Friday, December 22, 2006

Grout: Before & After

It occurred to me the other day that the grout on our tile floor was - perhaps - not meant to be black. :) So I went to Home Depot and looked for grout cleaner. The only one I found had a list of hazards as long as my arm, and cautioned that users would need to have their skin covered from head to toe, and wear goggles and a fume mask while using it. Oddly, that didn't appeal to me.

I went home and Googled "grout cleaner recipe." There were many to choose from, most of them a variation on the ammonia-vinegar-baking soda theme. Not having any ammonia or vinegar in the house, I searched for even simpler recipes. I finally found one with just two ingredients: baking soda and water. I mixed up a batch (3 parts baking soda to 1 part water), grabbed a scrubby sponge, and tackled the grout on the kitchen floor.

Take a look! (The top is the "before" and the bottom is the "after," of course!)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Impressive. :-)

Dr. L said...

That is amazing. What is just as amazing is that you looked for and found a recipe with almost no ingredients!

Anonymous said...

My third attempt at leaving a comment. (Now it will probably publish all three!) ANYWAY, what I was going to say was that you obviously didn't get that "hygienic gene" from me. I would have left the grout black and have been happy to see it getting blacker and blacker with time. Now, you've got a tough job you'll be obligated to do on a regular basis! If you got a dog, at least you'd get some companionship and FUN for all the hard work. (that I WOULD do if I had that "hygienic gene." :-)