These pictures were taken at a five-year-old property in Shrewsbury where the entire ground floor had been laid with Ceramic tiles. The owner was mainly unhappy with the grout which after five years of use had become patchy in appearance. Grout is usually the biggest problem when it comes to Ceramic and Porcelain floors, the tiles themselves usually require very little maintenance, whereas the surface of grout is slightly porous and can be stained.
I recommended deep cleaning the floor and then re-colouring it with a Charcoal Grey colourant, not only would this resolve the appearance issue, but the colourant also acts as a protective barrier over the grout making it easier to clean and will ensure it had a consistent appearance. The alternative would be to slowly rake out the grout and replace with new which given the size of the floor would take a long time, also it would probably become stained again so we would be back to square one. My client was happy with my quote and agreed to go ahead, so we booked in a suitable time to carry out the work.
Cleaning a Ceramic Tiled Kitchen Floor
To clean the tile and grout I first sprayed on a medium dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean then after ten minutes scrubbed it in with a black pad fitted to a rotary buffer machine. I then followed this up with a manual scrub of the grout as the pads can struggle to reach into the recess of the grout line. This action lifted the dirt out of the floor which was then rinsed away with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.
The next step was to prepare the grout for the colourant by scrubbing it with Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up. This is an acidic product that cleans the grout further and etches the surface of the grout to ensure a better bond with the colourant. The solution was then rinsed away again and removed with the wet vacuum. This process was repeated with more water to neutralise the floor and remove any trace of cleaning products.
Colouring the grout on a Ceramic Tiled Kitchen Floor
It was a large area, so I left the floor to dry off overnight and returned the following day to apply the Charcoal Grout Colourant. Applying the product is done with a small brush and any excess has to be cleaned off quickly before it dries which makes it quite a slow process. It certainly requires a steady hand and a lot of patience.
The Tile Doctor Grout Colourant is available in ten popular colours, so it is very versatile for all types of tiled areas. They also supply the Colourant in a kit form with a brush and bottle of Grout Pre-Treater so you have everything you need.
It was fairly tedious work, but the discoloured and patchy grout looked great after I was finished and my client was really happy with the result, they even left the following testimonial.
The Tile Doctor Feedback system prompts customers to leave comments on the work completed by Tile Doctors around the country. This information is then used to ensure the quality of the service and also decides the winner of the coveted Annual Tile Doctor of the Year Award.