hisgrace1

I have recently ran into this same problem....I have over 1000 sqft of tile in our home. My daughter bought me a steam mop for Christmas last year it only pushes the dirt around. I have tried just about everything. I tried my oover carpet cleaner but the brushes aren't stiff or long enough. The other day I had a thought of spraying Windex (Original) on the floor and using a long handle scrub brush....Amazing results after you let it sit a few minutes, use the scrub brush and rinse with really hot water with your good old mop and couldn't believe hour it cleaned the grooves and the grout....I will continue to use this method until I have it all looking the same...We had recently moved into our home and the tile is beautiful but needed to be deep cleaned....Smells good while doing it....

BellaBoo

I have ceramic tile in a lot of rooms. The grout was the hardest part to get clean as it was lower then the tile squares. The grout always looked darker in spots. I had the tile guy come and regrout until the grout was just shy of being level with the tile. Now it's a lot easier to clean when mopping. It's been over 5 years and the grout looks fine. I had to do a lot of explaining to the guy what I wanted, he wanted paid so he did it. LOL

IBQUILTIN

I run a mop over my tile floors with some kind of cleaner, then when it is dry, I use the Shark Steamer. After the third time I did this I am no longer looking at a dirty paper towel when I'm done. Takes that one extra step of mopping, but I don't really scrup with the mop. It just seems to loosen the grime.

donnajean

I have been using the Shark steam mop on my porcelain tile kitchen floor since 2008 & love it. I think the trick is to vacumn 1st & to use multiple mop heads if necessary.

Shoofly1

Use Krud Kutter full strength with white terry cloth rags on a Swiffer mop.

pflum1

I have over 2200 sq ft of off white tile and very light gout. I had it sealed when it was put down and use a commercial cleaner yearly on the gout, then re-seal. I have a Hoover floor mate and like it, but I do get strikes once in awhile. I use the liquid cleaner that you purchases for the Hoover floor mate, then about every 3 months, I rinse with vinegar & water and a string mop. I also have the Shark steamer that I use on the smaller bathrooms, but I don't like it on larger areas. Seems it doesn't put enough steam out to get things really clean.
I find getting down on my hands and knee cleaning grouts is still better than what I have to do to the wood floors.

Shoofly1

I had the same problem until I read "The Lost Art of House Cleaning" by Jan M. Dougherty. She is a professional house cleaner and this is one of my favorite all-time books. This is her method which I use after having tried various expensive machines.

1. Vacuum the edges where the floor meets the baseboard, then vacuum the rest of the floor.

2. Spray Krud Kutter on the edge and corners. (Gallon size bottles sold at paint dept. in Home Depot, etc.) Wipe with a white terry cloth rag. Use a detail brush if wiping with the rag doesn't get it clean.

3. Mop the rest of the floor by spraying with Krud Kutter and mopping with a white terry cloth rag on a Swiffer mop. You can buy white terry cloth rags in large packages at Sams, Target, etc. usually found in the auto dept. Use the rags with abandon and change them whenever they get dirty. Keep spraying and mopping until the rag comes up clean. You will need to use Krud Kutter full strength the first time you clean the floor, then you can use it diluted at a 5:1 ratio.

4. After the floor is clean, finish by spraying the tile with vinegar, and mopping with a white terry cloth rag on a Swiffer.

caspharm

We have the tile cleaner, but my husband vacuums and then steam cleans with the Shark. It works pretty well. We are considering a professional to a real heavy duty job. Our only concern is the tile area over the crack in the foundation. The tile is pushed up there - we had it repaired, but not evened out (money considerations). When the carpet cleaners came, we asked them about it (they also do tile) and they said the cleaning machines would pull out the grout, so we may just stick to our current methods, until we can retile.

quiltmaker52

We are getting new tile in our kitchen and have been told to use nothing on it but white vinegar and water.

retrogirl02

I just heard from a friend the other day that Resolve carpet cleaner works well on grout. In the past, I've used a bleach pen from time to time but it is a pain to do. My DH mentioned that the carpet cleaners are now offering grout cleaning services...if we had more space to do, I'd probably go that route. For now, it's just in our bathrooms. Vinegar & baking soda paste is another way if you have a firm brush.