How to Successfully Clean Grout

Colorfast Grout Colorant

How to Clean Grout - A Review of the Products & Methods We Used

The best way we found to clean grout was to paint and seal it. Forget trying to scrub the dirt out of the grout lines 'til your arms fall off. We used this Colorfast Grout Colorant. You'll see some before and after pictures of our kitchen floor.

We've tried a few different ways to clean the grout on our ceramic floors - We've used a steamer (maybe you've seen that method advertised on the shopping channel) and we've even gotten down on our hands and knees and tried to bleach out those ugly dark lines with a toothbrush!

Guess what, both the steamer method and the hard-labor scrubbing method worked as well, but not even close to what this product did for our floors. Make sure you look at the before and after picture so you can see the final result.

Our kitchen tile floor was white, but the grout that was originally used by the builder of our house (19 years ago), was a light greyish color. I've never really liked that look - you know, where you see square

Here is our kitchen floor - Before on the left,
 on the right, After

tiles defined by grout lines that essentially make the tiles appear to be checkered on the floor.

After researching numerous product options for cleaning our grout, my husband decided to give this tile grout paint/sealer a try. It was a wise choice!

He selected the white grout colorant and carefully followed the instructions that came with the product. He put the colorant directly on the light grey grout but prepped the tile grout first according to the instructions. He put two coats, and applied it until the color of the tile grout was nice and white and clean looking. Note: you may not need two coats, we just decided to do it.

Also, we had a couple of chips in the white tile squares, and we HATED the look of that! So instead of going the route of replacing tiles, he simply dabbed the chipped areas with this grout paint.

Heavy Duty Steamer

Our plan is to eventually do a full kitchen renovation, but in the meantime we wanted to do something that would give our kitchen a bit of a clean facelift....because we really didn't like those dark lines!

It also seals the grout at the same time, so that dirt and grime have a harder time penetrating the surface and thus dirtying it up again! We've had it on our floors now for four months and it still looks great.

I'm not naive enough to think that this grout paint and sealer will last forever, and I'm sure at some point my husband will have to do a reapplication...but...so far so good - and YES my house has a lot of traffic - 6 people! (four boys!)

So, if you decide to go this route to clean your tile floor grout, just be sure you select the color you want and follow the directions on the package.

A Heavy Duty Steamer

If you would rather use a steamer to clean your tile grout,here's the floor steamer we've actually used - This can be used for so many other things as well - We've steamed the mattresses, the floors, tile grout, draperies, and even used it to steam the carpets in our car. It works very well, but it won't change the color of your grout - it will simply get the dirt out.

ADDED BONUS TIP:

When you use a grout colorant that is close in color to the overall color of the actual tile, it aids in the tile appearing more like one-continuous-piece.

In a smaller space, having tiles appear as individual squares can contribute to the room seeming even smaller. So the more you're able to get the floor to look as though it flows as one piece, the better for size impression.

by Barbara Tremblay Cipak
Funkthishouse.com

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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