What's stopping you from cleaning tile and grout?

I don't clean Tile and Grout because..

  • I'm afraid I could not tell a Terazzo from a Travertine from a Terracotta.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7

TimP

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Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
4,055
Gary T said:
I have to agree with Marty on this one. Too complicated, too many steps, and backwards IMO.

Alk, dwell, scrub, rinse. Acid, very little dwell, rinse, and if it makes you sleep better at night neutralize and rinse again. I don't neutralize as the grout does that for me. Just rinse well after acid.

Using acid first makes no sense to me as it doesn't work on the soils that are in the grout. It doesn't clean well anyway as acid is not a cleaner.

BTW, Anyone in Northern Il, who wants or needs help getting started with T&G, pm, email, or call me. I'd be more than happy to help you out.

Don't knock it till you try it. As long as the grout etches then there is no reason why you should not do acid washing first.....I'd like a good reason why you shouldn't before you can knock my method, and no I didn't make the method up by myself. And yes I prefer to neutralise acid and therefore I am actually sparing a step. Grout is very pourus and grout is not naturally acid. I'd rather let an alkaline product dwell on the grout and neutralise the grout throughout. It's the right way to do it and you know it.

And btw it's not complicated at all....it's called understanding what you're doing and when to do what you're supposed to do.


Acid is the primary way of cleaning grout as removing a top layer and exposing new grout is better than disolving dirt with an alkaline product. The reason you use the alkaline product is to remove the dirt on the tile, not the grout,....which is very very easy to clean.
 

Gary T

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
491
I prefer to use acid cleaner first like viper renew, or tog easy etch (make sure you have no reaction to the actual tile as you don't want to etch the tile as in stone). I just spray the grout lines and let dwell about 10-15 minutes...then scrub your grout lines with a stand up brush. However if the floor has a lot of grease and you don't get any foam you need to start with an alkaline product. Like viper venom, or tog deep clean scrub with your blue brush. Give the chemicals time and scrub.

3 Rinse your floor....high pressure is not necesarry. You just want to suck it all up and make sure you leave no residue....same as with carpet.

4. Precondition again with alkaline to clean your tile surface. If you had to use alkaline an acid wash is the next step. Scrub (175 is best here to get the tile surface clean if it's real bad) and rinse again. If you use acid this step it's recommended to spray alkaline out and dwell again in another step to leave your grout in an alkaline state....as that's it's normal state.

So... You go in, put down your acid(which doesn't clean it etches). Then you find the acid didn't get to the grout in places because of soil. So now you clean up the acid to clean with alk to get rid of the soil so the acid can etch the grout. Then you acid treat again to get the splotches and areas that the acid didn't get before. Now you put down more alk to neutralize the acid that the grout itself has already neutralized........ Maybe it's me but it sounds complicated and what 3-4 too many steps.

I went through this on another board with a guy who thought he came up with some new exciting way to clean grout just like you. You can get away with your method in many resi situations, so have at it.

It's the right way to do it and you know it.

And btw it's not complicated at all....it's called understanding what you're doing and when to do what you're supposed to do.

I will venture to say I know slightly more about grout, it's chemical properties, uses, weaknesses, etc than you. I have enough college chem courses to be a little dangerous. I will say with certainty, that with the acid products that I use, (taking into account their ionization values, and dilutions) I am pretty much wasting my time neutralizing after the grout has already done so. You see, when the fizz stops, so does the reaction.

And yes I know grout is alkaline by nature, it has a PH of 12-14 when it is initially mixed. After hydration the ph would be 8-9 if you got it wet.

Now I prefer to simply clean with an alk first, to get rid of all the acid blocking soils, and treat it with an acid product after if needed, than risk the above cluster mess.

But if it works for you, git er done.
 

TimP

Member
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
4,055
I said in residential you can do it that way. I said nothing about commercial or greasy floors.

I feel much more comfortable neutralising. And I don't believe the chemical reaction ends when the fizzing stops...but when there is no more calcium for it to get to. Also what about the acid that touches other areas like baseboards etc.....what about the residue that it may leave???? When liquid disolves this residue over time could it not damage something? I may be ignorant on the issue but I'm not convinced that the chemical is gone with rinsing with water only. I prefer to skip an unnessary step in residential cleaning and prefer to always alkaline neutralise. I will do it my way and stand by it....you do it yours. There is no reason to get into a pissing match. Both ways work...or have you not tried my way to know if it works or not????
 

Jim Martin

Supportive Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
10,878
Location
Arizona
Name
Jim Martin
Red max pro ..heavy duty stripper......
..it is not really a good stripper..but it is one hell of a great safe cleaner....
 

-JB-

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
5,387
Location
here
Name
JB
HATE cleaning hard surface, dunno why, just don't like it, tried it, HATED IT!


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