While vinegar is a standard household cleaner, you shouldn't use it to clean unsealed grout. Vinegar seeps into the air spaces in the grout, weakening them.
Highly caustic or acidic cleaners like vinegar will stain and slowly corrode grout and tile finishes. Additionally, chlorine bleach will leach color out of tinted grout.
Apply a baking soda paste and then spray with vinegar.
If the grout is unsealed or needs resealing, apply just the baking soda solution and scrub carefully.
It's important to thoroughly clean the grout before you seal it so you don't lock the yuck in! Mix dish soap and hot water and apply to the grout with a toothbrush. Let it sit 10-15 minutes. Brush the grout with a toothbrush and use a sponge and clean water to remove all of the soap mixture.
Cleaning Grout with Vinegar
Distilled white vinegar is a safe, natural cleaner and disinfectant you can use all around the house. Pour or spray undiluted vinegar onto your grout and let it sit for 10 minutes before using a toothbrush, scrubbing in a circular motion. Next, rinse away the dirt and mildew.
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. Then, scrub with a small brush or old toothbrush.
Grout is cement-based and the pores will literally take in all the stains, grime and bacteria that lands on them if they aren't sealed. In other words, if at this very moment you are standing on a tile floor with grout that isn't sealed and you spill red wine, your new grout will be stained and ruined!
Grout is a cement-based product mixed with chemicals, water, and in many cases sand. Portland cement based grouts are particularly porous. Porous grouts attract water, dirt, oils, etc. While the tile industry does not require sealing, it is always recommended, especially in wet or high-traffic areas.
Myth #4: You can't seal old grout!
To do so, just put a few drops of water on the dry grout and see if it beads up and sits on the surface or soaks in. If the water is absorbed and completely disappears into the grout, it's time for a reseal!
Sweep cement tiles daily to brush away dirt and debris. Wash cement tiles weekly to monthly with water and mild pH-neutral soap to buff away any dried residue before it sets in and becomes a stain.
Important note: To avoid damage to grout, it's best to avoid any acidic cleaners, such as vinegar or chlorine bleach, as they will damage and erode your grout over time.
Avoid Vinegar and Baking Soda
Vinegar and other acids are also a bad idea for stone tile because the acid can etch the stone. Another widely praised household cleaner, baking soda, is alkaline (not acid), but it is not very effective as a grout cleaner.
A common home-made grout and tile cleaner is a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Pour a light film of baking soda over a small area of tile, then spray with white vinegar. Make sure to stand clear, as this will cause a mild (but harmless) chemical reaction.
Sealing your grout is a must, especially in moisture-prone areas or when working with a light-colored grout. The only type of grout that doesn't need sealer is epoxy, which is inherently pre-sealed. Grout sealers typically come in two forms-- spray-on sealers and applicator sealers.
Grout is porous and therefore absorbs liquids. Because of this, the reason you should not seal your tile grout is that the sealer's liquid chemicals combine with the grout to create a surface that is actually much more difficult to clean.
You have to seal natural stone tile before the grout is applied, however. If you don't, the grout will be absorbed into the tile, ruining the finish. If that happens, it's impossible to get the grout out of the pores of the tile.
Sealing is done to strengthen tile or grout's defenses against dirt, spills, and erosion of grout, but not all tile needs to be sealed. If your tile is ceramic or porcelain, it probably won't need to be sealed. There are some exceptions to this, so check with your manufacturer to be sure.
Vinegar is often recommended to be a grout cleaning home remedy, but The Grout Medic never recommends using anything acidic or alkaline to clean your precious grout and tile. You should also forego the traditional scrubbing and scouring, which also promote grout deterioration over time.
ANSWER. ANSWER - It is possible to grout over existing grout if there is enough depth to do so. 1/8 inch depth may or may not be adequate depending on the type of grout used. A latex modified grout may work, but you have to properly clean the existing grout to ensure the new grout adequately bonds.
While strong bleaches may seem effective, they can actually weaken and destroy grout more quickly, causing grout to crack or crumble away.
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.