Grout Cleaning

The pictures below are of a newly laid Porcelain patio at a property in Wendover. The builder had done a decent job of laying a level tiled patio, but completely ruined it when applying the grouting.

At the customer’s request the builder had used a modern cement-based grout and applied it as a slurry so he could use a squeegee to spread it into the grout lines. Unfortunately, he did not have much experience using this method or type of grouting and as he began grouting it started to rain heavily. Then instead of trying to rinse it all off before it could set, he and the customer left in place. The grout then hardened on the surface where it proved impossible to remove.

Having spoken to the customer over the phone I agreed to pop over and take a more detailed look at the problem. When coming to have a look at the job I knew how difficult it would be however after evaluating a couple of options I worked out a plan for cleaning away the excess grout and provided the customer with a quote. Happy to hear the situation could be resolved my quote was accepted and a date scheduled for the work to begin.

Removing Grout Staining from a New Porcelain Tiled Patio

From the testing earlier I knew the only product that would have a chance of removing the thick layer of grout would be Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up. It’s an acidic cleaning agent designed for this sort of problem and it this case it needed to be as strong as possible so I applied it neat.

Once applied I left it a few minutes before running over the Porcelain Tiles with a Rocky floor buffer fitted with a Silicon Carbide brush. I added extra weights to the machine to increase traction so in total it weighed in at about 65kg. All that weight going onto the patio helped scrub in the cleaning agent and although it did remove some of the cement-based grout it was not as much as expected.

The solution was to scrape off the thicker chunks of grout and I then follow up with a rotary hand tool fitted with an 80-grit brush on the end. Using the hand tool allowed me to get into the grooves of the tiles making it easier to clean as it was a rough textured porcelain tile. As I was cleaning with the hand tool, I also added more Grout Clean-up onto the tile to help soften the grout. By the end of day one we had two sections left however I know had a working solution and knew exactly what was needed to restore the patio.

By the end of day one with about 45m2 of patio remaining I realised it would be quicker with an extra pair of hands so I called neighbouring Tile Doctor Barry Woodward who covers Oxfordshire. Fortunately, Barry was available and so the next day we set about repeating the previous days method of scrapping off as much grout as possible and then going round with the hand tool spraying more Grout Clean-up on every inch of the patio. Slowly but surely, we made it through the last two sections and removed all the grout staining.

After that we gave the patio one last clean with a Tile Doctor Neutral Tile Cleaner to neutralise any acid which might still be on the surface of the Porcelain tile. In total twenty litres of Grout Clean-up were used on this job, not to mention the sweat.

Once complete the patio was completely transformed and looked like it had come out of a showroom. I’m pleased to say my customer was over the moon and later that day sent the following message:

Professional Restoration of a Porcelain Patio in Buckinghamshire