The best way to clean kitchen floor grout is one that effectively removes the dirt without harming the adjacent tiles.
Sometimes you may find a cleaning method that is effective at removing dirt but is too rough on the tiles. So that wouldn’t be ideal.
Other times, you may find a cleaning method that is gentle on the tiles.
But it has poor efficacy at removing dirt from the grout. You want a cleaning method that gives you a good balance between removing dirt and protecting the tiles.
One method that can effectively remove dirt without harming the tiles is by using baking soda mixed with vinegar.
Another method that has good dirt removal efficacy and is not too rough on the tiles entails warm water usage.
Yet another way to remove dirt from kitchen floor grout (without harming the tiles) is by using a commercial grout cleaner.
Much depends on how dirty your kitchen floor grout is.
What may work for moderately dirty kitchen floor grout may not be effective with very dirty kitchen floor grout.
We will now proceed to examine each of these kitchen grout cleaning methods, in turn, to understand what they entail.
We will then issue a verdict on which one is the best way to clean the kitchen floor grout.
Table of Contents
Cleaning floor grout with baking soda mixed with vinegar
Vinegar is strongly acidic. It has a low PH. Baking soda, on the other hand, is highly basic. It has a high PH.
So, in this case, you would be leveraging on the vinegar’s acidic power. You would be relying on it to remove dirt from the kitchen floor grout.
But you have to remember that vinegar’s acidic nature can corrode your tiles.
That is why you mix it with baking soda to blunt it a bit. The resultant mixture is strong enough to remove dirt from the grout. But it is not so strong as to corrode the grout or harm the adjacent tiles.
When using this method, you’d have to start by spreading baking soda along the grout lines. The next step would be to spray vinegar onto the grout lines that are now covered with baking soda.
So you put vinegar in a spray bottle. Then you spray it onto the grout lines where you had spread the baking soda earlier.
The moment the vinegar comes in contact with the baking soda, bubbles will form. That is due to the chemical reaction between the two.
Yours would be to wait for that reaction to fizzle out (in other words, for the bubbles to disappear). Once the bubbles die out, you scrub the grout lines with a brush.
Thereafter you use clean water to rinse the grout lines: leaving them sparkling clean.
Cleaning Kitchen Floor Grout With Warm Water Alone
Warm water has enhanced cleaning capability, which many people often look down upon. If your grout lines only have moderate stains, warm water may be all you require to clean them.
When using this method, you have to start by heating an adequate amount of water. You then put this water inside a spray bottle.
Thereafter, you spray the water onto the grout lines you wish to clean. Next, you scrub the grout lines with a brush. This you do to remove all the dirt that has been loosened by the warm water.
Finally, you rinse with clean cold water to leave the grout lines sparkling.
The most attractive thing about this approach to kitchen floor grout cleaning is its sustainability. It is something you can do on a regular basis, without worrying about its effect on the grout.
It is something you can do on a weekly or even daily basis without harming the grout. And that is also without harming the adjacent tiles.
On the downside, though, the scrubbing you have to do after applying the warm water can be tiring.
Cleaning Kitchen Floor Grout With a Commercial Grout Cleaning Solution
Most commercial grout cleaning solutions come in the form of sprays. So what you need to do is put it into a spray bottle first. Then you spray it over the grout lines.
Thereafter you wipe the dirt that will have been loosened by the grout cleaning solution.
The grout lines would then be left sparkling clean.
The good thing about this cleaning approach is that it doesn’t require much scrubbing. You just spread the grout cleaning solution onto the grout lines.
Then you wipe off to leave the grout lines sparkling.
On the downside, though, you tend to find that these commercial grout cleaning solutions are rather expensive.
There are also those who feel that the commercial solutions are too harsh on the grout and adjacent tiles.
The Best Approach To Kitchen Foor Grout Cleaning
Most people seem to agree that the baking soda-vinegar mixture offers the best kitchen floor grout cleaning solution. That is because it is powerful enough to remove even stains that are quite stubborn.
Yet, at the same time, it is gentle enough not to harm the grout lines or the adjacent tiles.
Warm water may be even gentler, but it often lacks the efficacy to remove the most stubborn stains from grout.
Commercial grout cleaning solutions may have good efficacy at removing even the most stubborn stains on the grout.
But they tend to be expensive. They also tend to be so harsh that they sometimes end up harming the grout and the adjacent tiles.
Thus using a mixture of baking soda and vinegar may be the best way to clean kitchen floor grout.
Frequently asked questions
How often should kitchen floor grout be cleaned?
Most experts seem to be in favor of at least weekly cleaning for the kitchen floor grout.
What is kitchen floor grout made of?
The materials used in making grout are cement, sand, and water (mixed in a special ratio). The grout is used to lay tiles/fill the gaps between tiles.
How can I get my grout white again?
You can consider using a bleaching product (oxygen bleach or chlorine bleach). But you need to understand that these bleaches may harm the tiles adjacent to the grout.
So while they will indeed make your grout white again, they will also probably shorten the tiles’ lifespans.
Conclusion
Kitchen floor grout is prone to acquiring all manner of stubborn stains. Those stains can not only make it look dirty but also lead to unsanitary conditions.
Using the cleaning methods described above, you can get your kitchen floor grout cleaned again.