Have you tried everything to clean the dull, stained grout between your tiles? It's a common question we wrestle with at Apartment Therapy: Groddy Grout: Cleaning Tile Grout? We've covered grout coating, grout-whitening pens and grout colorants and dyes. The New York Times gives us some basic pointers and suggestions for professional help when all else has failed...
To me, tiles and their attendant grout fall into the same category as wall to wall carpet.
Get rid of them altogether.
These days you don't need them.
view sfdoddsy's profile
To clean my yucky grout, I just scrubbed with some bleach to get a clean surface, then painted the grout lines with a white ceramic paint. Looks totally clean and makes the white tiles stand out even more. Sparkly clean :)
view gingerpop's profile
What do you do when your grout cracks? Can you regrout over the cracks?
view jooly's profile
When we remodelled we used "epoxy" grout in the shower stall. It is a lot more expensive, but is allegedly stain, water, mildew proof.
I also learned that "regular" grout needs to be resealed every few years. Who knew?
view mdeathstar's profile
Home Depot has a grout cleaner (which is essentially a waterered down sulfuric acid). Just pour a bit, wait a few minutes, lightly scrub and mop.
Grout comes out looking like new. I am not a fan of tile floors, but this helps when you do not have much choice.
view Chris M's profile
Has anyone had any experience with grout dye/colorant? I'm trying to darken grout that came out too light. Wondering if it's a safe DIY job or if it's better left to the experts. Seems like a time consuming project but if that's the worst of it I'm ready to take it on.
view bigraisin's profile