My Tile Grout Revealed
My first thought was that I shouldn’t have moved the carpet. I’d forgotten what my tile grout was supposed to look like but as soon as I moved my kitchen table and the throw rug it sits on, there it was – clearly revealed in the Arizona sun shining through the nearby patio doors. What a pretty color!
Too bad that’s not what the rest of my tile floors look like. See that outline in the image showing where the rug had been sitting? The difference is shocking – and mortifying. Even the tile looks a different color.
It’s not like I NEVER mop. In fact, I sweep, mop and vacuum my tile floors regularly.
Before we lived in the house we own now, we had a house that had only carpet and linoleum. That’s unusual for newer homes in the area but not for the older ones. Linoleum was probably a very cheap option the builder offered at the time that subdivision was built up.
Our next door neighbors had redone all the floors in their main living spaces with a very pale tile. One day, I stopped by to drop something off and I found them both on their hands and knees, small brushes in their hands, scrubbing the grout in between the tiles.
I hadn’t lived in a house with tile flooring before so I didn’t realize you had to clean the grout, nor what a nasty task that can be. Later they told me that it took the both of them a total of three days to get to all the grout. I remember thinking I’d rather have teeth pulled.
I Guess My Grout is Not Supposed to Be Black
Just a year later and my husband and I would sell our house to build a new one in a great section of Glendale, Arizona. That memory of my neighbors and their grout must have been lost along the way because the first thing my husband and I decided on was which rooms would have tile and which wouldn’t. The kitchen, bathrooms, main floor stairways, laundry room, and entry way are all tiled with beige stone and cream grout. It’s probably between 1000 and 1500 square feet of tile all together.
I love the look of my home. The walls, the floors, and the furniture are all done in shades of brown. It’s certainly very “desert” themed and I find it very soothing for me, personally. Obviously, my eyes have grown accustomed over the years to what appeared to be subtle signs of aging.
We’ve been in the house seven years now and while I’ve moved that kitchen rug once or twice before, I don’t recall the dirty grout standing out quite as much. Of course, I was purposefully looking for the difference today in light of this post for the site and I guess I found what I expected. It’s time for some scrubbing.
Mopping Alone Won’t Help Grout
After using a regular mop, the line of dirt outlining where the carpet had been is gone but the grout isn’t any cleaner in the area not protected by the carpet. In fact, there’s a very slight, barely visible difference between the color of the tile that was under the rug and the tile that wasn’t between the two arrows in the image above. The arrows highlight the clean and dirty grout areas.
I know where the dirt comes from. All the bare feet, shoes, socks, dog paws, food droppings, dust and spilled drinks have left their mark. Between my husband and I, our three boys (ages 9, 15, and 19), Rocky (the family Chihuahua), parties, and overnight guests these floors see a lot of traffic.
My tile areas are the most walked on floors in the house – although Rocky appears to be indicating he prefers the carpet.
Product Reviews and Cleaning Tips Coming Soon
However, I’m not getting to the grout today. There’s no way I’m getting on my hands and knees to scrub it. The whole purpose of this site is to explore better ways to clean my floors that are faster, easier, and more effective. Specifically, I intend to look at steam mops and other house cleaning tools that use steam to remove dirt, clean grout, and kill germs.
New posts will be a mix of product reviews, tips, and helpful guides on selecting the right tools for these jobs in your own home.
Rather than tackle the grout at the moment, I’m going to join my son in the pool for an evening swim. A much better use of my time.
Our previous home, an 1863 farm house, had a gorgeous renovated kitchen with tiled countertops. My husband spend hours cleaning the grout between the tiles with Vim or Javex – can’t recall – and it looked great. But I bet you have a better solution! 😉
I bet that was a beautiful home! I hadn’t even considered tile counters but my in-laws have them in their cabin up north and I know they’ve had to do the same thing. Oh, yes, I’ll cover tips for those, too. Thanks for the comment!
I can’t wait to see how your grout turns out. I too have a grout project waiting for me. I really hate cleaning it on my hands and knees-I bet you have found a better way!
Pam – we’re all going to have cleaner grout after this. 😉 And I just realized I have a whole lot of tile in my pool, too. I’ve got a lot of work to do!
I have white grout in the the kitchen which is so hard to keep clean (I actually gave up on white grout a month ago.) Which mop worked best for your grout? I’m heavily leaning towards the Sienna Vibe.
Grout is such a pain, isn’t it? I love tile but hate keeping the grout clean. None of the stand-up stick mops are going to remove any of the grime that’s built up over time. They’ll just clean up recent spills or stuck on food in the grout lines. To really clean grout you’re going to need something with stiffer brush bristles and/or a pressurized stream of steam/hot water. The canister style steam mops with hand held attachments are best for this job OR if you have a hand held device on your carpet steam cleaner you might find that’s enough. I have the Hoover SteamVac with Clean Surge (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009R66F/?tag=steammop03-20) which I love for cleaning my carpets because it does a great job and it dries so fast. It also happens to have a great hand held attachment with a spinning brush that does a decent job on the grout. Because it’s also a vacuum it sucks up the excess water so it’s less messy for cleaning grout than using something that shoots water but doesn’t suck it back up.
As for a nice stick steam mop for cleaning floors, though, I think the Sienna Vibe is one of the best deals right now!
Since it’s been a while since the last comment, have you been able to find an easy way to clean grout? Thanks.
Dawn, still working on it. I’m currently testing the Haan SS20 steam mop that has scrub brushes and claims to clean grout. It does and I’ve used it to do so but I’m still trying to fine-tune the process for consistent results. I’m currently using that steam mop along with a grout cleaner from Home Depot that I’ve put into a spray bottle. I spray the grout lines and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I use the brush heads on the steam mop and that works pretty well but not every time. Now trying to figure out why I’m not getting consistent results but will report shortly in the review I post for that steam mop. Thanks!
I recently borrowed a friends Oreck Steam- It. I have an off white stone, textured tile, with a sand color grout. My grout was almost black in places. Using the grout attachment, I was able to clean the grout very well, in a short amount of time. You could literally see the dirty water pooling on the tile. I had to drag a towel where I was working, but it was so worth it. Most of the grout was restored to the original color, however there were places in the kitchen that will require a little elbow grease. Despite that, I want my own Steam-It mop. Hope that helps.
Wendy – sounds like it did a great job! Was it this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006U4A7SU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006U4A7SU&linkCode=as2&tag=steammop03-20&linkId=YUQPMELNP7MAGETO? I’ll put it on my list to review. Thanks!
Thinking of purchasing either the Haan SS20 steam mop or the previous version Haan SI_70 because it comes with some hand held brushes that from reviews seem to be effective. I have 2400 sq. ft of tile, of course not all of it will be steamed due to furniture, but still have a lot of tile to do! What are your recommendations for the most useful steam mop for me? Was concerned they might be too small…but not finding a whole lot of other options…also concerned with grout, as I would like to keep that clean and sanitized as well. Thanks for any input…was waiting on your review.
Thanks!
Yesterday, I purchased Bissell Power Fresh after a month go around with Haan and their warranty or lack of warranty after it sputtered out. 10 months after I bought it. ( I missed placed my postal tracking number) and they would not send me the replacement…anyway..I really liked the Haan SI_70 it was great for scrubbing tile with the attachments. I felt that it always did a great job of cleaning my floors. In the future after I’m not so angry with there customer service. I may by another Haan but keep all my papers in a file. Lesson learned.
Thanks!
Jennifer, sorry you had such an issue with Haan’s support. That’s not good – I love their mops! The Bissell’s do well so that one should keep you company for awhile while you recover. 😉 Thanks for sharing your experience!
I used a toilet bowl cleaner with bleach gel. The cleaning product is blue. Put that on the grout. Let it sit for a 10 mins. Not to long or it will stain the grout light blue. Take a scrub brush of your choice and go over it. Mop it up and you will be happy with the results. The tiles in my place was black when I moved in. I did that and it looked new.
Go to the Dollar Tree, get the miracle cleaners white sponges! It cleans the grout easily with no scrubbing. They will disengage so buy a few, they are cheap and Worth it!
Sounds great! I’ll give it a test, thanks!
As an alternative, I found a review saying the magic erasers are even too much scrubbing effort. This guy’s site has a method that seems easier and faster, though I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet myself…
http://jimstoolbox.blogspot.com/2008/08/so-you-want-to-clean-your-grout.html
Jason – thanks for the tip! Just to clarify, I don’t use Magic Erasers on my grout. They just shred on the grout and don’t actually clean the grout itself. These days there are two methods I use for my grout – the first (and easiest) is my Haan SS20 steam mop and the second is to use my Hoover SteamVac.
The Haan takes longer per square foot but requires significantly less effort on my part. I literally just have to spray the grout with a tile cleaner and guide the handle. The SteamVac is faster but I have to actually do the scrubbing. Which I use depends on how much time I have available to get the floor done. 😉
I have been researching steam mops forever. I just want one for tile floors and to clean grout. So far I have seemed to narrow down my choices to the Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop, Haan SS-20 Multiforce Steam Cleaner, and McCullock MC-1275 Heavy Duty Steam Cleaner. I would appreciate any feedback which would help me choose which one is best for me to purchase.
Di – I’d cross the Bissell off the list of 3 which leaves you with the Haan and the McCulloch – both of which have significant advantages over the Bissell.
The comparison of the Haan and the McCulloch is more difficult. 😉 Let’s focus first on just mopping tile floors. Between the two, if I were just focusing on mopping, I’d go with the Haan. It’s much easier to set up and easier to use for floors as it’s a one-piece unit (and it does an incredible, thorough job on floors – no question).
Now, let’s throw grout cleaning into the mix. While the Haan’s brushes and pads can clean grout it takes longer to clean each grout line that it does with the McCulloch. However, the Haan requires less elbow grease and there’s no mess left behind for you to deal with manually. To clean grout with the McCulloch you’re going to want to use the spray nozzle and not the floor cleaner. It applies a more powerful spray on the grout which is why it will clean it more quickly but it’s going to lay a lot of water on the floor and you’re going to have to suck that up with something else or attach the floor pads again and do a final once-over.
For grout, I’ve resorted to using my Hoover SteamVac because it has a handheld brush attachment that I can use to scrub the grout lines, a trigger to spray water over it to help release the dirt and, of course, the suction to take the water off the floor. If you have a carpet steam cleaner with that kind of capability then I’d go with the Haan SS-20. It will be much easier to use on a regular basis, does a great job on floors, and will help keep grout cleaner in between deep cleanings. Then, if you need to do a deep clean on your grout I’d use your carpet cleaner with attachments.
If you don’t have a carpet cleaner with a hand held attachment brush then I’d go with the McCulloch as it will allow you to do both regular mopping and deep cleaning of your grout. It will also let you perform other kinds of steam cleaning such as drapes, vertical surfaces, counter tops, etc, but if you don’t need those functions then focus just on the tile and grout factors.
Hope that helps!