So we know it is important for your house to be clean, and one of the most important areas to work on is your tile grout. Clean tile grout is a good way to know that someone takes good care of their home. So, if you need to clean your grout, should you hire a professional or try to do the work yourself? If you complete grout cleaning often then you can probably handle the cleaning yourself. However, if you have let the grout get dirty over a long period of time, you might consider a professional grout cleaning service.

There are many benefits to hiring grout cleaning services rather than doing the work yourself. First, you will save your time and effort. Grout cleaning is hard work. You need to be down on your hands and knees for long periods of time working muscles in your arms that you seldom use to scrub the grout lines. If the grout is particularly dirty, the process will take a very long time. I am sure there are better things you could do with a Saturday or Sunday then spend it on your hands and knees in the bathroom.

Another reason you might hire a grout cleaning service is that they have access to chemicals and equipment that you do not. If your grout is stained badly with mildew or mold then you might need to power of an industrial strength cleaner and/or a powerful steam cleaner. Most home owners do not have steam cleaners for scrubbing tile floors in their garages. You could rent this equipment, but you probably lack the expertise to use it properly. You would be better off hiring a professional cleaning service.

A third reason to use a grout cleaning service professional is that they can often complete other important chores while they are at your home. You can hire the same company to clean all the floors I your home, including the carpeted ones. You could get all the floors cleaned in one or two days. That same work would take you several weeks because you can only work on the weekends and you would not have access to multiple workers and multiple pieces of equipment simultaneously.

The first category of grout sealant is topical sealers. The way these sealers work is that they form a membrane on top of the grout that resists water and other materials that might stain your grout. They usually have a glossy finish that some people do not like and they need to be reapplied often because they wear off. This variety of grout sealer is better for floors because the water in your shower will eventually find its way under the sealant and get trapped. If the grout is never able to dry, then mold and mildew can become a real problem. In addition, you could see your grout start to rot away.

Penetrating sealers are better for showers and wet environments. Typically small pieces of silicone or latex are dissolved in a liquid base such as water or mineral spirits. The liquid works its way down into the porous grout. As the liquid evaporates the solid pieces are left behind and fill all the empty porous sections of the grout forming a barrier. Since those porous holes are no longer there, dirt and liquids that can cause stains cannot work their way down into the grout. When you apply this sealer, the grout often look slightly darker than it did before application. Therefore, if you are using a penetrating sealant of colored grout, you should test it first to make sure it will not negatively affect our aesthetic. Penetrating sealers do last much longer than topical sealers, but you should still reapply every two years or so. Another helpful tip is that when you are applying penetrating sealers, make sure that you wipe off any extra that finds its way onto the tiles because once it dries it is almost impossible to get off. If there is grout sealer on your tile, no grout cleaning tips will help you get it off.

While the majority of grout used in bathrooms, kitchens, and on floors is white or nearly white, there are rooms that use colored grout. Sometimes the colored grout is meant to stand out and be in contrast with the tile and other times it is meant to blend in so that the grout lines are not as noticeable. If yu have colored grout in your home, then there are some special grout cleaning tips that you should follow in order to keep your tile and grout looking their best.

First, be careful with every cleaner that you use. It is hard to tell how different chemicals will react with colored grouts so make sure that you test any cleaning agent that you use in a small area that is not easily seen to make sure there will be no fading or damaging of the grout. You will need to use mild chemicals whenever possible. That means that you cannot let your grout get very dirty. Usually you need strong chemicals to get our stains so you cannot let your colored grout get stained or you will end up damaging it in the process of getting out the stain. Weekly cleanings are best to keep your colored grout the right color.

Another helpful hint is to make sure that your grout is sealed properly and often. Because the colored grout is such a big part of the décor and makes such a big statement, it is imperative that the colors not fade and that the grout is not damaged. It will just be so much more noticeable with a colored pallet than it is with white grout. In addition, it is hard to match colors if you need to repair your colored grout. Therefore, you should maintain your grout as best as possible. Topical sealants are easy to apply, but wear off quickly so make sure you apply them often. Penetrating sealants react chemically with the grout and provide better protection, but they might affect the color.

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.

As with all household chores, the responsible home owner will want to know how often they should clean their grout. Grout cleaning, unfortunately, is not like other chores in that you cannot put it on a schedule. It just needs to be done as often as it needs to be done. You will find that your mold and mildew problems are worse when the weather I humid or when it is warm, so you will have to clean more often after those types of conditions. The grout will also get dirtier the more the shower or tile floor is used. So you will need to clean the grout in your personal bathroom more often than in your guest bathroom. But there are no hard and fast rules.

Something important to keep in mind when you are thinking about scheduling your grout cleaning activities is that if you only clean your grout periodically, each time it will take several hours to do the job right. There is an alternative if you are willing. If you spend just a few minutes everyday when you are in the shower and about an hour each weekend working on cleaning your grout, you will never have to rent heavy equipment or spend entire days with this task. Just schedule in an extra five minutes for your morning shower and spec it cleaning a section of your shower grout. Then repeat the circuit over and over again. That way no one section will have more than five or six days between cleanings and you will not have a problem with dirty or stained grout.

Then on the weekend you can work on the grout in other areas of your bathroom. The shower is definitely where you will have your most problems so that is why it is important to keep up with it every day. The rest of the tile floors can go longer in between cleanings. Just do half of your bathroom every weekend and then no section will ever go more than two weeks without cleaning.

First, when grout starts to turn black then part of the problem is going to be the growth of mold and/or mildew that can cause health problems. The wet and warm conditions left behind a shower curtain or shower door every day are the perfect breeding grounds for both mold and mildew. If anyone in your home suffers from allergies, you might find that cleaning the grout around the house could help alleviate some of their difficulties. Mold allergies can be quite annoying and debilitating. Often people think they are suffering from other common indoor allergies, but when you remove the mold spores, they feel better.

Another reason you may want to keep your grout clean is for the aesthetic appeal. When interior designers choose the grout for a particular tile, the choice is not arbitrary or inconsequential. The color of the grout is often chosen to compliment the color of the tile, a subtle design in the tile, or some other design element in the room. As the grout gets dirty, the color fades and the reason for the selection goes out the window. If you are interested in interior design and you want every room in your house to look its best then you need to make sure that your grout stays clean enough to appreciate the beauty it brings.

A third reason to keep up on your grout cleaning is for the resale value of your home. When a prospective buyer is touring your home and thinking about buying it, the condition and cleanliness of the home is a major factor in their decision making process. It might be unconscious, but if a house is dirty or not well kept, people think less of it. If they notice that the grout in your shower is black with mold, they might assume that other areas of the house are not well kept up either. If something that is so obvious is poorly taken care of, what is the condition of parts of the house they cannot see? In addition, if someone toured two homes that were identical accept that one was clean and the other was not, there would be a significant difference in the offered price for that home.

If you value your home and your health, then keeping your grout clean is extremely important. It may seem like a lot of work, but just a few minutes every day could mean the difference between a deep breath and struggling to breath or the difference between selling your house or not.

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.