Thursday, January 23, 2014

Cleaning Shower Tile and Grout

This Ceramic Tiled shower cubicle in a house in Hale was overdue a deep clean, the Ceramic Tiles were in reasonable condition but the grout lines had discoloured and become stained from the dyes in shampoo’s and soaps and the silicone needed to be replaced.

Shower Refresh Hale Before Cleaning 1

Cleaning Shower Tile and Grout

To clean the grout I decanted a strong 2:1 dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean into a spray bottle and sprayed the solution on the tile and grout working in small sections. I think I’ve mentioned this before but in case you were wondering mixing the cleaner with air makes it lighter and allows it to stick onto vertical surfaces better. The solution was then worked in using a stiff scrubbing brush by hand before being rinsed off with water; this process was repeated until all the tile and grout was clean and then left to dry. If you’re doing this work yourself then you should know that Tile Doctor produces a product that comes with a spray attachment called Oxy Pro that is ready to use and can save you some time. The next step was to take a sharp knife and remove and replace the silicone strip between the tile and the shower tray.

Grout Colouring

Although the grout was cleaner following the scrubbing it was still showing some staining so to improve it further a white Grout Colourant was applied, fortunately the tiles were large format and the grout lines minimal. The product we use is epoxy based and forms a thin impermeable barrier over the grout so not only does it look good it protects the grout as well; it’s very easily applied using a small brush along the grout lines and you just wipe of the excess so it wasn’t long before the grout was looking like new. I think you will agree from the photographs the finished result looks like a new installation, certainly my customer was very pleased with job I had done.

Shower Refresh Hale After Cleaning 2





Source: Grout Cleaning Tips Site