First, wash your tiles and grout with sugar soap using a toothbrush and scrubbing brush. We used Selley's Sugar Soap concentrate for this, mixed with warm water in a bucket – it works a treat. Use your toothbrush, scrubbing brush and some elbow grease to scrub the grout and give it a good going-over.
Clean grout with a commercial grout and tile cleaner. Apply it to the dirty areas of the grout following the manufacturer's instructions. If you prefer cleaning grout with a DIY mixture, make a paste of 3/4-cup baking soda, 1/4-cup hydrogen peroxide and 1 tablespoon of mild dish soap.
To clean your tiles, mix some sugar soap or detergent with warm water and scrub the tiles with a scourer sponge. If you're painting kitchen tiles, pay extra attention to removing any grease.
Soften grout on floor tiles by soaking it with sugar water, a lemon juice solution, or a vinegar solution for 10–20 minutes. For a stronger way to break down grout, use a chemical remover like sulfamic acid or grout dissolver spray instead. Warm up grout on wall tiles with a blow dryer or heat gun.
The vinegar penetrates into the pores of the grout, further weakening the material. Over time, vinegar will deteriorate the condition of the grout by etching or wearing it away. If, however, you have sealed your grout on a regular basis, the vinegar won't be an issue.
So, how do you clean grout with vinegar and baking soda? Apparently, vinegar is a popular natural household cleaner, but it's too acidic for cleaning grout. In fact, the acetic acid in vinegar can corrode the grout over time, so you might want to avoid using it for cleaning in this case.
To use Sugar Soap, simply dilute it in warm water. Using a sponge, wash the required surface with the soapy liquid. Once the entire area has been washed go over it again with clean fresh warm water, in order to rinse off the sugar soap and remove the remaining dirt or grease.
What do professionals use to clean grout? Whether you believe it or not, most professionals use a solution of white vinegar and water with a 1:1 ratio. This solution is often more effective than dedicated Ph-neutral grout cleaners.
Saturate the grout with lemon juice, a mild disinfectant that gets rid of grout stains naturally. You can also use white vinegar for chemical-free grout cleaning. Simply pour vinegar from the bottle into the cap and pour it over the dirty grout lines. Allow the lemon juice or vinegar to sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
Did you know that toothpaste makes an effective tile grout cleaner? To remove dirt and grime from tile grout: Dab some white, non-gel toothpaste onto the grout.
Avoid Vinegar and Baking Soda
Do not use vinegar or baking soda to clean tile grout. Alkaline cleaners are a better choice than vinegar or baking soda because grout contains cementitious mortar that can be dissolved by acidic cleaners, including vinegar.
One way to clean grout without scrubbing is by mixing hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide and mix into a paste. Follow with a teaspoon of dish soap. Apply the mixture to your floor grout and let it sit for 5–10 minutes.
What's the best homemade grout and tile cleaner? Mix together 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide, and 1 tsp dish soap. Apply cleaning mixture onto the grout, wait 5-10 minutes, scrub, sweep up the excess baking soda, and rinse.
The powder sugar soap is more affordable, but as we said before, it contains skin irritants, so protective rubber gloves are mandatory.
Apart from warm water, a sugar soap helps in removing all that grease and dirt so the new coat of paint looks fresh. Cleaning with sugar soaps helps the new paint to stick to the walls without hampering the adhesion.
Use a mild detergent like sugar soap and a microfibre cloth to clean mould off walls, floors and tiles. Make sure to dry the area thoroughly after wiping mould off surfaces.
Make a paste from two parts bicarbonate of soda to one part water, then rub onto dirty grout using an old toothbrush. An electric toothbrush with an old head will also work wonders and save your elbows!
Make a baking soda paste with water and spread over tile and grout. Leave on overnight and spray with vinegar in the morning. Follow with your regular morning shower and rinse off any baking soda/vinegar residue. No scrubbing needed!