Bleaching Grout Floor Tiles

How to clean tile floors with bleach by melynda sorrels.

Bleaching grout floor tiles.

With tile the difference between dingy and dazzling often comes down to the grout in between. Sometimes you may have to repaint the grout altogether. This will help pull the dirty water and soap film off the floor. A grout brush and a suitable cleaner.

Homeowners whose floors are covered with ceramic tiles or laminate materials often use bleach to remove mold. If your grout has turned dark a thorough scrubbing with the right cleanser and applying a bleaching agent can lighten it again leaving it good as new. Gently wipe away the mixture with the rag and rinse with water. Whether you re cleaning in between beautiful tiles or you re scrubbing at the grout around a fine porcelain fixture the damage you re not seeing could be the worse prospect of all when it comes to cleaning with bleach.

How to whiten grout. Use a nylon bristle brush to scrub the oxygen bleach solution into the grout lines. Mold on grout lines is a biological stain that requires killing the organism. A grout brush is a small stiff bristle nylon brush available in handheld and long handled sizes.

Grout is incredibly porous like a giant sponge which means it will absorb any grease grime oils or spills it comes into contact with says leslie reichert green cleaning coach and author of the joy of cleaning and while the culprit may vary from room to room mildew in the bathroom cooking. Whether it s floor tile or wall tile that s dirty with grease soap scum mold or just plain dirt cleaning grout requires two things. You don t need a lot of special supplies to clean grout. How to clean stubborn grout stains.

Stay away from metal brushes as this can scratch your tile and pull out grout. It is easy to get tiles clean and gleaming but it is much harder to clean the grout between them. Once it s rinsed the best way to remove the water is to use a shop vac and vacuum up the dirty water. You can substitute a toothbrush in a pinch but its bristles are too soft to do much good.

Step 3 dip a soft to medium bristle brush in the solution and use it to clean the grout in between the tiles. However there are some things to consider that may make using bleach to clean your tile s grout a bad idea. Be sure to scrub in corners and around the floor s edges as dirt and grime tends to accumulate here. If your tiles and grout aren t white use color safe bleach to avoid fading and discoloration.

Homeowners who use organic soap to remove mold may actually be feeding the spores instead of killing them which is something bleach can certainly do. Using bleach to clean your colored grout can result in fading of the color making it uneven or even removing the cover if the bleach isn t handled properly. First bleach can discolor or even strip color away. Scrub the grout with the brush back and forth.

1 sweep and mop if cleaning floor grout.