Recipe 68 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
How to Clean Dingy Tile Floor Grout Lines
Oxygen Bleach Mop Mix
Grout lines that stay dark no matter how often you mop? Dissolve 1/4 cup oxygen bleach powder in 1 gallon of the hottest tap water, add 1 tablespoon clear dish soap, mop it on and let it sit 10 minutes. Brush along the lines, mop up, then rinse with plain water so no chalky film is left. Use it within 6 hours. Never with chlorine bleach, not on natural stone.
What it fixesCeramic and porcelain tile with dingy, darkened grout lines that regular mopping never touches.
You need
- 1 gallon hot water (3.8 L), as hot as your tap runs
- 1/4 cup powdered oxygen bleach, the sodium percarbonate kind sold as an oxygen laundry booster
- 1 tablespoon clear liquid dish soap
- 1 bucket, plus a second bucket of plain warm water for rinsing
- Stiff nylon grout brush and a microfiber mop
- Gloves
Mix it
- Dissolve the oxygen bleach powder in the hot water completely. Stir 30 seconds. Undissolved grains do nothing and can scratch.
- Stir in the dish soap.
- Use it within about 6 hours. Oxygen bleach loses its punch once mixed, so do not save it for next week.
Use it
- Sweep and vacuum the whole floor first.
- Mop the solution on generously and let it sit on the grout lines for 10 minutes. Do not let it dry out, re-wet if it starts to.
- Scrub the grout lines with the nylon brush, working along the line, not across it.
- Mop up the dirty solution.
- Rinse the entire floor with the plain water bucket. Skipping the rinse leaves a chalky white film in the grout that looks worse than the dirt did.
- Air dry with a fan. Do not walk on it wet, wet tile is genuinely dangerous.
Dale's noteOnce the grout is clean, seal it with a grout sealer from the hardware store. It costs about fifteen dollars, takes an hour, and it is the difference between doing this once a year and doing it every month.
Don'tDo not use this on natural stone tile, marble thresholds, or unsealed grout that is already crumbling. And never add chlorine bleach to it or use a chlorine bleach product on the same floor in the same session. Oxygen bleach and chlorine bleach are not the same thing and mixing chlorine bleach with other cleaners releases toxic gas.
This is 1 of 100 mixes in the Mix Book
Glass, wood, bathrooms, mold, kitchens, carpet, couches, laundry, floors, metal, odors and more. Every one with the same exact amounts, steps and warnings. A PDF in your email within a minute.
GET THE MIX BOOK · $12.99
Free: Dale's Fall Deep-Clean Checklist
19 jobs to do before the house closes up for winter, room by room, plus 3 recipes printed in full. Print it and stick it on the fridge.
SEND ME THE FREE CHECKLIST
