How to Clean Tile and Grout

Cleaning tile and grout is a mystery for many homeowners. Because tile and grout are porous, they collect many soils especially soap residue and airborne cooking oils. These two substances are known to gum-up tile and grout floors. This in-depth article will give you many aspects to of caring for your tiled flooring.

After thoroughly mopping you floor, the tile and grout will appear clean. This is where most people stop. Unfortunately, that nice shiny floor is now coated in soap residue you cannot see. Yes,, you’ve removed the soils, but the invisible soap residue will dry and become sticky.

Most, if not all once-and-done tile cleaners contain ethoxylated surfactants. These are alcohol-based surfactants, or soaps. This substance does not evaporate like the industry wants to believe. Ethoxylated surfactants leave a tiny layer of residue that eventually collects dirt, silt, hair and other soils.

Professional Grout Cleaning Advice

As a formulator for Ur-Out pet odor remover, and as an owner of a Nashville carpet cleaning service, I know a few things about cleaning floors. Grout is actually colored concrete, so it’s very porous and able to collect a verity of soils. By not thoroughly rinsing, or diluting that soap off of the tile and grout, it simply collects within those tiny pores.

This soap collection continues over time, and eventually becomes like baklava, an Arabic pastry that’s completely saturated with honey. That soap build-up causes soils to not only attract faster, but stick deeper into that porous material, which can permanently stain the grout.

This soap build-up can, and often does cause irreversible damage if a professional tile and grout cleaning company cannot extract the years’ worth of soap residue embedded deep into the grout. Even after an expert cleans the floor, the residue may have absorbed too deep for cleaning. At this point, etching the grout, color sealing it, or grout replacement may help.

How to Clean Tile and Grout Floors

The solution to pollution is dilution. We professional grout cleaners have a term that’s called flooding the floor. Now, you don’t want to literally flood your floor, but you want to get it really wet so there’s plenty of water molecules available for best results. Note: Dried surfactant acts just like caramel and is just as stubborn to remove.

You’ll want to fill a bucket with hot water followed by adding an alkaline-based cleaner. Heated water excites the water molecules making them spin. This movement literally helps scrub your floor making your job easier. Caution: Do not burn yourself and as always, wear your Personal Protective Equipment.

Using a floor cleaner with high alkalinity also helps remove cooking oils from your tile and grout. Apply the hot, alkaline cleaning solution to your tile floor liberally. Now, take a break. You want to allow the detergent time to soften the soils.

After ten or twenty minutes, now you can apply elbow grease by scrubbing the tile and grout with a stiff bristled brush meant for hard surfaces. You’ll see the water getting darker. And if the floor is heavily soiled, don’t be afraid to mop up all the soap water and repeat with fresh, hot water and detergent.

Now that floor has been thoroughly scrubbed, mop up all the dirty water as best as possible. Fill your bucket with clean, hot rinse water. Apply the rinse water liberally with a mop, or sponge, while ringing often.

Your mop, or sponge, is essentially acing like a pump by applying and re-absorbing the water back to the rinse bucket. If you have a wet-dry vacuum, you’re ahead of the game. Repeat this as many times as possible until the water is clear. Your tile and grout floor is now thoroughly clean!

My Grout Still Looks Dirty!

If you’ve read this far, you’re likely unhappy with the results. And this is unfortunately very normal. I want to welcome you to the unfortunate world of tile care. There’s hope, however.

As mentioned, you always want clean a tile and grout floor with an alkaline cleaner first. This removes most, if not all of the soils leaving bare tile and grout remaining. Your grout is surely clean, but now you’re seeing the years’ of abuse as grout stains.

Grout is naturally alkaline. This means that if you apply an acid-based cleaner, it will react by etching the surface of the grout — and natural stone, so be careful! Professional grout cleaners use acid-based cleaners to dissolve the silt layer, or the top layer of the grout. This helps remove the topical grout stains revealing a new layer of grout below. But there’s a catch.

Applying acid-based cleaners damages the grout’s protective silt later. The silt layer is a very tight, natural occurring layer that forms when the grout was first installed. Similar to laying concrete, the fine silt floats to the top leaving the gravel hidden below. Acid-based cleaners damage this layer allowing the grout to become more porous than it was before. And more pores means more pockets for dirt to hide in.

For safety purposes, it is best to have a professional grout cleaning company apply acidic cleaners if you choose to go this route. If the cleaner works, and the grout is now stain-free, grout sealers can be applied to help defend the grout from future stains; however, the grout is still now more porous, so it will collect more soils regardless.

Grout Color Seal Renewal

While not actual grout, topical grout sealer is polymer-based substance that coats the grout giving it a new veneer. Available at most hardware stores, grout color seal is a good option if the grout is heavily stained, and the homeowner wishes not to have it replaced.

Grout color seal can last as long as ten years. However, certain floor cleaners can damage it including solvents and high-alkaline chemicals. Applying grout color seal is messy, but there are several YouTube videos that have excellent tips on keeping the mess down.

Grout Restoration

If you’re unsatisfied with your grout cleaning, etching and color seal, replacing it is your only option. Replacing the grout involves a special grout saw that allows you to remove the old grout before installing new grout. Note: Safety measures must be taken to ensure you’re protecting your lungs, airways, skins and eyes.

Once all the grout has been removed, applying new grout with a rubber trowel is the next step. After installation, you’ll likely need to sponge the floor several times to ensure all the grout silt comes up. I would recommend sponging the floor a minimum of three times before assessing if it needs more cleaning. Silt is not easily removed, so be patient.

At this point your tile and new grout looks amazing. It is best to apply either a topical or impregnating grout sealer to ensure it remains in top shape.

How to Care for Tile and Grout Floor

If you’ve read to this point, you have a good idea of what not to do to your tile flooring. The best way to care for your tile and grout is to thoroughly rinse your floor after cleaning. Avoid using vinegar or other acids to protect your grout’s natural, tight silt layer.

A product we sell doesn’t use acids or alkalinity to clean your grout. Instead, All-Spray attaches to the electrons of the soils to remove them without pH. All-Spray is also soap-free, dye-free, fragrance-free, metal-safe and will not damage your grout’s protective silt layer or any sealants that have been applied prior.

I hope this tile cleaning article was helpful. If so, I would greatly appreciate your liking it or sharing with friends and family so they, too, can learn how to keep their tile and grout floor looking its best.