Tile Grout Cleaning Sealing Tile grout cleaning sealing will need to be done every 3-5 years to keep the grout a clean consistent color. Grout sealer helps to keep grout clean by keeping water from drawing dirt and detergent deep down into the grout where it can cannot be easily removed with normal cleaning.

Most topical sealers work by anchoring in the pores of the grout and changing the surface tension so water doesn’t penetrate and oils don’t adhere. Wear, high ph detergents, and UV from direct sunlight break down the sealer. As the sealer starts to break down it allows for deeper and deeper penetration by dirty water.

This makes the floor more and more difficult to get clean with normal cleaning. It is time to professionally restore it and seal it again. The first step is to remove the embedded soil and get the grout as clean as brand new before re-sealing the grout. Chemistry and rinse are the key elements in getting grout as clean as brand new. The grout needs two different types of detergents to remove the various types of soil locked into the grout.

A strong alkaline detergent followed by a grout restoration acid detergent. Alkaline detergents are great general purpose cleaners. These detergents break down greases and oils and gets the grout ready for the grout restoration acid. The detergent is applied using a pump up sprayer to apply an even thorough consistent application of detergent. We want the tile lightly damp and the grout lines glistening.

A grout brush is used to work the detergent into the grout lines. The grout lines should stay wet with detergent for 20-40 minutes to allow the alkaline detergent to break down and emulsify the greases and oils in the grout. The grout is then rinsed using a truck mounted hot water extraction cleaning machine. This is a contained pressure washing system. Water is applied to the floor in a spinning cyclone that scrubs the floor with energized water that draws the dirt and detergent from deep within the pores of the grout. Vacuum ports on the edge of the rinse tool instantly sucks up the water keeping all the water contained under the wash head. This uses 1200 PSI of water pressure at 4.5 gallons per minute but never gets your floor more than mop damp. This will get the floor 75-90% as clean as new.

To remove the remaining stains in the grout the grout restoration acid is needed. Grout restoration acid detergent works by dissolving grouts hold on the material staining. This allows the stain to be rinsed from the grout. Grout acid will also remove moderate grout hazing, efflorescence, and grout color seal. The grout acid also opens the pores of the grout so it is ready to be filled with grout sealer. The acid detergent is applied in the same way as the alkaline detergent with extra caregiven to acid sensitive surfaces like marble and stainless steel appliances. These surfaces can be etched with the grout acid and should be covered with plastic and treated with a little extra caution.

Brushing the grout with the grout acid makes it much more effective as it works a fine layer from the grout that releases the embedded stain. The grout acid is rinsed with the truck mounted hot water extraction machine until the grout come completely clean. Heavily soiled areas get re-treated with the grout restoration acid, brushed, and rinsed again. The edges are cleaned with our gecko edge cleaning tool. This allows us to get hard toreach corners and edges just as clean as the center of the floor. Microfiber mops are used to mop the surface of the floor dry of standing water and to detail corners and edges. When the floor has been dried and detailed it is ready to be sealed.
A grout stick filled with grout sealer and a metering wheel that applies a metered amount of sealer into the grout lines. This allows us to fill the grout lines without creating a lot of sealer residue. The sealer is given 15-20 to penetrate into the grout before the sealer residue is cleaned from the floor using microfiber mops. To keep your sealer as strong as possible as long as possible you need to be careful what you use to clean it. High ph cleaners like ammonia, Top Tob, and Mister Clean can break down the sealers bond to the grout weakening it over time.

Tile Floor Cleaning Our tile floor cleaning service gets grout as clean as brand new. The challenge with getting grout clean is that it is very porous. Dirt and detergent residue has been soaked deep into the grout with repeated mopping’s.

To get this embedded soil out of the grout requires a combination of the right chemistry and a lot of rinsing. The grout gets cleaned using two different detergents. A strong alkaline grout detergent is used first. This a very good general cleaner and removes oily soils like the atomized cooking oils in your kitchens grout. This detergent will get the grout most of the way clean and gets the grout ready for the acid wash. A pump up sprayer is used to apply the detergent in a safe and controlled fashion.

The grout lines are brushed with grout brush to work the detergent into the grout and to draw the soil to the surface of the grout. When all the grout has been brushed and the detergent has had 15-20 minutes to do its work, we rinse the floor with our contained pressure washing system. The key to success with tile floor cleaning is the rinsing. We use a powerful truck mounted hot waterextraction cleaning machine that uses a contained wash head. The rinse tool applies the water in a spinning cyclone of that is very effective at absorbing the deeply embedded soils from the grout and uses 1200psi water at 4.5 gallons per minute. It has vacuum ports around the edge of the tool that suck up the water. This keeps the water fully contained in the wash head and never gets the floor more than mop damp.

Once the floor has been completely rinsed of the alkaline detergent we repeat the process with the grout restoration acid. The acid detergent is what gets the grout back to as clean as brand new. It dissolves the stains bond with the grout allowing it to rinse from the grout with our powerful truck mounted hot water extraction. Brushing is very important in this step and heavily soiled areas get a lot of brushing. The grout restoration acid is also used to correct grout haze. Grout haze occurs when the tile installers do not effectively remove all the grout residue from the face of the tile after the grouting process. The grout acid dissolves the bond of the thin layer of grout from the tile so it will rinse with our contained pressure washing system. To get the corners and edges as clean as we get the rest of the floor we use special edge cleaning anddetailing tools. These allow use the reach under counters, beside toilets, corners, and edges close to the wall edge in a safe contained and effective manner.Now we use microfiber mops to dry the tile and grout of standing water before sealing.

Our standard tile and grout sealer is a water based penetrating sealer that soaks into the grout and changes the surface tension so water doesn’t penetrate and oils don’t stick to the surface. This sealer lasts between 3-5 years. The grout sealer is allowed to soak into the grout for 5 minutes before being cleaned up. The floors and again mopped with microfiber mops to remove any remaining sealer residue. Once the grout sealer residue has been cleaned up the floor is ready for use.
To keep the freshly cleaned tile and grout looking great we recommend using a microfiber mopping system. Microfibers are a cleaning technology developed in Sweden that can keep your floors clean using nothing but plain water. They are used two ways: Dry for dusting and wet for cleaning. When used dry they create a natural static cling that draws dirt and hair into the microfiber and holds it there. This should be done daily. When used wet the microfibers wedge shaped fibers cut greases and oils and the water moves then into the absorbent microfibers to be removed from the floor. This VERY effectively cleans the tile and grout without adding any new chemicals or leaving any detergent residue. When the grout starts getting too dirty to clean without mopping make sure you do not use a strong alkaline cleaner as this will degrade the performance of the sealer. Always rinse the floor with fresh clean water after putting any detergents on the floor. Dry with microfibers after mopping for best results.