Tile and grout HACKING

[Goomer]

I finally got to a tile/grout job that I have been eager to do, as it was to be my first T/G job.
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Pretty dirty ceramic tile in a restaurant bathroom…………

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I pretreated it with a healthy dose of Grease Eraser, gave it a good 20 minute dwell and scrubbed it twice with my Orbiter with it's hard surface brush and rinsed<o<o with my M-5 and wand cranked at appx. 550 psi.




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<o<o<o<o<o<o<o<o<o<o<o<oNot perfect, but not too bad.
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I am well aware of my equipment's limitations, so please spare me, as I do realize now with this little bit of new actual experience, how much easier and more efficient it would have been with a spinner/TM, which is a great motivator in working towards my goal of expanding my set up.

With that said, I must say that it was a good experience, as I now know more regarding what I can tackle with my current equipment.

The biggest thing that surprised me during this job was the amount of detail work that is necessary, and was surprised to see how much additional time is needed to do the little things, like to scrub the baseboard, around the toilet, around doorstops, around fixture legs, and anywhere else that your rotary of choice cannot reach.

I can now see the importance of a nice assortment of manual scrubbing brushes and tools of varying sizes and lengths.
I can think of a lot of tools that would have saved me a lotof time and produced better results.

Finished her off with 2 coats of solvent sealer applied alla’ Mikey, sprayed on and microfibered in.

Again, from perfect, but good experience, and a step in the right direction in my of my pursuit of adding T\G to the list of things I can HACK.</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o

 

[dealtimeman]

It was definitely cleaner and I am very glad you did the best job you could do with the equipment you had. When I started I did the same way and now that we have a better setup with the right chems, we can just blow threw these types of jobs delivering the best results.

We would have flown threw that' in about 20-30 minutes tops. Prespray alkaline (flex or cobbs or oxyblaster or floor stripper what ever floats our boat at he moment) let dwell while we run vac hoses( just a few minutes does the trick on tile). We would of scrubbed with a crb and blasted it with 950-1150 psi at 220+ degree solution with a turbo hybrid.

 

[JS41035]

Looks great! I've seen some guys use TM and spinners and not do as good of a job.
When you do get a turbo hybrid. It kinda feels magic. A 15 dollar grout brush is also a lifesaver. Every job is different but I've found that good pre spray pretty much eliminates the need to use a rotary scrubber. Pre spray then sprinkle some powder on the tile. The 5 inch gekko head is great for detailing.

 

[JS41035]

It was definitely cleaner and I am very glad you did the best job you could do with the equipment you had. When I started I did the same way and now that we have a better setup with the right chems, we can just blow threw these types of jobs delivering the best results.

We would have flown threw that' in about 20-30 minutes tops. Prespray alkaline (flex or cobbs or oxyblaster or floor stripper what ever floats our boat at he moment) let dwell while we run vac hoses( just a few minutes does the trick on tile). We would of scrubbed with a crb and blasted it with 950-1150 psi at 220+ degree solution with a turbo hybrid.

I almost got to reply first.

 

[Art Kelley]

You can use a Turbo Hybrid with your Mytee at 550 psi or whatever it tops out at and get excellent results. The addition of a water hog or similar high pressure pump would give you TM results with your Mytee/TH combo without ever buying a TM. You might blow a circuit or two though. LOL

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Nice job. Don't go blowing the profit on additional tools yet. Do a few more jobs. Adjust price if ya lost time in the detailing.

I sometimes just scrub with crb and rinse at 600 psi 220dg with my 4 jet gecko tile wand.

Take plenty of before/after for selling your service. Not everybody details like you did.

Something for more psi is a $100 electric pressure washer. Adapt for your tools. I looked into this for high rise job. My 1/4 in hose would of screwed right in.

Wait til you detail a few automatic flushers. LOL

 

[Shane Deubell]

Cleaned like that for years with a 175rpm and us products machine. 10 Years before that just 175 and shop vac.
Can do a fine job but can be a hassle sometimes on the messy ones.

For tile in hard to reach places mr clean magic eraser works great.

 

[mirf]

Looks good and I bet a happy client.

 

[Deleted member 51539]

The way you have your assist handle on the wand,

I would assume you hack carpet too...

 

[Mikey P]

at least Frank has the balls to post under his real name.

 

[Shane Deubell]

I tossed and turned all night wondering if my assist handle is in the right place ...

 

[idreadnought]

All the specialty tile cleaners are pretty expensive. I clean a pizza restaurant twice a year and just use tile stripper with some peroxide in it. Cleans very nice and the floor stripper is only like 15 bucks a gallon I believe. Basically floor strippers are high alkalie cleaners. They pose no risk to tile. On that job we use a 175 machine with a wax stripping brush on it. Easy peasy.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Yes, we also use floor strippers in most commercial tile/grout work.