Types of Grout Cleaners

There are many different products out there on the market for cleaning grout and sometimes the choices can seem overwhelming. There are a few grout cleaning rules that will help you make the right decision. First, you want to use the gentlest grout cleaner you possibly can to still get the job done. That means you should start with the gentlest and work your way up until you find something that works well. Second, you always want to test a new grout cleaner on a small inconspicuous part of the tile to make sure it will not damage your grout in any way. Third, let the grout cleaner sit on the grout for a while in order to do its work before you scrub it away. If you follow these simple rules, you should be able to find the right grout cleaner for you and your home.

The gentlest grout cleaner that you can use is steam. In order to get a good supply of steam you will need a grout cleaning machine to generate and apply the steam to the grout lines. The grout cleaning equipment also has powerful scrub brushes which can give you mechanical power that no person can generate by hand. The steam works by breaking up and loosening dirt from the porous grout. If steam is forced into the grout holes, the dirt will be forced out. Steam has an added benefit of being able to kill bacteria that contaminate your grout as well.

The next step is to try grout cleaners that you can make from normal household products like baking soda and vinegar. This grout cleaning recipe is a nice mild cleaning product that will not dissolve your grout, but it might be enough to dissolve or break up stains. Of course, you will need to work it deep into the grout with a scrub brush, but a lot of the work is done by just letting it sit on the grout. When making the grout cleaner, make the consistency of a paste so that you can apply it directly to the grout lines and it will not move.

If these home remedies do not work you can move on to over the counter bathroom and tile cleaners. These products often have ingredients like alcohol or hydrogen peroxide in them so they are slightly stronger chemicals. However they are not particularly harsh unless they are used in excess of the recommended dosage. Many over the counter cleaners come as gels so that you can apply them to grout lines and let them sit like the homemade paste. However, if you are working on the tile in your bathroom shower that is on the wall, the gels will slide down so you cannot let them sit as long.

If you can still not get your grout clean with any of these chemicals you should move on to bleaches. There are two classes of bleach, chlorine bleach and oxygen bleach. Oxygen bleach is always preferred because it is not toxic and will do less damage to grout in general. The oxygen bleach product comes as a powder which you make into a paste. Chlorine bleaches are generally liquids and are harder to work with not only because they run all over the place, but because you need adequate ventilation to work with them.