“How to Clean Grout”

If your house is like mine, you will find that keeping your grout clean is a never ending battle.  There are so many tiled areas around your home with the kitchen and bath being the biggest culprits. 

In your bathroom grout gets dirty from mold and mildew and in your kitchen it’s usually a combination of grease and grime combined with food stains.  Other tile and grout surfaces in your home like flooring get dirty from foot traffic.

And then once it begins to get dirty it looks so unsightly.  So how do you get your grout looking new again?  Well, as in any cleaning I always recommend beginning with the mildest cleaner and moving up to harsher ones.

If your grout is beginning to look dirty, here is what you can do.  If the dirty grout is in your bathroom, I suggest running very hot water over it before you begin.  This will break up any soap scum that may have accumulated.  Then boil some vinegar and using a spray bottle mist it on the dirt.  If your grout is more stubborn try mixing some baking soda with water and a very small amount of bleach and scrubbing it on the stains using a tooth brush.

If your stains are more difficult and the vinegar and baking soda wasn’t strong enough, you can then move on to commercial grout cleaners.  Just remember to use ones that have a neutral ph.  You don’t want one that is going to start to erode your grout.

For very heavily stained floor tiles or even walls like inside a shower for example many people will recommend chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach will work well, but the problem is that it can also remove the color from your grout as well as the color from surrounding furnishings.

Hydrogen Peroxide can often be an effective cleaner, but if your tile is this dirty I would recommend oxygen bleach.  Any time that you can add oxygen to a stain you have a good chance of removing it.  And oxygen bleach is so safe that you can use it on a variety of surface including carpets and other fabrics.

To use, mix the oxygen bleach powder with water and apply it to your grout using a mop.  For walls you can use a small brush.  Let it dwell for 30 to 60 minutes and rinse the area with clear water.  Your grout will look like the day that it was installed. 

Another thing that works great on dirty grout that I feel should be mentioned here is steam.  If you have access to a steam cleaner or want to hire a professional, the power of steam is an excellent way to clean grout. 

Although tiled surfaces are beautiful, the grout between the tiles can become dirty and easily stained.  In places like your bathroom you can even have mold and mildew form on your dirty grout making it even worse.  But relax, now the dirt doesn’t stand a chance.