Published on Jun 11, 2024 | Updated - Jun 24, 2024
Have you found that no matter how often you mop your kitchen floor, the grout lines still look dirty and yucky?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Cleaning the grout between the tiles is a totally different challenge to cleaning the tiles themselves. Here’s our safe, environmentally friendly approach to bringing dark, dirty grout lines back to life.
Grout between the tiles sits just a little lower than the tiles themselves. This means that when we mop the floor, dirt, grease, and grime are mopped off the tiles and collects in the grout lines.
As grout is porous, some of the dirt, grime and residue from cleaning products is absorbed into the grout This causes the grout lines to look dark and dirty, and is why the grout lines in the kitchen (where a lot of cooking and food oils land on the floor) often looks darker than the grout in other areas the floor.
This process will safely lighten kitchen grout lines, and when you’re finished, you’ll have a brighter, more attractive kitchen.
While this process is very safe, cleaning grout by hand is a time-consuming task. It requires a bit of planning and we recommend taking a few precautions that are covered in the second half of this article.
What You’ll Need:
Instructions:
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A Beginners Guide on How to Clean Tile Grout and Re-colouringWe’ve seen many DIY grout cleaning attempts go wrong, and sometimes the damage is irreversible. Our Vinegar and Bi-Carb Soda solution is safe and effective. However, it's easy to take on more than you can handle! We suggest the following:
While you might be planning to clean just the grout in the kitchen, the result could be kitchen grout that looks different from the adjacent dining area in your open-plan kitchen/dining room. We suggest you do a small test clean in the cleaner areas of your open-plan kitchen/dining room to determine if the whole room needs cleaning.
If you’ve made the decision to proceed with the cleaning, we suggest conducting a small test clean in a relatively inconspicuous spot of the dirtiest area (usually the kitchen). Make sure you’re happy with the likely results before you dive in and start cleaning.
This is a time-consuming process, so you’ll need to allow plenty of time. We suggest planning for half a day. As the saying goes, "many hands make light work." This could be a great job for the kids to help with.
We suggest buying a grout brush from Bunnings to make the job easier.
We’ve recommended the Vinegar and Bi-Carb solution as it’s quite safe. There are a few grout cleaning solutions sold in-store, and other DIY solutions you may wish to try. Before you start, we ask you to consider the following:
DIY grout cleaning, especially in small areas, is a very manageable way to keep your home looking picture-perfect. Cleaning really dirty grout, or large areas, is really, really hard work without the right skill and equipment. Before you take on more than you're ready for, it might be best to consult Electrodry’s professional tile and grout cleaners first.