Lines a shade dull, tile still bright
Usually means
Mop-water film sitting on the surface of the grout
The plan
Pre-treat, light scrub, hot rinse
Tile and grout
Tile and grout cleaning, from hex mosaic to kitchen floors
The grout lines scrubbed, rinsed hot and extracted, so the floor looks like the tile again.
Chapter 01
Why grout turns grey
Cement grout is porous. It drinks mop water, and the dirt in that water stays behind when the water dries. Each mopping leaves the lines a shade darker while the tile itself keeps shining, which is why a floor you clean every week can still look dirty.
Prewar hex mosaic is the hardest case. A bathroom floor in a Brooklyn brownstone or a Queens co-op carries a huge length of grout line in every square foot, and each line is a trench for soil. Kitchens and entry halls do the same job more slowly, in the same way.
White hexagon mosaic bathroom floor with pale grey grout, clawfoot tub feet, a grout brush and a folded white cloth in a patch of sun
Pre-treat, scrub, rinse, extract
The clean starts with an alkaline pre-treat that sits on the lines and loosens oily soil. Then we scrub the grout lines themselves with a brush, because a mop only rides over the top of them and never reaches the bottom.
A hot rinse lifts what the scrub loosened, and extraction pulls the slurry up off the floor so it cannot settle back into the lines as it dries. Bathrooms, kitchens and halls across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx, Long Island and Westchester are all handled this way. Ring (888) 919-2393 for a free estimate.
Chapter 03
Sealing and keeping grout clean
Sealed grout resists stains because water beads on it instead of soaking in. A sealer wears down with time and mopping, so ask on the phone whether your floor would benefit from one before you spend anything on it.
After the clean, use a neutral cleaner, not bleach. Bleach eats at grout and can lighten some colours unevenly, so the floor looks patchy a month later. Mop with clean water, change it often, and wipe the floor dry near the tub so the lines never sit damp.
Brooklyn prewar bathrooms
Reading your grout by colour
What the lines look like tells us where to start. A damp corner near the tub can be a mold remediation question, and a wood or stone room next door is a floor cleaning one. Tell us either on the contact page or at (888) 919-2393.
Lines dark grey or brown, tile clean
Usually means
Soil carried deep into porous cement grout
The plan
Alkaline pre-treat, scrub the lines, extract the slurry
Dark patches by the tub or shower
Usually means
Damp that never fully dries, sometimes mildew
The plan
Clean first, then find the moisture before it returns