How To Clean A Dirty Tile Shower

How To Professionally Regrout A Tile Shower

Tile and Grout Regrouting Tips

Past Troy Cantini

When areas of shower grout await moldy, xanthous and discolored then this is an indication that the residual of the grout is also in poor condition. The damaged grout may not expect likewise bad from the exterior but what you are not seeing backside the tiles in the walls tin can be a dangerous situation.

before and after pictures of regrouted shower

Over time h2o will make its fashion through the weakened grout and start accumulating in your walls. Eventually mold and mildew can grow in your walls and then can offset eating into your wall joists and tin cause serious problems. Additionally the moldy walls can attract ants and termites into your dwelling.

The best way to forbid your shower from declining and causing excess harm to your home is to regrout your shower. Regrouting a tile shower is a difficult job merely can exist done by many industrious DIY homeowners. Y'all should only endeavour to regrout a shower with narrow grout lines that have unsanded grout in them. You tin read here about the differences betwixt sanded vs unsanded grout. If yous have sanded grout then y'all may want to consider cleaning the dirty grout and and then colorsealing the shower grout to restore your grout back to like new condition.

removing grout with a fein supercut tool

The offset thing that needs to be done when regrouting a shower is to remove all of the erstwhile dirty and moldy grout and caulk. Removing the old caulk can be done with a plain one-time razor blade scraper tool. For extremely difficult to remove caulk some acetone can exist used to aid soften the caulk up and remove it.

After you have removed all the old caulk then information technology is fourth dimension to remove the old grout. There are many ways to remove grout just the best way is with a Fein multimaster tool or other type of oscillating tool using a diamond bit grout removal blade. If you are going to be regrouting showers for a business organisation the Fein Supercut is a much more than powerful tool made for the serious dwelling house improvement contractor. If you lot are just a DIY homeowner then the Fein multimaster tool will piece of work just fine.

The grout should be dug out at to the lowest degree 1/8th of an inch deep so that new grout can have a firm base to adhere to. Do non effort to just apply new grout over the damaged existing grout. Just applying new grout over the existing grout is chosen skim blanket grout and this is a very bad practice. The new grout will non properly adhere to the one-time grout and there will not be a sufficient depth for the new grout to attach to. Over time the new grout will start flaking and chipping away. Besides the shower walls will even so accept mold in them and you volition not be solving whatsoever of your moldy wall problems with this type of skim coating process.

Ensure that you concur the Aquiver tool steady and move information technology in a steady up and downward motion forth the grout lines. Employ a steady hand to hold the tool so that the diamond blade goes in an up and down or side to side direction. You should hold the tool with two easily for better control so you practice not skid out of the grout lines. Let the oscillating tool do the piece of work and try not to put much force per unit area on the grout line. Allow the tool practice most of the work for you.

Information technology is best to use the a circular diamond fleck for removing most of the grout in the shower. Practice not attempt to use whatsoever carbide or off make bit to remove the old grout. These bits will not last very long at all and they too volition not grind away the grout easily like the diamond bits can.

For removing the grout along the corners and in tight spots a sickle or segmented diamond chip can exist used. The sickle and segmented diamond bits permit you to remove grout out to the edges of adjacent tiles without damaging the adjacent tiles. The segmented diamond bits are good in that they can remove large areas of grout in the middle of the shower and likewise allow you to remove grout in the corners and in tight spots.

It is a expert idea to permit you shower to dry out for a few days to ensure that your shower walls are dry before applying the new grout. A fan or dehumidifier can exist used to assist in drying out your shower. If you effort to apply grout to a wet shower wall the grout volition not set properly and tin can look yellow or discolored in the grout lines. Too by drying out your shower wall y'all will be killing all the mold and mildew in the shower walls while the grout has been removed.

applying shower grout with a grout float

Apply only dry out powdered cement based grout for your new grout. Mix the grout to a peanut butter consistency. You should be able to exist able to grab the grout out of the saucepan without having information technology ooze out between your fingers. Follow the manufactures instructions when mixing the grout and it is very important to not take too much water mixed in with the grout. Watery grout will not set properly and will be weak soft grout that will non concluding for a long period of fourth dimension.

Apply the grout with a safe bladder and force the grout deep into all of the grout lines. Forcing the grout deep into the grout lines will ensure that there is good coverage of grout in all of the grout lines. But utilise grout to one small wall at a time. You exercise non want the grout to dry hard before y'all clean it with a sponge. For larger walls you may have to apply the grout to only one half of a wall at a time.

cleaning excess grout with a grout sponge

After you have applied the grout to one section of the shower then wipe the tiles clean with a sponge. Using a damp sponge merely wipe a minor surface area before rinsing out your sponge in your bucket of water.

After you lot have wiped an expanse make clean and the grout lines expect straight and even then do not go dorsum and re wipe the expanse with the sponge. Using too much water will weaken the grout and can also take the color out of colored grout. Only proceed moving on until the whole area is cleaned and the grout lines look straight and even. You will see a grout haze course and you lot volition need to go back afterwards to clean up the grout brume on the tiles.

Afterwards you lot have cleaned up all the shower tiles so get and clean up the grout haze from the tile surfaces. Utilise a paper towel or cheese material to wipe away the grout haze. Do non get out the grout haze sit overnight because information technology tin can be extremely hard to remove. Usually by the fourth dimension you are done cleaning the excess grout with the sponge and accept allowed the grout to sit for 30 minutes then yous tin can starting time to remove the grout haze off the tile surfaces. Likewise at this fourth dimension you lot can also inspect all the grout lines to ensure that you lot have not missed whatsoever spots and the grouting job was done correctly. If necessary apply pocket-sized $.25 of grout to whatever areas of grout that were missed when applying the grout.

tile shower with new white grout

You should allow the grout to dry for at least 48 hours before y'all seal the grout and caulk the shower. It is all-time to seal the grout before applying the caulk in the shower. This will ensure that all of the grout gets sealed and the sealant does non damage the caulk. You should use only 100% silicone caulking like Laticrete Latasil Caulk or GE silicone II sold in home improvement stores. 100% silcone caulk will not let mold and mildew to abound in information technology and volition last for a longer period of time than any blazon of siliconized caulks. Y'all tin read more about how to recaulk a shower here.

After yous have recaulked you shower and so you should allow at to the lowest degree an boosted 24 hours for the new caulk to cure earlier using the shower. Yous will be surprised at how much better you shower volition look afterwards y'all accept properly regrouted your tile shower.