewife option and go an extra step. I spray it, run, then come back with a scrubbing brush (an old toothbrush will work too, but it'll take longer) then kneel on a folded towel and, wearing gloves, scrub the crap out of the floor. The directions say you can just rinse it off with water, and that's true, but it works better if you scrub it as well.

Best of luck!

[tisiphone]

Yup, this stuff. Or gel bleach, straight.

[mahasin]

I second gel bleach.

[jaelle_n_gilla]

That would be Cilit Bang in Germany. My experience with that isn't all that great, but I guess it depends on the dirt.

I'd try bleach, too.

I've had good results with an old electric tooth brush. I apply whatever cleaner and just go over each grout. But that was for wall tiles, not floor.

If all else fails - acid will dissolve your grout. Liberally douse the floor in acid (I used HCl once). Take a very hard brush and scrape the old grout out, then apply new grout. I put blue colour in my new grout so it starts out darker and doesn't show the dirt as much as white does.

Of course, before you do that, make sure you have adequate clothes (cotton) that you don't mind a few holes in, and rubber gloves suitable for acid, and open a window, oh, and make sure in a far corner that your tiles don't suffer from the acid. The same applies for bleach as well.

[sccrbrs6]

Young House Love used Polyblend Grout Renew and that seemed to work really well for them. I thought about trying it myself, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

http://www.younghouselove.com/2014/01/how-you-like-me-now-grout/

[ladyzi]

I was going to suggest this too - looks like it worked really well for YHL!

[lapenn]

Another vote. And this is green enough, so you don't even have to be defensive about that. The whole process seemed super easy for them.

[lindapendant]

It seems as though Sherry wore some breathing apparatus while she applied the product? Or she eludes to it?

It could have been because she's pregnant and erred on the side of caution for the baby's health. There may be potentially hazardous fumes which would indicate it might not be green, but that isn't an issue for me.

[jchammonds]

If you manage to get it clean, you need to seal it afterwards so it will stay looking clean. Unsealed grout gets grimy, fast.

[lindapendant]

I absolutely will seal it if I manage to get it clean because I have spent many hours and lots of elbow grease all for naught.

[georgelicious]

Our mid-50's bathroom floor is actually grouted in an off-white putty color, not white.

[lindapendant]

I actually wouldn't mind the putty colour if it matched the tile; but it doesn't. It's also stained in some places so that the colour isn't even. It really is a wreck, and it has such potential to be fabulous.