Professionals grout cleaning services use machines to do the grout cleaning for them rather than hand tools. The most popular variety is a steam cleaner with scrubbing action. These machines are usually hooked up to a water source and heat the water to steam. Steam is pushed out of the bottom of the machine while brushes rotate in circular motions. The high pressure steam dislodges the dirt and grime in your grout and the brushes scrub it away. The machines also have suction action that gets rid of the dirty water as new steam is sprayed in.

The hotter the steam and the greater the pressure it can be delivered at, the better the clean. The hotter steam and high pressure will help to cut through stains faster. The brushes need to be powerful enough to scrub the grout, but not too powerful because you do not want to damage or dislodge any of the grout. Professional grout cleaners will ask when the last time you had your grout sealed was to make sure that their heavy duty equipment will not damage your grout.

Once your grout is clean, a professional grout cleaner will also offer a sealing service. They can reapply grout sealant for you if it has been several years since it was last applied. Grout sealant is a great way to protect your grout from not only stains, but also bacteria and molds. The professionals have the appropriate personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves that are necessary when handling these chemicals. They also can bring in large fans to ensure the proper air circulation while they work.

If you are doing regular weekly cleaning of your grout and there are no stains to worry about then you can simply use liquid dish soap alone or a solution of dish soap and water. You can scrub lightly with the soapy liquid and then rinse with clean water. This solution is not abrasive and will not eat away at your grout as long as the grout is sealed.

If there are stains in your grout, or if you are cleaning grout in your shower where mold and mildew could be a problem, then you might want to consider something a little stronger. Grout cleaning chemicals need to be more like a paste than a liquid because you do not want to flood the floor you are working on. You want the cleaner to stay on the grout so that it can work at the stains. That is why baking soda is one of the best grout cleaning agents you can have. A baking soda paste made with any number of other household items will do a great job at fighting stains in your grout.

Water is the simplest thing to add to make your baking soda paste. You can also use lemon juice. The acidic lemon juice is great at cleaning. All citrus works well to break up grease and fight stains. That is why you find so many orange based cleaners on the market. Another recipe is a combination of baking soda, ammonia, and vinegar. This solution is best saved for really tough stains because it is stronger. My favorite homemade grout cleaner is made of equal parts baking soda, salt, and vinegar. The salt gives it an abrasive quality which is god for scrubbing out dirt.

If mold and mildew are a problem then you might consider a solution of chlorine bleach and water. Bleach is a strong cleaner and there are certain precautions you should take when using it. First, make sure the room is well ventilated so that you do not become overcome by the fumes. Second, it is possible for chlorine bleaches to discolor or fade your grout so make sure you test it in an inconspicuous area first before using it on all of your grout. If a stain is particularly bad, then you might consider making a paste with chlorine bleach and baking soda so it can sit on the grout for awhile.

Another strong cleaning agent you can use to fight stains and kill mildew and mold is hydrogen peroxide. Just like with chlorine, you can make a paste if you want to let it sit on the stains for awhile. Hydrogen peroxide should almost always be diluted with water because it is too strong to use by itself on your grout.

The first characteristic that you need to consider is the stiffness of the brush or what type of bristles it has. Brushes can be divided into three categories, soft, medium, or hard. The best type of brush for grout cleaning is a medium bristled brush. Soft brushes do not work well because you end up just pushing around the dirt on the surface and when you apply pressure, you bend the brush bristles rather than work them down into the grout to remove dirt. Soft bristled brushes might work if you clean your grout every day or once a week because the dirt worked its way very deep into the grout. Hard bristled brushes are a bad idea for grout because they can actually chew the grout up and remove pieces they are so hard. You only want to loosen dirt, not the grout itself.

The next characteristic to consider is the shape of the brush. In other words you need to look at the length of the bristles and how they are arranged on the brush head. Some brushes have all the bristles the same length for a flat brush. Others have a concave shape where the bristles on the outside are longer than the bristles on the inside. The shape that is best for grout cleaning is a convex or pyramid shaped brush. The bristles in the center should be longer than the ones on the edge. That will allow for the center bristles to scrub the grout and the outer bristles to carry the dirt away with your circular motions. One of the most helpful grout cleaning tips is to use circular scrubbing motions rather than back and forth motions so that the outside bristles can push the dirt the middle bristles loosened out of the way instead of working the dirt back in with back and forth motions.

The third thing you should consider about your brush is the handle. The worst part of grout cleaning is having to work on your hands and knees for long periods of time on the hard surface created by tile. It is very uncomfortable. Because of your discomfort, you may be tempted to get a long handled brush that you can use while standing up. The problem with this type of handle is that it is hard to get a circular motion. You are much better off if you have a shorter handle because you will have more control over the brushes movements. I tend to use two different styles of brushes when I clean grout. The first has a handle about two inches above the brush head that is attached by a small connection at one end like in the picture to the right. The other kind has no handle. Instead, I just hold the brush head. A brush like this is pictured above on the left. The reason I use both is because I use a different muscle in my forearm when I hold the two different brushes. That way, if my arm starts to get tired I can switch to the other brush and start sing a different muscle group until the other one recovers.

You should first start with water or steam. Yu can try just using a brush and some warn water first. This will get rid of any surface dust and maybe a little bit of dirt that has gotten into the grout. If wiping and scrubbing with water does not work you can try steam. With the help of a steam cleaner you can spray steam onto the grout. The steam at high pressure will dislodge the dirt in the grout and then the steam cleaner’s suction can take it away with the excess water.

The next tier of cleaner to try is normal homemade household cleaners. A one to one mixture of vinegar and water is a miracle cleaning solution you can use on almost anything. Add a tablespoon of dish detergent and you have a very potent and effective grout cleaner. You can also try a baking soda paste. Just add a little bit of water to baking soda and you can make a paste that is easy to apply to your grout lines. After the homemade varieties, you should try normal household cleaners like Comet, Mr. Clean, or Lysol. With these and every type of grout cleaner, you want to let the cleaning chemicals sit on the grout for anywhere from two to ten minutes to work on the dirt before you start scrubbing. In general, you want to let the chemicals to sit for longer the dirtier your grout is.

If the cleaners you can make yourself or you can buy in the grocery store do not get the job done then you want to move onto professional grout cleaning agents. There are two tiers of professional grout cleaners. The first is the ones you can buy in home improvement warehouses like Lowes or Home Depot. The typically say something like “professional strength” on the label. The second tier is cleaners that are usually only sold to professional cleaning services. The consumer can get them though, if you shop online. These professional grade cleaners need to be diluted, so be sure to read the instructions carefully.

Usually the last type of cleaner you want to try is bleach based cleaners. Grout can be cleaned very well by bleach cleaners, but they often can cause damage to the grout. There are two categories of bleach grout cleaning products to choose from. Chlorine bleach is usually harsher and might not work as well as oxygen bleach products. Both varieties of grout cleaners need to be diluted in water. With harsh chemicals like this, make sure that you test the results on a small and inconspicuous area tmake sure that your grout will not be adversely affected. Chlorine bleach will actually whiten your grout, but should not be used with colored grout. Oxygen bleach will not eliminate color under normal circumstances, and it is non toxic.

Some grout cleaning machines look and behave a lot like a carpet cleaning machine. These machines work on the principle of steam cleaning. Steam is expelled out of the machine under high pressure and penetrates deep into the grout. Then a powerful vacuum uses suction to pull the dirty water into a basin in the machine. Steam cleaning grout can be very effective if the grout is not too stained and you clean it regularly. Steam alone will not work very well on tough stains or stains caused by mildew.

Other grout cleaning tools uses brushes to help get the job done. The most popular models have a circular bottom. There are usually one or two outlets for high pressure streams of hot water. The water streams are enclosed in a circular curtain brush. The water comes out hot and with a lot of force. The brushes then scrub the grout in the curtain. With these types of grout cleaning machines, you usually apply a cleaner to the floor first so that the hot water can activate oxygen bleach or other cleaning chemical. These machines usually require a water source and a tank to collect the dirty water. That is why they are most often used by professional grout cleaning services and are hooked up to a truck like in this video.

The best place to try to find grout cleaning machines for your own use is online. This type of cleaning equipment is not typically sold in home supply stores or to the public. It is fairly specialized and usually is bought by businesses. Another good place to buy equipment like this is from cleaning services that are going out of business. Cleaning companies will be looking to liquidate their assets and might be willing to sell you their used equipment at a good price.

The first tip is that the best grout cleaners know the easiest way to clean grout is to do it often. If you spend ten to fifteen minutes a week cleaning the shower tile grout, then you will never get that black build up of mildew or mold that takes intense scrubbing and extremely harsh chemicals to fade. Get into a routine where you spend a little bit of time at a certain hour every week so that the grout cleaning becomes part of your routine. Once you get into that routine it will seem like you always did it, and you will never have to rent expensive equipment or spend hours doing marathon grout cleaning sessions again.

A second tip is that you should use the gentlest grout cleaner possible to get the job done. Some grout cleaning products are quite abrasive and using heavy duty chemicals could slowly erode or damage your grout. Cleaning grout with vinegar is one of the least harmful ways to achieve clean grout. Use a one to one solution of vinegar and water. Never use a professional strength grout cleaner when a more mild option will work. Remember that the best grout cleaner is the one that gets your grout clean, not the most expensive or most intense.

Another tip to remember when you clean grout yourself is that you do not have to do it all with a grout cleaning brush. A grout cleaning machine can make the job go a lot more quickly and efficiently. You can rent grout cleaning equipment from floor cleaning companies or you could even hire them to come in with the equipment and have a professional grout cleaning service. You need to weigh the value of your time against the cost of professional grout cleaning. Just remember that you usually get what you pay for when you hire someone to clean grout. If you want to be absolutely assured of the quality of the work, then you should clean the grout yourself.

Many installers do not seal grout because you have to wait at least 30 days after installation to do so. As a result, unfortunately many homeowners never realize they have not sealed their grout until it is too late. If you are in doubt then I would suggest sealing your grout soon. There are two types of sealant commonly used. The first is a penetrating sealer that chemically attaches itself to the grout to repel water. The second is a topical sealer that coats the surface of the grout and repels stains and water. There are pros and cons to both.

The topical sealer will eventually wear off and need to be reapplied. Application is usually needed once every two years. This option sometimes leaves a plastic appearance to the grout and should not be used in areas that get extremely wet like showers. The main benefit of this type of sealant is that it is less expensive and easy to apply. Obviously, the penetrating sealers will be more expensive and last longer. They are more appropriate for wet environments like a tub or shower. Whichever type you choose make sure that you allow at least 24 hours for the sealant to dry before walking on or using the tiled area.

Even if you keep your grout clean and use sealant, it may be necessary to repair your tile grout at some point. You will know it is time for repair when the grout has started to crack or tile has started to come loose. I would recommend that you hire a professional to do it, but if you are feeling confident about your home improvement skills then you can try to do it yourself. The project usually means re-grouting the worn or cracked areas and then sealing them. The new grout will need at least 48 hours to harden before sealing. Making the grout look even and not ruing your tile can be tricky so that is why I strongly recommend professional help.

There are many options when it comes to the cleaner that you can use on your grout. If this is one of the first times you are cleaning your grout, then I would suggest a commercial or professional strength grout cleaner. Generally, you mix one cup of the professional cleaner with two gallons of hot water, but be sure to carefully follow the manufacturer’s directions. Your best bet is to find a supplier online that sells to the public. The grout cleaners you find at local hardware superstores often say professional strength but are not of the same caliber. If you have already done a cleaning or two with the real professional strength cleaner then these lower strength products will suffice. Other options include one cup of an oxygen bleach like Oxiclean in two gallons of hot water or a mixture of one cup of chlorine bleach with two gallons of hot water and one tablespoon of liquid dish soap. Once you have cleaned your grout with these potent chemicals, you can do subsequent cleanings with lighter options like baking soda or vinegar. Whatever solution you chose, you want to let it sit on the grout for one to two minutes for minor staining or as much as five to ten minutes for heavy staining.

Once you have chosen your cleaning product you will need to choose a brush to do the actual scrubbing. The most important characteristic of that brush should be the bristles. Soft bristle brushes will not be able to get the dirt out from deep in the grout and an extremely hard metal bristle brush will actually tear the grout to pieces. The best bet is a strong polyethylene bristle brush. If you can find one with a v-shaped contour that would be even better because then you can really get into the cracks of grout and not just clean the surface. One other attribute to your grout cleaning brush that would be nice is a long handle so that you can brush standing up and do not have to be down on your hands and knees with a hand held brush.

Once you have scrubbed the grout to your satisfaction you will need to clean up the residual mess. Some people use a damp cloth or paper towel to clean up the excess cleaning solution and dirt that came out of the grout as they go. Others will clean a larger area around ten by twelve feet and then use a wet/dry vacuum to clean up the mess. Whichever you choose, be sure to finish the job with a good mopping of the entire tiled floor.

A before and after picture of kitchen floor tile grout.

If it is so hard and unpleasant, why is tile grout cleaning so important? Isn’t it good enough to keep your floors clean? The truth is that clean grout is very important. First, you need to think about the decorating benefits. When tile is installed, they do not just use any grout. Tile grout is chosen specifically to accent the colors and textures of the tile. When the grout gets dirty, the overall design effect that you were trying to accomplish is diminished. You will be amazed at how much better any room looks once the tile grout is clean.

Another benefit of grout cleaning is the overall impression of cleanliness. This can be extremely important when you are trying to sell your home. When prospective homebuyers walk through a home that is less than sparkling, they tend to get a lower opinion of the space. If you had two identical houses for sale and one was clean and the other dirty and cluttered, the clean one would probably sell for more money. First impressions are very important when selling a home. Clean tile grout can make the entire room look brighter and larger. These are both very important attributes when you are trying to sell a home. Even if you are not selling your house, having clean grout will make you feel better every time you walk into your bathroom or kitchen. Imagine how relaxed and refreshed you will fell walking into a foyer or great room, where the floors are bright and the room feels open. Tile grout cleaning can make you feel better about your home.

One last benefit of grout cleaning is perhaps the most important because it has to do with the health and well being of you and your family. Even if you keep your tile floor clean, your grout can absorb many bad things. Dirt, bacteria, mold, and mildew can easily find their way into your clean tile grout and over time, it sinks deeper and deeper. Since most adults do not spend much time on their hands and knees, it might be hard to notice this phenomenon or care about it much. However, if you have children or pets, or if children or pets ever visit your home, then they are in very close contact with these conditions. Mold, mildew, and bacteria can aggravate allergies or even cause illness. That is why it is very important to keep your grout clean.

Now that we understand why it is so important to keep your tile grout clean, we will discuss some grout cleaning tips. This might sound too simple, but the best way to clean grout is to never let it get dirty. Ha ha, you might say. That is easier said than done. How is it possible to never let it get dirty? Even if you never used a room, there would still be dust to get the grout dirty. Of course, I do not mean that you can never let any dirt touch your grout. Never the less, you can make sure that it never gets too dirty. If you clean your tile grout regularly, then you will never be faced with the chore of a major cleaning product or having to hire a professional grout cleaning service. You can have incredibly clean grout by just spending ten to fifteen minutes a week doing light cleaning. Yes, you do still have to get down on your hands and knees, but the task is much more manageable. Remember, the best grout cleaners are the ones who work smart and not hard.

Another way to be smart about your grout cleaning is to use a sealant on all your grout. Most people assume that the grout is sealed when the tile is installed, but this is rarely the case. You must wait 30 days from the time of installation to seal grout so usually the tile installers are long gone by then. So, it falls to you to seal grout yourself. First, you want to make sure that you are starting with clean grout. The last thing you want to do is seal dirt or mold into your grout. Second, you need to decide what kind of sealant you want to use. Topical sealers coat the surface of the grout and repel stains and water that way. This type of sealant will need to be reapplied about every two years because it wears off. However, it is extremely easy to apply. The more complicated option is a penetrating sealer that chemically attaches itself to the grout. These sealers are more appropriate for wet environments like a shower or tub.

However good intention we are and no matter what prophylactic measures we take to keep our tile grout clean, you will still need to clean it every so often. Tile and grout cleaning equipment is actually simple and the grout cleaning cost, if you clean grout yourself, is relatively low. The most important thing is to make sure that you are properly protected, especially if you are using harsh chemicals. Always wear latex or nitrile gloves when cleaning your grout. Almost all grout cleaners are somewhat abrasive and the gloves will protect your skin. You also should wear eye protection. The scrubbing action sometimes causes small splashes and it can have devastating effects if you get harsh bleach or cleaning chemicals in your eyes. Lastly, you want to be working in a well ventilated area and wearing a non-woven mask so that you do not breathe harsh chemical fumes. Fumes can quickly overcome an individual if they are not careful. It is hard to recognize the symptoms of overexposure until it is too late. That is why it is also a good idea to have someone close by to monitor your progress and condition. Who knows, maybe they can even help along the way. You can buy all of these personal protective items from a local hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes.

The next piece of equipment that you will want is your brush. There are three things to consider when deciding on your brush. First, and most important, is the type of bristle. You cannot use a soft bristle brush like a toothbrush because the soft bristles will not be able to penetrate deep into the grout and will fall apart after a small amount of vigorous scrubbing. You need a harder bristle. However, metal brushes are also not a good idea because the hard metal bristles will damage your grout because they can tear it up. The best material for your grout cleaning brush is polyethylene or some other kind of plastic bristle. You want to bristles to be firm or stiff. The second thing to consider is the size and shape of your brush. You might be tempted to get a large brush thinking that you could scrub more surface area with one pass. This is a good idea if you are cleaning a large surface area, but the fact is that grout is usually very thin. If you are trying to clean two lines of grout with a large brush, you are not going to be able to exert the necessary amount of pressure over a large surface area. It is better to scrub one line of grout at a time. The best shape for your grout cleaning brush is a V shaped brush. These brushes will have longer bristles in the middle so that the brush surface comes to a V. These are the best brushes for cleaning grout. The third thing to consider is the handle. You could have an advantage if your grout cleaning brush had a long handle. You will not have to crawl around on the floor hurting your knees and back. In addition, you can get more power behind your strokes if you are standing and putting your whole body into it. However, it is harder to see the progress you are making from a standing position. If you are using a handheld brush and kneeing down you can see really well. You need to weigh the pros and cons of each before making your decision. It might be a good idea to have one of each so that you can do one pass on standing and then get on your hands and knees to touch up.

Once you have chosen a brush, you need to start thinking about what cleaners you want to use. What is the best grout cleaner? I do not think there is an answer to that question. Whatever works the best is the best grout cleaner for you. Nevertheless, conventional wisdom says that you should use the least chemically abrasive technique available to you to clean your grout. If the less harsh treatments work there is no reason to expose your family and pets to the harsh chemicals. The least harsh treatment available is just water and/or steam. The first step in any grout cleaning project is to wipe the offending area with warm water. This will take away any excess dust and loose debris that you do not need scrubbing to remove. Steam, is the next step. Of course, you need a grout cleaning machine, like a steam cleaner, to get steam. Steam will penetrate down into the grout and the suction on a steam cleaner will then pull the water and dirt out. You can rent grout cleaning machines or you could purchase one. If you do decide to purchase, make sure you have other uses for the steam cleaner, because hopefully you will keep up with your grout cleaning chores and will not need heavy duty cleaning very often.

The next options I would try are those you can accomplish with some simple household items. A one to one mixture of vinegar and water is a good starting point. When scrubbing your grout, a circular motion is best in order to remove the most dirt and grime. Sometimes the back and forth motion can actually imbed dirt deeper in the grout as you go back and forth. The circular motion picks up the dirt and then pushes out to the sides. Another good home remedy is a baking soda paste. Add a little bit of water to the baking soda and then rub the paste onto the dirty grout. After these, normal household cleaners like Mr. Clean, Lysol, or Comet should be your next step. With all of these methods as well as the ones I have yet to describe, you want to let the cleaning solutions or pastes sit on the dirty grout for a period before scrubbing. Anywhere from two to ten minutes of wait time will allow the cleaners to work their way into the grout and start to break down the dirt and grime. The worse your stains, the longer you should let the chemicals sit.

If regular, over the counter cleaners are not getting the job done then you need professional strength grout cleaners. There are actually two tiers of professional grout cleaner. The first and less strong tier includes cleaner you can buy in home improvement stores like Lowes or Home Depot. They typically say something like “professional strength” on the bottle. However, they are not the strongest professional grout cleaning supplies available. You can find better chemicals from online home improvement tips retailers that sell to professional grout cleaning services. Unlike the chemicals you can buy in a store, the professional strength chemicals need to be diluted in water. Make sure to follow the instructions on the packaging in terms of preparation and use. One grout cleaning tip to remember is to look for cleaners that are pH balanced so that you will have less of a negative effect on your tile grout over time.

Something to remember when cleaning tile grout is that harsh chemicals can erode your grout. That is why you always use the gentlest chemical solution possible. The last resort when tile grout cleaning is to use solutions of chlorine or oxygen bleach. When using any harsh chemical, you should first test it on a small, inconspicuous space to see if it will negatively affect your grout. A solution comprising of one cup of chlorine bleach, two gallons of hot water, and a tablespoon of liquid dish soap is one option. This cleaning solution is tough on stains and works well to lighten your grout. It works well, if the grout is white, but of course, it should not be used if you have colored grout. An oxygen bleach product is a safer option because it is not as toxic to humans or pets. In addition, I have found that it works extremely well on tough stains. A solution of one cup of oxygen bleach powder like OxiClean and two gallons of hot water will do wonders for your grout. Usually the OxiClean is kinder to colored grout, but you should still test it.

If you have tried all of these remedies and you still have black stains in your grout, then your problem is most likely mildew. This is a big problem in wet areas like the tub or shower. I have discovered a home remedy that works well and is very inexpensive. Alcohol kills mildew. You will find if you look at the ingredients on the fancy shower cleaners in the grocery store, the main ingredient is alcohol. You can try to solve your mildew problem by buying a small spray bottle and filling it with rubbing alcohol, which you can buy from your local pharmacy. Then, wipe down your shower walls and grout with a towel when you are done showering each day and spray your alcohol on the grout. Leave the shower doors or curtain open and if possible open a window to allow airflow. A presence of air and alcohol will kill the mildew and help keep you grout clean.

After you scrub your grout clean, there will be cleaner residues and dirt all over your floor. The last step will be to wipe the excess cleaner and grime away with a damp cloth. You can use running hot water to rinse the cloth as you go so you are not contaminating a bucket of water with every pass. After you have wiped away the excess, then you should give your floor a through mopping. All of this is hard work. It takes a lot of time and effort. Try to take short thirty to sixty seconds breaks throughout the grout cleaning process so that your knees and back do not get stiff. Make sure not to break for too long because it is easy to get distracted and not finish. If you do not think you are up for cleaning your grout yourself, you could always hire a professional grout cleaning service.

Professional grout cleaners have access to the most potent chemicals and sophisticated machines. The grout cleaning equipment they have often makes the job go a lot faster. Another benefit is that the heavy duty grout cleaning machines have great suction and can suck out all the moisture and dirt that you might leave behind if you are doing the grout cleaning yourself. The cost of professional grout cleaning is not necessarily prohibitive, but I find that you get what you pay for. The grout cleaning services that only charge sixty dollars per room are probably just cleaning with steam and light chemicals. You are not likely to get out major stains. Check with the service beforehand about what kind of guarantees they make. Get any guarantee in writing so that you are not charged for less than acceptable performances.