An ever increasing number of cleaning agents are launched these days, each claiming to be most effective for cleaning particular part of the house, but most of us remain ignorant of the consequences of using these. For almost any house cleaning job, there are materials available at home most of the time and you could use any or a combination of some to carry the job. That saves you not only the expense of buying cleaning chemicals but also keeps you and your family safe from the too well known hazardous after-effects of using most chemical formulations, be those for house or health, particularly if your have children or pets at home.
For instance, there are quite a few homemade formulations that help you doing an effective cleaning of grout and tile. You may be surprised to learn that some of these could give better results than commercially available cleaning agents. Not only that, they work out more affordable too! Vinegar is a great chemical for cleaning grout as it can penetrate deeper into the surface. Vinegar, being acidic in nature works well for such tasks. The drawback of using vinegar is that your kitchen or bathroom may continue to smell unfavorably for quite sometime. Additionally, the acid component of vinegar may widen the pores in the grout, making it easier for dirt and stain to settle down there.
So, rather than using vinegar, you should try using an old toothbrush along with a small quantity of detergent. Detergents contain surfactants that help getting rid of germs and as a result the grout will not be friendly to dirt and debris. Of course, it will need a bit of an extra physical effort, but you’ll find it worthwhile. This kind of scrubbing if followed every week, apart from being a good preventive measure, also keeps your family safe from germs and bacteria.
However, if the tile and grout have been neglected for too long a period of time, and you are unable to devote so much of time and effort every week, it will be good to have a professional cleaner to do the job for you. Most people lack that time and inclination to care for periodic cleaning of grout and tile, which is prone to stains due mildew and mold getting accumulated therein. It further gathers a good amount of bacteria, particularly in high traffic and humid area like bathrooms and kitchens.
Professional tile and grout cleaners come prepared with the necessary tools and equipment needed for cleaning tile and grout in the shortest possible time. Professionally cleaned tile and grout makes them looking new and you won’t be required to repeat the processes for a few months. As you ask for the services of professional grout cleaners, they come to inspect the premises and the area you want cleaned, give you their quotation and even give a live demonstration of the effects of professional cleaning. They surely can improve the looks and feel of your home.
- Using Tile And Grout Cleaning Machine
For cleaning of grout and tiles, two types of machines are available and both of them are quite easy to use. You may opt to use a pressure washer or a steam cleaner.
The advantage of using a steam cleaner is that apart from cleaning the grout it also kills germs, bacteria and mites. But you need to make sure that you use a good steam cleaner that does the job right. The pressure rating of a good steam cleaner should be at least six bar. It should also deliver pressurized steam at 180 degrees, whereas the boiling point of water is hundred degrees Celsius.
Steam that has reached a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius is known as vaporized steam. Its moisture content is about four to five percent of the normal steam. The benefit of using such steam for grout cleaning is that there is no water mess to clean up after cleaning the grout. A steam cleaner is a very effective equipment for cleaning grout. You may opt to hire the services of professionals providing such service or you may rent a machine from a local rental shop if you like doing the job yourself. However, you should know that after the grout has been cleaned with a steam cleaner, it’s imperative to apply grout sealer to keep the grout clean maintained for long.
The other option of a grout cleaning machine is a pressure washer. An important drawback of using a pressure washer as compared to a steam cleaner is that the former needs a lot more water; as a result the clean up after pressure cleaning takes a lot longer. Because of it you may not be able to use it all over the house. A pressure washer is ideal equipment for using outdoors, and in baths showers. You may even consider using it for bathroom floors but with a lot of care. However, it is not the best option for cleaning tile flooring, like in your kitchen.
The helpful feature of using a pressure washer is that it works much faster than a steam cleaner for larger areas, and is convenient to use in vertical positions when cleaning walls of bath and shower. Nevertheless, you need to be careful not to operate it at very high pressure that could damage the grout.
As is the case of a steam cleaner, you may rent a pressure washer, or hire a professional for doing the grout cleaning for you. They are not expensive to rent and would usually be $40 $50, you may even consider buying a new quality machine for $300.
Author Bio: Katie Smith is the enthusiastic woman. She loves writing about health and lifestyle on Reviewmoon.
